DE VALERA'S LOST CHANCE "
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sta,—Your issue of April 28th contained an article by Viscount Castlereagh, M.P., entitled " De Valera's Lost Chance." The facts set out in the article are substantially correct, but the implications drawn by the writer would not be shared by many who possess some degree of knowledge of the real difficulties of the Irish question. Regarding the matter from the standpoint of the British people, Viscount Castlereagh states, " It is clear that to ensure our future security Northern Ireland must remain a part of Great Britain." He later proceeds to analyse the British mind as being one of surprise, on the part of many, that the British Government !Rd not make approaches to Northern Ireland to enlist its co-operation for a post-war united Ireland and to give evidence of its professed loyalty by its willingness to enter into a federal union with Eire, retaining its own Parliament, and that it would have been very hard for Ulstermen to have refused such an appeal. I must in fair- ness to your contributor state that he proceeds to say that "such surprise merely denotes an utter failure to understand the mentality of Mr. de Valera and the enigmatic people who wholeheartedly support him." Thus far I fail to disagree with your contributor. But when we proceed to consider what is apparently his main contention, i.c., that Mr. de Valera has " lost his chance," it is difficult to avoid the inference that, had Mr. de Valera accepted the choice, Northern Ireland would have been provided with an invitation to enter into a federal union with Eire.'
do not agree that any such choice existed, or in fact could exist on such terms. To suggest therefore that Mr. de Valera has declined some- thing which had neither been offered or advanced to him seems both illogical and irrational. The Irish problem goes deeper—much deeper— that this. It is not merely a question of lost causes or lost opportunities, It lies in recognition of the unfortunate yet incontrovertible fact, which your contributor fully acknowledges, that the attitude of the Southern mind is one of deep and unrelenting hostility towards everything English and that, so long as Ulster people choose to retain their identification with Britain, so long will they share in that hostility. Any suggestion, however, of successful affiliation between two peoples who are so utterly different in outlook, as well as in their racial and religious distinctions, seems too remote to merit serious discussion.
No Englishman truly worthy of the heritage of liberty which he has secured for himself would willingly assent to a political bargain which Would have the effect of transferring a loyal part bf the Empire to an enforced allegiance with those who are candidly and unashamedly anti- M.P., North Down.
6 Carisbrooke Terrace, Upper Clifton, Bangor, Down,
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