THE CASE FOR IRELAND

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 8, 4 October 1919, Page 4

THE CASE FOR IRELAND

Sir.—With reference to "D.B.'s" let'ter on the above subject, might I suggest that your readers should bo very charv about accepting stories, of outrages committee... by our soldiers in Ireland. Our men have during this war .been scattered over many lands, .and no such charges, havo been made . in any other quarter. It is surely inconceivable that British soldiers who have been so chivni.rous even to the inhabitants of contitiered parts of Germany would act in Ireland so unworthily.. It should bs remembered that American soldiers havo ■ been grossly insulted in, Cork firr.no other reason than that f hey were coining to help England in her time of ,ueed. When I was resitting-, ii-. Belfast, long beforo tho war no soldiei, dressed in tho -luns's uniform- dare have walked through the Nationalist quarter of tho city, and to display a Uniou Jack there would : havc beeu -almost as much as one's life would have been worth. The story about a girl's, hockey match having been broken up by a charg? of the police is absurd on tho.face of it, and may.easily, like manv otlier such stories; be set down to political rancour.' Referring to.what he is pleased to call "tho blood tax," your correspondent maintains that-no "nation" has the right to lew'such upon another. Might I' reminrt him that- Ireland is a part of tho United Kingdom, to whose Parliament she sends 101 members, and that she has no moro right to be called a nation than North Island, New Zealand? The refusal of tho Irish Nationalists to accept conscription was due to tho influence of the Eoman Catholic hierarchy.' .Modern "historical research.has found nothing to justify tho claim that Ireland was ever at any time a nation. It is well known that England first sent a force to-seize Ireland at the urgent representation of the Pope, to bring-order td a distracted' land, and that his successor, writing to Henry II in 1172, urged him "to persevere in his'good work in Ireland, where tho people, in utter disregard'of-'the fenr of God, aro wandering with unbridled licentiousness into every- downward course of crime.'and have cast away tho restraint's of tho Christian religion, and'are destroying one another with mutual' slaughter."' " Even granting that 'ilu. stonts of Ireland's ancient greatness were true, nnd not the ridiculous bug-a-bpo which cold historical 6cienco saws .them to be, ,it. should be remembered, that England anil Scotland ..wore. also, .separate nations each with a proud history- and individuality of its own. Yet neither of these masterful peoples finds anything derogatory to.its dignity to bo joined with the other in a Union which has brought nothing but benefit to both, nor has that union, been followed in either nation by any loss of national pride or national spirit. What is to prevent Ireland being a.loyal and happy member of that Union but bigotry and hatred based on past wrongs, wrongs which belong to a etata of affairs which has long passed away nnd a hatred which, as felt towards tho modern Englishman, is unjust, ungenerous and opposed to ,the most fundamental tenets of the religion they profess. -Hi the : Roman Catholics of Ireland "■frill* not 'forgive, lot;;thcm in all consistency ' 'cease calling themselves Christians. . ~ Tho Union between Great Britain and Ireland, again, was an absolutely necessary act of William Pitt to take Ireland from the grip of an Irish' Parliament which Father D'Alton, tho 'Irish Roman Catholic 'historian, has described as "tho most contemptible body of men that ever misgoverned a nation." Under their baleful rule Ireland was iast sinking into bankruptcy, and the Presbyterians of tlio north had risen with the Roman Catholics of the south in tho terrible- rebellion of 1793. That the Act of Union of 1800 was no brutal act of tyranny is proved by the fact that when it was submitted to tho twelve Irish Roman Catholic bishops, two retrained from voting, two voted against, and the remaining eight, including tho Primate, voted in its I'avomr. Ireland's declino in population in tho- latter half of last century wa3 in no sense England's fault.. It was due to tho decline of agriculture in the British Islands caused by the opening up of America arid other new countries, a similar decrease of population occurring in the agricultural districts of Great Britain. But for the discovery of coal and iron iii.larg-3 nuantities tho declino of population in Scotland would have been greater than that of Ireland. Ireland ha 3 no mineral wealth, her iron being unusable and her coal not worth the cost of extraction. That the Union is not necessarily a calamity to Ireland is proved by the fact that the country is to-day under the liujerial Parliament the "most prosperous country in tlio world, -with . a foreign trade of ,£172,000,000, not a bad record for four millions of people. . Tho story of the over-taxntion of Ireland has been so often refuted that I havo hardly patience to refer to it. It is quite true that a Royal Comi'iission twenty', years ago agreed that during tho nineteenth, century Ireland had been overtaxed to the amount of 4UC0.000.000. The criticisms of. Sir James Grift'en awl other statisticians have proved that this finding was entirely overstated and that the commission made so many omissions as to render their findings practically, without value. For instance, no account was taken of the-, interest on tho Irish National Debt taken over by tho United Parliament amounting to ono million- pounds a year. Thero we -have ,£100,009,000 for the century gone at ono stroke, and it is-probablo that if really skilled statisticians like Sir James Griffon had made the inquiry the balance would nave been on tho other wide. "D.8." should remember that, as stated by > tho' "Spectator," taxes aro not paid by nations but by individuals. No person living In Ireland pays any more in tho way of income tax or stamp duty than he would on the samo amount ia .flreat Britain, and no Irishman consuming a certain amount of tea, tobacco, or' spirits pays j any moro because he lives in Ireland,- | while there-am quite a number of taxes paid (by Englishmen and Scotchmen from which the Irishruan-.is let off scot free. I would also remind y.ur correspondent that by far tho gmater part of tho taxation of Ireland conies from the Protestant Unionists. :'H is well known that in eventhe most exclusively Nationalist parts of Ireland the wealth and business are in the hands of tho Protestant Unionists. Moro than half the Custom's dues of Ireland are collected in tha Customhouse of Belfast and 55 per cent, of her shipping passes through tho port of tho same virile city. If any wrong las been done to Ireland under this head the largest part him, therefore, fallen on. those who aro loyal and happy members of tho United Kingdom. It must also be Tcmcmbercd that a. very considerable part of tho taxation credited to' Ireland is really paid by Englishmen and Scotchmen l .- A short time ago, for. instance, considerable attention was drawn to the payment by Mr. Gallriher, tile BeifaS't tobacco manufacturer, for duty on tobacco amounting to .(1153X00, one of the largest cheques of its kind evfi; paid. Now it is evident that Mr. Oallahcr was not paying but only advancing that money, HM.it all went into the price of the tobacco, and was ultimately paid by the consumer.-; of the weed. When we rej member, that there arc ten liir.es as many I nnd that it is ehoawr to fM'l goods irnre Helta.-:!; to T.ivcr.wj! than ft> jlnli'.in. ii will be uiidei'itiiod that at least JCI4O.OC" of that tax wa3 paid, by English and

Scotch consumer's. Yet because-, the pay. incut passed 'through' air Irish Customhouse Ireland got credit for the i'uli amount. It is enough to point out thai llio manufacturo of intoxicants is Ireland's greatest industry to show that a very large part of her- apparent contribution to tlio country's revenue is not really hers at all. If, however, any mistake has been made it has been unwittingly, and the Imperial Parliament will show itself both able ■and willing to right the matter without recourse to a separate Parliament. Your correspondent's " ;eferencos to Anjiriea's sympathy with Irish republican aspirations are quite beside the mark. Home Utilo is a,- purely domestic matter of. the United Kingdom and interference irbm America or-even from the British "to'minions is nothing but impertinence, and is due to an entirely incorrect conception ol tho relations of Great Britain and Ireland.' Few Americans understand 'that, the Irish people enjoy as large a measure of civic, political, and religious hbery as.ihmns-Jlvts,. that the wrongs ot tlio past hare.beau grossly exaggerated, and that England. to-day is Ireland's ecmal only ami her ..best friend—l am, etc., . . '. JOHN JOHNSTON. Nelson, . .