Mr. de Valera on Partition Mr. de Valera's declaration on
the partition of Ireland clarifies his position, and leaves an almost insoluble problem apparently even less easily soluble than before. Not even the most ardent adherent of Lord Craigavon's Government can deny that in the counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone there exists unquestionably, and in the larger area of Fer- managh, Tyrone, Londonderry and Armagh almost certainly, a substantial majority opposed to partition ; and it is not entirely inconceivable that the Government of Northern Ireland might some day have admitted this fact and agreed to some scheme of territorial revision. But Mr. de Valera's rejection of a plebiscite precludes any solution on these lines, while his suggestion of an All-Ireland Parliament, with local powers for the North, is certainly doomed by the attitude of Lord Craigavon and his Orange supporters to the same fate -as has attended all previous efforts to find a solution. Mr. de Valera may declare that Ireland can never be a whole- hearted ally of Great Britain while an injustice created by Great Britain persists, but the treaty partitioning Ireland exists and no British Government would abrogate it against Ulster opposition. Mr. de Valera, who was President of the recent League of Nations Assembly, must be reflecting a little sardonically on the Prime Minister's declared opinion that Article XIX of the Covenant (on the peaceful revision of treaties) is too infrequently invoked.
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