I think every decent citizen must deplore the circumstances leading up to the introduction of this Bill. Everybody with any sense of justice or humanity must sympathise with and admire the two brave men who gave up their lives in the discharge of their duties and condemn the barbarous cowardice of the would-be patriots who shot down unarmed men as if they were wild beasts. I am afraid the incidents of last week are an indication that there are still in this country people who stupidly or foolishly think they are rendering a patriotic service by bringing the law and representatives of the law into contempt. As a nation I think we are far more successful in the making of laws than in their observance, and this is not confined to any particular section of the community. When we find people in high office mentioning the Constitution and the laws for the express purpose of showing how they can be violated with impunity, when we find acts of that kind applauded by distinguished members of both Houses, by the cream of Dublin commercial and professional life, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court thrown in, we must not be surprised if less privileged citizens through the country do not hold the law in the veneration and esteem that might otherwise be the case. The day when a better civic spirit will prevail will come when those who make the laws show a greater respect for those laws than is now the case.
The incidents of last week are undoubtedly not only criminal and treasonable but they tend to bring the law into contempt. Acts of that kind cannot be tolerated in any civilised community, but is there not a danger that the State may bring contempt upon itself by rushing blindly for new weapons at the first note of danger without making any serious attempts to use those weapons which it has been forging and perfecting for the last three years? One would have thought that the Treasonable Offences Act, 1925, would have given the Government all the powers that were necessary in order to deal with incidents such as those I have referred to. Certainly the impression given to the Oireachtas was that the object of that Bill was to enable the Government of the day to deal with armed rebellion, seditious conspiracy and all conceivable hostile acts against the State. It was looked upon as a very drastic measure to place upon the Statute Book, but the Oireachtas in its wisdom passed it to place those powers in the hands of the Government of the day. Now we find, after a dozen Gárda barracks in the whole of the Free State have been raided, the Government come rushing to the Oireachtas and say: "We cannot uphold the safety of the State, we cannot defend you unless you give us new powers. In other words, you must give us powers to arrest all and sundry in order that among hundreds of prisoners we may bag a few criminals or potential criminals. We must get power to arrest a whole parish because it is suspected it contains half a dozen conspirators." That is not a particular compliment to the efficiency of our defence forces.
If we are to judge by what has happened in the past, under similar powers, we must, unfortunately, assume that large numbers of innocent people will be arrested as a result of the passing of the Act, and possibly detained for long periods or only released on condition that they give guarantees as to their future good behaviour, although they had no intention to act otherwise than in a law-abiding way. To give such guarantees is a tacit admission of guilt or an admission of intending guilt. That is a deplorable situation to place the average citizen in. It is like cutting down a whole field of corn in order to weed out a few thistles. If this Bill passes in its present form it will be in the power of a few obscure blackguards on any occasion, any day of the year, to stampede the Government of the day into creating a state of martial law, because when the emergency powers are put into operation the freedom of the individual citizen and the sanctity of his home are things of the past. It is merely a case of setting up orderly oppression for irregular or disorderly oppression. A jumpy atmosphere of this kind is not calculated to create stability or improve our credit at home or abroad. Action of this kind on the part of the Government is far more calculated to create a feeling of unrest and disquietude than could ever be done by any few obscure conspirators, by acts such as those which unfortunately took place during the past week. It is essential that these powers be used with the greatest possible judgment and discretion. I do not know if one has any reason to hope that that discretion and judgment will be used if it is entrusted to military officers who can in turn delegate their authority to army sergeants. I should have thought that at least that power would have been left in the hands of the Gárda and trained detective force, instead of leaving it to military men who cannot have an intimate knowledge of affairs in their district because of the circumstances of their employment, and who were never trained for police action of this kind.
It is a tremendous proposition to place this as a permanent Act on the Statute Book, leaving it in the power of whatever party or Government may be in office to invoke these tyrannical provisions against their political opponents. The criminal stupidity of those who gave occasion for this is beyond comprehension. A general election is looming on the horizon. It may be ten months or it may be only a month or two away, but one can easily see what is going to be the fate of the country in that general election because of incidents arising out of this Bill. Quite a number of people, we must assume, will be arrested. Some undoubtedly will be guilty; they will be conspirators, while others are almost sure to be absolutely innocent of any complicity, but through a mistaken zeal on the part of the authorities they will be interned. Then we shall have our hunger strikes, protest meetings and demands for the release of the prisoners and so forth, while other people will be making wild threats and you will have a general recrudescence of all the features under which the general election of 1923 was fought. Certainly if I were belonging to the Government in power I would say that no more suitable or favourable circumstances could exist under which to launch a general election, because I would naturally go out as the champion of law and order; I would be able to relegate to the background all those other vital national problems, difficult and complicated, hard to define and equally hard to solve, and go out on the plea of safety first. He is a very poor aspirant to parliamentary honours who could not make a good stunt on that. There is just the danger that barbarous incidents such as have occurred during the past week may be used and exploited for political purposes, that Parliament and eventually the State may be brought into contempt by refusing to use the tremendous powers or to utilise the forces at the disposal of the Government, but instead come along and create a scare in a political atmosphere and look for powers such as those asked for in this Bill. None of those things may come to pass. Everything may work out smoothly and the election may be fought sensibly and rationally on economic and social problems, things that affect the management and well-being of the nation. I ask Senators to watch with the keenest possible interest the developments of the next few months and see if what I have suggested is not likely to come to pass and is not very near the truth.
