The Irish situation

THE cable messages this morning supply abundant evidence that the situation in Ireland is eminently unsatisfactory. The disturbing element, needless to say, is the organisation which has for its objective the establishment of an Irish republic and is far from fastidious about the means to be adopted to further that end. The Government has published an official memorandum reviewing the recrudescence of crime in County Clare since the beginning of the year. The details of the attacks to which the police and constabulary

have been subjected at the hands of Sinn Feiners reveal an intolerable state of affairs. The attacks are clearly part of the Sinn Fein programme. This organisation aims avowedly at the overthrow of constitutional Government in Ireland, and it has shown that it considers the use of violent measures perfectly legitimate in the prosecution of its plan. The Government has exercised a great deal of patience, but recent events have forced it to take a decided step. It is now announced that County Clare has been ‘‘declared’’ under the Defence of the Realm Act, and that Sinn Fein and kindred bodies are to be suppressed as unlawful associations. The menace to which governmental authority has been subjected seems to have rendered a step of this kind absolutely necessary. Amid the turmoil with which the Irish question has surrounded itself one thing is at least apparent—that the remedy which Sinn Fein is seeking is out of the question. Great Britain

could never tolerate upon her flank a republic hostile to herself, the existence of which would entail, moreoever, a grave injustice to an important section of the Irish people.