MR. DE VALERA AND THE CRISIS
By PROFESSOR HAROLD TEMPERLEY
Dublin, Oct. 3th.
MR. DE 'VALERA has spoken at Geneva and sur- prised us by his friendliness to England. He equally surprised us by his previous hostility, or what we thought his hostility. In fact he is always surprising public opinion in England, and Englishmen do not like being surprised. He sometimes surprises public opinion in Ireland, perhaps owing to the Spanish strain in his blood. Even Irishmen, who know him much better than we do, cannot always either predict his moves ahead or understand his policy once announced. In- formed circles in Dublin or -Cork or elsewhere would, however, probably endorse these two statements. First, Pe Valera is much less hostile to England than English- men assume. Next, he is a nitwit subtler politician than Englishmen think. He has gained the masses and his reputation by. direct . assertions and _ by adherence to a stiff theory. It is often forgotten that he has shown great dexterity in the use of means. He puts forward extreme demands, and his opponents assume that they represent his maximum. In the course of the negotiations they find that the assumed maximum is really a, minimum, and they are pushed off their ground before they know where they are. Again, he may hate the British Empire, when it happens to stand in his way. But, if it is likely to help .Ireland, • he will not remember his . hatred. At the present time the situation •is not only interesting, it might become dangerous,. especially when England has eyes . upon Italy and Abyssinia. Yet the signs seem . to be that De Valera is friendly—and even anxious to negotiate with us.
; . Failing some unforeseen event De Valera is not likely to fall for some time.. His power within his party is complete, and is extending vastly outside it. There will be no more armed rebellions, for the whole population is being. disarmed.. The • military tribunal inflicts daily. sentences of twelve months' imprisonment for harbouring concealed arms (there were three in one day last week). Legal weapons are being removed as • well as illegal ones. The Senate is not dead yet,. but no one doubts that it will soon be. When that happens Be Valera can make short work of every opponent.. The Senate could block a measure for a period of from three to five months. When the Dail becomes a single chamber a measure can be passed in a week or even a day. In twenty-four hours it could alter the rate of exchange, abolish Trinity College, or ." cut the painter " from the British Empire.
On the Free State the Statute of Westminster had no such healing effect as it had on South Africa, where it availed to heal:the bitterness between Hertzog and Smuts, between Boer and Briton. Of course De Valera knows the value: of the Statute, and that it enables him to legislate. Ireland out' of the Empire. Even if the people of the Free State know it, they do not think about it. They retain the deep-rooted distrust and hatred of England. Cosgrave and his followers certainly want to remove all such distrust. But they are powerless before this feeling. Opinion is really free in Ireland todo.Y• freer than in most countries, and on this point it is resist• less. What is behind the move for a Republic is the hatred of the Monarchy. It is not against the person of the King, but against the institution of Monarchy. .They remember that it was a King who led the English across the Boyne Water. It was in the King's name that the penal code against the Catholics was enacted. All the Irish martyrs, • from Fitzgerald and Emmett to the victims of 1916, were shot in the King's. name. The economic war of today began in. the King's name. De Valera plays up to this feeling. He says King George is a " foreign King " and therefore not entitled to Irish allegiance. He wants. " an external association " with England, i.e., some kind of entente or alliance . between republican Ireland and monarchical Britain. Erin must pot lie " within the broad gold circle of the Crown." Allied and connected with a British King, yes ! But Irishmen are neither his subjects nor his followers.
This ideal suggests separatism ;pure and simple. But there is neither purity nor simplicity in the aim. De Valera does want to smash the existing connexion but, as the lover in the poem wants to smash the Universe, " to remould it 'nearer to his heart's desire." He wants • England to help him over the separation. He wants more than that, . He .wants to end the economic war, and to separate from England. But he wants also tO reunite with Ulster. His ultimate ideal is an All-Irish State in alliance with England. He knows well enough that the longer Ulster remains separated from the rest of Ireland, the greater will be the difficulty of reunion with her. He probably does not want to deprive Ulster of her• separate parliament, and anyway • knows it to be impossible. But he does want a federal reunion of Ireland. The forces leading that way are stronger than is .usually realised.. Even in the near future a small addition to the Catholic population of 'Ulster might have startling results. The population of the Free State is inereasiugr and as its emigrants can no longer go to America they may soon press into Ulster and again create an acute problem.. De Valera might be able to come to a settlement with Lord Craigavon and Mr. Baldwin if he approached the problerri of federation on the basis of a common loyalty to the Crown and Empire. 'Ulster would then be disarmed and the benevolent mediation of the " predominant partner, be assured. But he wants to do it another way, and it seems a strange way. He wants England to help him to separate from her and, as soon as that is achievett to help him to federate the Free State with North Ireland' He opposes the harp to the Crown, the Republic to the Monarchy, yet he expects England to aid him in a work of separation from herself, and the King, like Richard IL to resign his Crown. Yet he has some support. There is ti group of young intellectuals in both countries who argue as follows : " After all, why should not the State call itself a Republic ? So long as it is allied or connected With the Empire, does the name really matter ? " This argument ignores symbolisms, and symbolisms are real things if they move the masses. De Valera thinks the Crown the symbol of subjection and tyranny, England and Ulster think it the symbol of freedom and of unity. flow is this opposition to be overcome ? If the object sought is sufficient, it will be. For England and the Free State are under one common and already compelling allegiance, to which they have testified in the last few days. There is something to which both are attached, on account of which they may both be called upon soon to make sacrifices. The fact that they have agreed to do so for a distant object suggests that they might do so for ends nearer home.
Cosgrave reminded a Dublin audience the other day that, When his Government threw in their lot with the League, be Valera was their strongest critic. But De Valera has just said that, when he came in to office himself, he decided to continue with the League and fulfil its obliga- tions. Apparently he liked his experiences at Geneva; for he now says " the difficulty with the League is not that the obligations it imposes are too strict but rather that they arc not strict enough to be effective." This is conversion indeed ! It is the more remarkable because of the relation of the British Empire to the League. A recent cartoon in Dublin Opinion illustrates this point. John Bull, with the features of Baldwin, is pictured as holding forth on the stage at Geneva, with his bull-clog by his side. A halo is over each head. De Valera sits back smiling in the audience, saying, " Johnny, I hardly knew you ! " Everybody in Dublin admits that this exactly hits off the situation. De Valera has suddenly realised that England may be available for good purposes, and that the Free State can work with her for common ends. This is the golden moment for starting negotiations about the economic war, the Suture of the Free State and its relation to Ulster.
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