Bombs on Eire
The third, and much the gravest, violation of the neutrality of Eire by Germany took place on Monday, when a co-opera- tive creamery was destroyed, other damage done and three persons killed by bombs, unquestionably German, from an aeroplane on which the swastika markings were declared to have been clearly seen. A week earlier another German aero- plane, which was quite certainly not on its lawful occasions, crashed on a mountain in County Kerry, and last May a para- chutist, carrying various secret documents and codes, was dropped from another German machine. The Irish Minister in Berlin has been instructed to lodge a vigorous protest at this latest outrage. What effect it is having or may have on the Government and people of Eire there is little means of knowing, for nothing appears to have been published regard- ing it except the bare official statement and a report of the inquest on the victims. The explanation, is, no doubt, the rigorous censorship which prevails in Dublin. Resolute as Mr. de Valera and his Government are in their neutrality— an attitude which the Opposition supports almost without exception—Government spokesmen have always declared that they would resist to the death whatever belligerent attacked them. The aeroplane outrage clearly does not fall into the category of a concerted attack, but Eire has by this time received sufficient proofs of the quarter from which her real danger lies Continued reflection on that may not be without its consequences.
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