The Irish Elections
The battle is now fully joined in the electoral con.. test in Southern Ireland. Nomination day was last Wednesday, and polling will take place on January 24th. Though Mr. de Valera's swift decision to dissolve has frustrated the organization of a common front of all the non-Republicans against him, arrangements are being made in the constituences to avoid useless conflicts between supporters of Mr. Cosgrave and Mr. Frank McDermot. Mr. de Valera up to now has carefully refrained from committing himself on the supreme issue of Commonwealth versus Republic, but the fully vocal I.R.A. pressing him on from behind declares, " We demand the scrapping of the Treaty, the abolition of partition, and complete severance from the British Empire." That, whether he wishes it or not, is the policy with which Mr. de Valera will generally be identified. In the mean- time he is trying to conciliate the farmers by promising to halve the annuities, and the extremists by the reminder that his victory will be followed by the abolition of the Oath and the Governor-Generalship. All the trade disasters which have befallen the country under his regime are attributed to the " highway robbery " of Britain, and it is Mr. de Valera's role to mobilize the memories of Ireland's hatred of a foreign enemy. But this method of invective, while it will please the extremists in his ranks and may conceal from some his responsibility for the trade war with Britain, will also serve to whip up any right wing elements against him.
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