CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 228, 24 September 1918, Page 7

CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —'Ju3titia" appears anxious that Someone shall hear the legal responsibility for Lord Curzon'e charge against the Catholic clergy. If I will but connect the name of some priest with the noble lord's utterance I am to "pretty quickly" face the civil law! I presume my opponent is aware the priests whom Lord t'urzon speciScally mentions in connection with hie charge have not shown an abounding enthusiasm for a civil action. Why? At the risk of wearisome iteration I recapitulate the questions I have asked to which no reply has been furnished. When and where and by whom were the sources of Lord Curzon'e information judged incompetent? The anewer to that questi«n is that there has been no investigation, and. therefore my opponent's insinuation is contrary to fact. I have asked him to discuss the precise mean ing of the Maynooth resolution, the anti-conscription Mase, the article o f Fra. Finliiy, and to all quentiorti ke has maintnined a discreet silenc .Armarently the charge that the Tr>li Hierarchy has delilwrately in its religioncapacity ami authority challenger] tlv imperial Government cannot he de fended. To plain thinking men thi* is all that is contained in Lord C'urzon'. chars , . I am asked why I did not de ■ounce the long list of objectors to Iri-h conscription given by "Justitia." I was content to denounce the political activities of the Catholic bishops and clergy ac an embarrassment to the Imporia , Government in the prosecution of thr ■war, and the silence of "Justitia" has done much to help mc. Justitia defines the anti-coneeription pledge as one of passive resistance. The answer to my opponent is the pledge: "We pledge ourselves eolemnlv to one another to resist conscription by the most effective means at our disposal." The pledge has borne fruit by the fact of intimidations in County Wicklow, by the fact that the King's Writ does not run in County Clare, by the lawlessness in County Kerry, by the

treason in Carlow, and by Mr Justice Pim'e testimony of "the plague epots of the county" at Galway. It is pertinent to. this discussion to remind my opponent that this pledge of "passive resistance" was signed by Cardinal Logue, two archbiehops and 24 biohops of the Soman Catholic Church. The reference to Ulster icj surprising from eucb an ardent advocate for the riphte of "self definition" ac my opponent appears to be. If Ulster wishes to exercise the right of "self definition," why should ehe be coerced ?—I am, etc., WILL D. MORE.