Eastward Ho!

British, Irish and American realists about World War II have long realized that either before or after the invasion of England, Adolf Hitler will strike at Ireland. Even the most bootlicking appeasement cannot buy him off so why not let the British use the Irish plane and ship bases so badly needed to protect transatlantic convoys?

The three groups of realists long ago arrived at what they believed to be the only solution which at once meets the realities and saves the faces of all parties. This solution: for the Irish to give the U.S. what they politically cannot give Great Britain--bases in southern Ireland.

Diplomatic officials in each of the three countries have long held that such a solution is unthinkable; deny with horror that conversations about such bases have ever been held. Last week the New York Herald Tribune's hustling William W. White cabled from London the same old story: the U.S. may stretch the rubberized Hemisphere once again, may extend the naval patrol to southern Ireland, may "take over" south Irish bases as the Marines took over Iceland.

The story got the same old denial: no such negotiations or conversations were under way. The realists only asked: why not?

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