Mental Reservations

Eamon De Valera, whose very name is to Irishmen a clarion of revolt, pronounced and swore upon the Holy .Bible at Dublin last week an oath: "I, Eamon De Valera, do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established and that I will be faithful to His Majesty, King George V, his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations."

By so swearing Mr. De Valera complied after five years of refusal with article XVII of the Irish Free State constitution which permits no member of the Free State Parliament to take his seat until he has taken the oath of allegiance. With Mr. De Valera swore the 44 deputies of his Fianna Fail or Republican party. To a strictly judicial ear such mass swearing must have seemed to mean only one thing: formal abandonment by Eamon De Valera of his life-long battle to carve asunder from Britain an "Irish Republic."

What the Fianna Fail deputies and their leader actually had in mind appeared from a jointly signed statement which they made public before swearing: "So there can be no doubt as to their duty and no misunderstanding the Fianna Fail deputies hereby give public notice in advance to the Irish people and to all whom it may concern that they propose to regard the declaration [oath] as an empty formality and repeat that their only allegiance is to the Irish nation and that it will be given to no other power or authority."

This was "mental reservation" with a vengeance; and persons ignorant of Irish politics may well have asked: "Why did men who have steadfastly and courageously refused to swear an oath for five years decide to swear it in such ignoble fashion now?" A sufficient answer is that early last week the Free State Government headed by President William Thomas Cosgrave jammed through Parliament the Public Safety Bill under which the seats of deputies who do not take the oath may be declared vacant and a by-election ordered to fill them--no candidate being allowed to run unless he pledges himself to take the oath if elected.

The passage of this bill thus left the Fianna Fail only three options: 1) political extinction; 2) revolution; 3) taking the oath.

Significance. Since the present Free State executive council or "cabinet" has only 46 supporters in the Dail Eireann (lower chamber) of 153, the entrance of 45 De Valera deputies seemed to promise the swift overthrow of President Cosgrave whose office corresponds exactly to that of "Premier."

Since De Valera's Fianna Fail is opposed in principle to accepting any ministry in the cabinet of a regime which they detest and hope to convert into a republic sooner or later observers thought last week that a coalition government headed by Tom Johnson, leader of the Labor Party, would have most chance to supplant President Cosgrave.