ARTHUR GRIFFITH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3139, 16 October 1922, Page 2

ARTHUR GRIFFITH.

(By an Irish Correspondent.) Griffith was a. man of few words, and those brusque and to the point. In figure he was short and sturdily bifjilt. His face, impassive and inflexible, gave the index to his character. He was emphatically the strong man of the dominant party in Ireland at the present time, as well as the directing brain. It is one of those tragic accidents with which the story of bis country is studded, that she should have lost him at such a moment. He had had to practise severe restraint and patience to reach the position he held. Through the two years of the "war" he was one of the titular leaders, but most of what happened in it, apart from the purely political side, was without his knowledge, and much of it without his approval. To explain this a retrospect is needed. « He was the founder of Sinn Fein. It was, like the Gaelic League, a byDroduet of the Parnell split. A number of youths, the leader of whom was a young poet named William Booney, used to meet in a literary society in Dublin and discuss their ideal of a regenerated Ireland, unfettered by any allegiance to the orthodox Nationalist movement of the time. Roouey died, and his mantle fell on his friend Griffith. What first, made Griffith's name widely known in Ireland was a pamphlet which embodied his policy—the policy that came to be known as Sinn Fein. Its basis was the declaration by the English and [rish Parliaments in 1752 that the right of making laws for Ireland rested solehwith the King. Lords, and Commons of Ireland. Its object was to restore the ore-Union status of Ireland. The.method by which it sought to achieve . its aim was by a boycott of England and everything English, and a general refusal to recognise the Act of Union or any of its implications. ' The name "Sinn Fein,'' which means "Ourselves," was given to the movement, to the policy, and to the programme. It had adherents all over Ireland, mostly young men and women, but as a. political movement never at- \ tained more strength than that of a well-marked current in the gejieral flood of Nationalist feeling. As an educational influence, however, it had an effect the full strength of which was not realised until much later. When the war came Griffith, consisttently with his policy, opposed any intervention on the part of Ireland. This was partly the reason why the Easterweek rising in 1916 was called a "Sinn Fein" rising. With the rising, as a matter of fact, Sinn Fein had little or nothing to do, and Griffith, personally, no connection of any kind. The natural consequence, howeveV", was that when Nationalist feeling in Ireland revolted against the long-drawn series of death sentences and the .M'axwcllian regime of repression which followed the rising, it was the Sinn Fein movement into which the tide of feeling poured, and Griffith found himself the leader of what really was an uprising of national extent. ___ Here, however, his difficult?* began. The heroes of the movement were the men who had taken part in the 1916 rising. They were in agreement with Griffith on the rock-bottom claim of Ireland's right to independence, bid that could be said of every Irish movement constitutional as well as unonnstituptiona!. Beyond thai there was divergence To these men and their followers Griffith's constitutional theory meant nothing, nor would they tie themselves to his programme of passive resistance. . . Thus from the beginning ol the now chanter of Sinn Fein, there wore two ouite separate strains in .1. oiion.mi,„r af securing Ireland s independence bv" directly revolutionary means, and

believing in nothing else, the other believing—or nt the least hoping—'in the possibility of success by the mere peaceful massing of the nation's forces behind the nation's demand. An outcome of this curious complication was the election of Mr do Valera to the Presidency of Sinn Fein. On the one hand ho was an Easter- Week fighter. On the other hand, he committed himself publicly to the declaration that he would lead no insurrection, the success of which was hopeless. Simultaneously with Mr do Valora'si election, which look place at the Sinn Fein Convention, a constitution was adopted. In this constitution the Extremists scored, for they succeeded in getting ii. staled that'"Sinn Koin aims at securing; the international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish Republic." This was the first of a series of false steps, which have had disastrous results. The next was taken after Sinn Fein had swept' the polls in the general election in 1918. The first meeting of the ))ail. or assembly of elected representatives, passed a declaration that the "Irish Republic" had been established bv the men of 1916, and that tlie Dail confinned that establishment. So far as (probably) the majority of the Sinn |-'ein leaders were concerned, this was ."bluffing," but. like Sir E. Carson, in that other piece of "bluffing" which' organised an army to overthrow the Kutg's Government in Ulster if Ireland wore given Home Rule, they did not calculate the extent to which their own people wquld take it for reality. It is for that false step that Ireland is at present suffering. With the election of Mr do alera to the presidency, the helm was out of Griffith's hand. He remained vice-pre-sident, and his weighty influence was directed always to keeping the vessel s head as nearly as possible on the course but it was now only one influence out of many. His great moment came when, as leader of the Irish delegation, lie signed the Treaty in Downing street, fully conscious that his aid wouk ki met with strong hostility on' his return to- Ireland —fully conscious also that the support of the' people would be with him. Even then, against his will, and in he hope of averting open conflict, he had to temporise and swallow the verbal and formal quibbling on which Mr de Valera. insisted a« his price for abstaining from precipitating the clash. It was not till the clash-final and inevitable—came that Griffith found himself once more in command and steering oil his own course. His presence was the best guarantee humanly possible that the storm would be weathered and the harbor readied. It has been said that Griffith was not a good speaker. Rut on two occasions ~he surprised the Dail by rising to' the height of oratory. These were in his final speech in support ol the Treaty, and that other utterance in which.'after the elections, he took up the challenge of those who were seeking to prevent the country's voice from beinc heard on the Treaty, and declared that he would see it through. ft" is for Ireland and Ireland's friends to pray hard that a man of the same mettle may take bis place.