Open Back Door

While the British Navy acted last week to repair a serious breach in the British Empire defense, Viscount Craigavon, His Majesty's Prime Minister in Northern Ireland, scurried to London for an urgent conference with Warlord Winston Churchill on an equally serious problem: "Irish back door."

The only member of the British Commonwealth not to declare solidarity with England, Eire was still neutral last week, and with her minuscule Army, insignificant Air Force, and practically nonexistent Navy, she was determined to fight off invasion from every side. England, separated by less than 75 miles of water, was more uneasy about the Irish than at any time since 1938, when, over Churchill's violent protest, Neville Chamberlain had voluntarily evacuated the British naval bases in Eire. From Brittany German planes could hop to the centre of Eire without crossing English territory. The I. R. A., a well-organized and experienced fifth column, was responding to Nazi agitation, accepting German equipment and funds. The aggressive German Minister, Dr. Eduard Hempel, was doing a good job in Dublin with a Legation staff said to include 60 "assistants." Hitler always picks the weakest spot to strike."

Hoping to play his neutrality ace for complete independence of all Ireland, Prime Minister Eamon de Valera stubbornly refused to compromise. "In order to prevent misapprehension," he declared last week, "I desire to repeat that the Government has no intention of departing from the policy of neutrality adopted last September. ..." Representing land-owning Londonderrys and other Conservatives in Northern Ireland, Viscount Craigavon was equally adamant. "Mr. de Valera is once again blackmailing the British Government to end partition," he accused.

"I will be no party directly or indirectly to any change in the constitution conferred upon Northern Ireland."

His face swollen and red from an encounter with a belligerent bee, former Secretary for War Leslie Hore-Belisha banged the speaker's stand in the House of Commons as he demanded "imagination and inspiring action" in settling the Irish question. "Hitler's triumph," he shouted, "can be prevented only by a united policy in Ireland. . . . [Germany's] occupation of Ireland would cover our only remaining flank and make the arrival of those supplies from America on which we are counting most hazardous."

Suggested solutions included the sending of the Canadian Air Force to Eire and the transfer of the Polish and Czech Legions, together with the French Legion organized by General Charles de Gaulle, to Northern Ireland to await developments. But last week, as military experts emphasized the urgent necessity of closing the "Irish back door," the popular demand grew in England for a final settlement of the Irish question through sacrificing Lord Craigavon and the six Northern counties in return for a unified defense of the British Isles.

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