IRELAND AND AFRICA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1932, Page 11

IRELAND AND AFRICA.

IRISH SLAVE MENTALITY. BERNARD SHAW'S COMMENTS. RETURN FROM TOUR. Interviewed on his return from South Africa, Mr. Bernard Shaw referred to the position in Ireland. "In Ireland," lie said, "they have the old rebellious slave mentality, and though they are in as etrong a position in the Empire as anybody else, they do not know it, and they never will know it. They go on with, the old business, illegal drilling and being against the Government. "Mr. Cosgrave's Government went on the old tradition that the Irish people must not be allowed to have weapons. The only people who had weapons left were the gunmen, and the result was that gunmen ruled the roost and life became unbearable. "What Mr. Cosgrave should have done was to give all the steady-going population of Ireland a revolver and twelve rounds of ball cartridge and let them dispose of the gunmen. You must trust the people." Referring to South Africa, Mr. Shaw said: — "They are not shooting each other there, but they are doing what they can to one another short of that. Apparently, when an Afrikander Government gets in, an Englishman has no chance of any public job. I presume when the other party, which calls itself the South 'African party, gets in, the- Afrikander has no chance of a job. It completely astonished me. "The Dutch are a very remarkable people. They are very productive physically, and they are quite up to the mark mentally. They look like the ideal people to colonise South Africa, but they are in the seventeenth century absolutely. Their religious views belong to that. "I want to know what is going to be done with these people. They are all splendid humau material. A number of missionaries should be sent out to them. "Of course, there is the terrible native question, and South Africa is no place for the poor white. The only thing for poor whites, so far as I can see, is the lethal chamber." "Would you rather live in Russia or South Africa?" Mr. Shaw was asked. "That is not a fair question,' 'he replied. "'There is no comparison. All the world is very much behind Russia at the prejsent time. Russia is a much more promising place than England."