NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THEprrspect in Ireland, which was dark enough already, has become black. The Government recognize that the agreement• between Mr. Collins and Mr. De Valera, unless it turns out to mean something that it seems not to mean, implies the end of the Treaty. It is all a tragedy. The Southern Irish were offered the freedom that they had immemorially demanded on most handsome terms—terms which excited the admiration of the world. They are throwing it away through their utter inability to manage their own affairs, through their preference for murder, and through their passion for quarrelling rather than for composing difficulties. Mr. Churchill, in his statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, fully confirmed the grave estimate of the Collins-De Valera coalition which we formed last week. Meanwhile, the Government are leaving the Dublin coalition alone in the desperate hope that when Mr. De Valera joins the new Government set up under the Treaty he will renounce his Republicanism and take the prescribed oath to the King. We do not ourselves expect that this will happen. The Government are gambling on a remote chance.
