On Thursday, June 23rd, Mr. Cosgrave patriotically accepted, as we
felt sure he would, the invitation of the Dail to form a new Ministry} Mr. De Valera's Republicans presented themselves at the Dail, and seemed seriously to think that they would be admitted without taking the oath. After they had been properly repelled, three out of the four Opposition groups indicated that Mr. Cosgrave was the only possible head of a new Government. Labour stood apart, but the Farmers, the Nationalists and most of the Independents joined in the invitation to Mr. Cosgrave. The Manchester Guardian of Monday pub- lished a report of an extraordinary interview with Mr. De Valera. Mr. De Valera showed himself as irreconcilable as ever—if not more so. He declared that the financial settlement with England would have to be reopened, and that he would never accept partition. " Those elements in the North of Ireland," he declared, " which have wilfully assisted in mutilating the mother- land can justly be made to suffer for their crime." That is his idea of reconciling the North of Ireland. Little can be done in the face of such fanaticism but to wait for the time when it will have happily disappeared.
* * *
Previous page
