Communication
Recent Irish Developments
[To the Editor of TILE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—During the past few weeks our political stage has been occupied by General O'Duffy and Sir Dawson Bates, Home secretary in the Northern Cabinet. Mr. de Valera, on the other hand, has maintained an unaccustomed silence. At the recent Blueshirt Convention the policy of the new Land Annuitants Protection Association of actively resisting the seizure of cattle, where land annuities are in default, was approved. This is a direct challenge to the Government, but a type of challenge which Mr. de Valera may welcome, since it affords him a pretext for increasing the armed forces which he has at his private disposal. The special branch of the police known as the " Broy Harriers " has already been augmented to three times its original size. The republican body of Volunteers, established by the Government one year ago, is now four times the size of the regular army, and there is even a project under consideration for setting up yet another political force in the Free State, to be modelled on the lines of the Ulster " B " Specials. This will be a mere matter of putting arms into the hands of Government supporters, for it will be quite impossible to train these
Specials " in any way. Mr. de Valera has nearly reached a position of armed impregnability.
In discouraging circumstances the Blueshirts issued another challenge, this time to Northern Ireland. They announced their intention of organizing branches of the League of Youth within the Six Counties and of appointing a Commissioner " for the North. Sir Dawson Bates, the most capable member of the Northern Cabinet, retorted by reminding General O'Duffy that the Blueshirts are a banned organization beyond the border. But in what sense is this a fact ? Sir Dawson Bates has not yet had Mr. de Valera's experience of meeting with a rebuff in a decision of the courts. So far the wearing of political uniforms as such is not illegal in Northern Ireland and the black shirt of the Ulster Fascist is conunonly seen in the streets of Belfast. Sir Dawson Bates may be relying upon his ban of last year which was directed against the National Guard, the precursor of the present League of Youth. But the League of Youth is an integral part of a legal political party, and, without banning all opposition, including that of the Ancient Hibernians in the Belfast Parliament and that of the Fascists and of others who want to get back to the direct rule of Westminster, it is hard to see how Sir Dawson Bates can logically proceed to extremities against O'Duffy's organization.
In the meantime General O'Duffy, though himself pro- hibited from entering Northern Ireland, declares his intention of carrying out a campaign there. It is doubtful if his defiance will go very far. His attitude last year, shortly before he called off the Dublin parade in memory of Collins and Griffith, is not forgotten. Ban or no ban, we parade, he then declared; a very empty threat as was shown two days later.
Meanwhile the setting up of high tariff walls is creating every day new and powerful vested interests behind Mr. de Valera's party. The ideal of a self-sufficing State must be achieved no matter what general reduction of the country's wealth may result in the process. The socialism of the Govern- ment seems only to extend to the land ; capitalism is tolerated so long as it adds another factory to the Government's list. Mr. Lemass, in opening a new milling factory the other day, informed the proprietors that they could regard their capital as invested in a gilt-edged security. The farmers, on the con- trary, have to regard themselves as usurpers of land properly belonging to the State (though to avoid the accusation of Socialism, the State is called " the people "). No new Government will within 20 years be able to repair the damage done by the ploughing of grazing lands and the slaughter of young stock.
Our new industrialists are often of very questionable descent from an Irish Ireland point of view. The " Anglo-Irish " Unionists who were formerly the leaders of industry and commerce in the South of Ireland are being displaced not by native Irish but by Jews. It is an odd situation, and yet the
old-fashioned business people of Dublin and Cork are almost as afraid of General O'Duffy as of Mr. de Valera. .They trusted Mr. Cosgrave, but the General seems to them to be a flighty and irresponsible spirit, and they will not loosen their purse strings to aid an organization of which he is president. This is one of the causes of the parlous condition of the finances of the Opposition. That General O'Duffy's personality arouses anxiety among professional politicians as well is shown by the recent resignation of Mr. James Hogan from the executive of United Ireland. Mr. Hogan. an able man, grounded in the liberalism of the late Kevin O'Higgins, objects alike to the unconstitutionalism which is implicit in the projected Blue- shirt invasion of the Six Counties and to the unconstitution- alism which is explicit in the actions of the Land Annuitants Protection Association. It is, however, just to observe that it is not the O'Duffyites but the erstwhile supporters of the Centre (Mac Dermot) party who are most vigorously conduct- ing the campaign of the Annuitants. The Association does not show any particular interest in what may happen at party headquarters. By imposing a levy of 2s. 6d. in the pound of land annuities valuation, farmers, chiefly of Cork and Water- ford, have amassed a formidable lighting fund ; about £10,000 in the course of a few weeks. Their attitude is, not that the farmer cannot pay, but that he has already paid twice ,over in the form of penal duties. The position now is that' o farmer in these counties can meet his annuity without fear of boycott Or worse. Shopkeepers in the towns receive orders to close on the occasion of forced sales, and, whether willingly or not, 90 per cent. of them obey.
When the split comes, and the time is not perhaps far distant, it will be chiefly the result of the Blueshirts' desire to escape from the politics of the old Cosgrave party ; politics which, as the recent elections showed, have little chance of success in the near future. Being largely drawn from the farm labouring classes the Blueshirts will, I think, eventually prefer to co-operate with organized labour ; but this is an impossibility so long as they are allied to the United Ireland party, which officially voices the interests of the larger farmers and employers.—I am. Sir, &c.,
Youa CORRESPONDENT IN IRELAND.
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