The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1914. IF ULSTER WENT TO WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 155, 1 July 1914, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1914. IF ULSTER WENT TO WAR.

For the cause that lack* assistance, For the vrtvag that needs resistance, Tor the future in the distance, A»4 the good the* toe can do.

One of the Irish agricultural papers dwells upon an aspect of the preparations in- Ulster that neither eide has considered; s?riouely enough, and tha.t is the economic ruin that civil \v.ar would bring upon the country whichever party finally claimed' the victory. We are accustomed to calculations of ih-e enormous copt of waTS carried on abroad, antl we have ei>mi> idea of the coet of annajnents. All of ne, except the very young, have cause to realise the lasting price a nation pave for the brief emotional enjoyment of anticipating conflict ami of triumphing over the -report of victories. A war correspondent who had besn. -through many ware said that no jcraritaliet d-ared) describe literally the things he had witnessed. (But. however terrible war against a foreign nation may ibo. civil war is doubly terrible. Our older authors" have given us eorne pictures of what it meant in their days, as in the grotesque horror of that scene from Shakespeare supposed to occur in the Wars of the Roses, where the stage direction reads: — "En-ter a father who has -killed has eon, and a son who has kilted his father.' . It may be a eign of the times that, today attention is chiefly fastened upon the economic -misery into which the couwtry wonid be phrnged when ite in-haiit-ims began "fig-hung "with each other. In \faa past, ■wlren the Irish people forme<ll a number of semi-indepfinrA'>nt ijfl.ns, :t fig-ht <uxiongsf7 two or three cla.n^ might not affect the rest. The cl-an system is partly responsible for the combativenesft of the Taee aad its tendency to splitting into f-actione. 'In -religion, in poLrtics. and in race. Ireland , is divided into parties that appear almost irreconcilable. (But lawly economic mente have had Lhe effect of drawing all parts and all parties together by business interests, if by nothing "better. The industrial and commercial centre is Belfast, and' the large trading houses of Belfast have connections with provinces like Donegal, where, the inhabitants are opposed to the Ulster iProtestaate in and in politics. Belfast 6en<iß oirf commercial travellers t-o parts ttat nxre formerly entire-Jv dueennnected with

Ulster, and in return it draws upon them for the products of home industries. The banks cf Belfast have es tabl islied ,'oranches in the country towns and villages far and wide. These branches receive the savings of Irish farmers and finance the industrial enterprises of the

North-east with the capital deposited by people scattered all ovctr the country. If war broke out oomrnercial travellers

could no longer do business in provinces where a hostile party existed, and large £. u — 6 would' be withdrawn from Protestant banks, and vice versa. In

the case of some banks, this might mean bankruptcy. IA general industrial dertreesion would p_tva_. and the economic development of thic whole country would be a-rrested.

One of the chief factors in the recent .progress of Ireland is the co-operative movement. Amongst the violent feuds of factions and parties that would spring into existence an war time it would be impossubte that, the present members of co-operative societies should continue, to meet and consult and work together. In a civil war there, are not

only the two originaj parties who cause discord, Hack party splits up into sections, anad individual ddflcxeanceas. of opinion arc no longer __tters for mutual tokrranjen. but causes of rage and fury. Tolotoi, in his War turd Peace." paints a striking picture of Russians and I'YeTbala coming .together during a truce and behaving to each other as human

beings, indeed. 36 comrades, but at -the breaking out of war each race becomes possessed' with the spirit of a demon towards the other, each the prey of fear, suspicion nnd murderous hate. The picture would' have been still more striking if it had been meant for war between fellow - countrymen. Irish-men. thiough not arawa-ys- and in evcrv direc-

tion so emotional as they are reputed to be. are, as a race, hot-blooded and liaible. to be swept, away hy sau<fcie n passions that would scarcely move, the more cool and stolid Englishmen; and the present situation is more perilous because it is in Ireland and not in j_tlawf. ILa«ting feuds and vcndJettas would result from acts of faosfciKty, and they would keep alive every cause/ of division and undying enmity-.

One of tlio greatest ctus<* of Ireland until t-hf .pnsrai cervtrtry «v.st hopeless :ui<i al/jec'u poverty of its people. ImJiu?:rial deVflofjJMMH. ajid usperiuilly the iM-viperuiivti moveanßUt. his brouglit about like a iKi-tioitaJ uolu>jsioii. Ill' ciieiuies caaain he to-,f:nli.-r }j\ auv other iiiea.ns, it i> ji ihiii}; :hat tiipy ehoaW ojck: «t least in trmlf. hJu.~iii.ii-; rcktiims in Lhue ~t I , ™'" •' ' ,! "'- itH-ogiiiep iXiUfotialwt ur I'nionlist. (.'ailiolii; ur l'roustan:. C-pli or riuxiin. 'Within Uic :-.-n vpj.ni Irei.»ill lia-4 just lif-jun ii> (-jncr-jp from the X ■ill;;,I nf [Mivcrlv. r l IIP 111 rfj ICIKVi war vnmUt |)!iiny.> i; further down tU-an it h;ii- iim'n fnr geirprati'ms. an,l a; th« eatr.c luuc it «%o»l<i broak *ll thai «ct' work of "ecaaoanc fibia" which, mere

I beginning to eonaieci ihe -varicras parts and bind th-em -together. In ttte present

stato of tension. 'With vol araiing on both Eidw. a furitniH word or Wow may at any moment eet t-he whole of Ireland ablaze. And. once \x-gna, h is the natort? of civiJ war not to etop until both parties a.re exhausted with bloodshed and every form of human suffering and the whole land ie on the way to ruin. 'It is no womd-er that a veteran war correjponti'e'iic expres&etL a-mazenrent at tho -with which botji skiec are .preparing to tear asxmdCT the tibres of national uni-ty. (Nor is it ajiy more sarrprieiicr fcha-t farmers and bueines= men shoubd 1 be dissatisfied with the attitude of botii partiee. A nation today is much more closely bound together and by finer bonds than tormerly, and war -between fellow-countrymen is a worse crime ajid a greater folly now than ever it, oould have be?n in the