LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [In view of the paper shortage
it is essential that letters on these pages should be brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they must be fewer. Writers are urged to study the art of compression.—Ed., "The Spectator "] THE IRISH PORTS
Sia,—As Mr. Lees Smith has said, "we are paying a heavy price for our principles." But nobody has suggested that we should save the price by shedding our principles. On the contrary, we should Meet the challenge by carrying our principles further, so that they may complete in Ireland the great work of reconciliation which they have achieved in Canada—with results which are decisive for victory. If the question were merely one of power, we could occupy the Irish ports tomorrow and scotch the submarine menace to British and Irish sea-communications. But if we did this, we should soon find ourselves "paying a heavy price" for our strategic advantage. The price would be: (1) Recrudescence of the centuries-old conflict with Ireland, from which we now at last have the chance of escape ; (2) A very serious set-back to Anglo-American collaboration ; (3) Flat contradiction to our plans for a war of national liberation, which will break the brutal domination of the Continent by the Germans and Italians.
What then can we do? For the Royal Navy ought to have the use of the ports, in the interest of Eire no less than of Great Britain.
We must get ourselves invited to use the ports by the free will of the Irish people, so that we shall be in them as allies and friends. I believe that this will happen, if we show two qualities : patience— just for a little longer—and magnanimity. Two factors which favour us are the development of American policy, which in many ways can be turned to our advantage, and the development of Irish opinion, which is overwhelmingly with us and against the "iron heel" of the Nazis. The factor which has so far frustrated us is the breach between North and South.
I am not a constitution-monger, and I do not intend to propound a model solution for that quarrel. Instead, I call for a new spirit. Charles James Fox once said: "I would trust everything to Ireland's generosity, and nothing to her prudence." , Generous ourselves, let us now appeal to Ireland's generosity. Let us say to the South, "We need you as allies. Help us." Let us say to the North, "We call on you to make the supreme proof of your loyalty. Help us to win the men and women of the South as allies and comrades."
Unity with the South is intolerable to the North if it means estrangement from Great Britain. Unity with Great Britain is intolerable to the South if it perpetuates the disunity of Ireland. I am not speaking of union, but of unity. I believe that the moral unity both of Ireland and of the British Isles can be reconstituted now, in the face of our common danger. The forms which that unity will take can be left to settle themselves—as they have done in Canada, South Africa, and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. All this can be achieved if a man of great soul will speak the right words to the peoples. If the Governments will not respond, if they are obstructive and grudging, let him call on the peoples to change these Governments. When the North responds, the South will answer. Let him demand great things of the peoples. The result will prove our own greatness and show the world that we are certain of victory
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