A REAL IRISH GRIEVANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 41, 16 February 1918, Page 15

A REAL IRISH GRIEVANCE.

30,000 SHIRKERS FROM ENGLAND. SEEKING "MOUNTJOT DIET." Toe following witty and illuminating article is from the pen of Canon James Hannay ("George A. Birmingham"), the famous Irish novelist and playwright:—

Ireland ha» a grievance, genuine this time, and, a very rare thing, the Government is not responsible. In fact, the blame rests on the shoulders of the Sinn Feiners, the Government's most implacable enemies.

What evil spirit induces Mr de Valera and his friends to advertise Ireland just now? No one was taking any notice of us until they drew attention to us by rebelling and making picturesque speeches. Now the country is flooded with journalists and the whole world has heard about us. It Is it great pity. We could have gone on very well as we were. We are not compelled to be soldiers. We have more food than any other country In Euorpe. We can say pretty nearly anything we like. We smile at the restrictions of personal liberty which worry ether people but do not affect us.

Then, ilke fools, we drew public atten tion to our unfortunate position. The inevitable result followed at once. Englishmen began to come over here in large numbers. It is estimated that there are now 30,000 of them in Ireland, young meu with good appetites. We do not want ihcra. They arc filling up our houses, eating our food, and corrupting our morals. But the original blame does not rest with the Government. We ourselves—or the Sinn Peiners among us—practically Invited these people to come* here. If we had not fussed papers the English would never have knowu that Ireland was the one country in Europe for people who hate fighting and like eating.

But that Iβ not the whole of our grievance against Sinn Fein. Not content with advertising Ireland, a prominent Sinn Felner has now given away our most cherished secret. We knew, but nobody else did, how prisoners are fed In Mountjoy Prison. Mr Joseph McDonagh, emerging from Dundalk which, of course, was published. He sslu that an officer of the Prisons Board has offered the prisoners in Dundalk "Mountjoy diet." He offered it, apparently, as a concession. The prisoners, like self-respecting men, demanded It as a right.

"If the Government." Mr McDonngh ifi reported to have said, "wished to keep them In prison against their will, they ought to provide them with the food necesnary to keep them in good health." Of course they ought. But why publish the menu? That is where Mr McDonagh made big mistake. The "Mountjoy diet" provides* an egg for breakfast, one and a-half pounds of bread during the day, ten ounces of meat, a piut of porridge, two pints of tea, a pound of potatoes, butter twice a day, and two and a-half pints of mJlk. So Mr McDonngh told the interviewer. Nobody grudges the food to him or his friends. If they are kept in prison against their will they ought to get that and more.

But consider the effect of these revelations. I am not thinklnc for the moment of all the babies in Dublin who are in want of milk. They, poor things, are not old enough to carry hurley eticks through the streets or do anything else which would get them into Mountjoy Prison. They may die, but they will not complicate the situation. The real trouble Is the Englishmen in Ireland, those thirty ■thousand—if there are thirty thousnnd. They know now, thanks to Mr McDonagh's eipansiveness, that they have nothing to do but get into gaol in order to enjoy the

"Mountjoy diet, ,, won for them, not by their own exertions, but by the desperate

Think of the amount of inconvenience which will be caused by thirty thousand Englishmen all trying to g<-t sent to prißon at once: And they will do it. Each one of them must commit a crime, political or other. Otherwise he cannot be arrested. And we, poor Irish, will have to endure the things these men do. Our police, masistrates and Judges will be overworked. Our gaols will get crowded. We shall probably There will not be room In them for us when we want to go to prison ourselves. It is most unfaLr.