FALSE HOPES

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 48, 25 February 1921, Page 4

FALSE HOPES

SINN FEIN INFLUENCE ABROAD

NO AMERICAN INTERPOSITION,

Writing to The Times (London), Mr. Edward i'rice Bell, London' correspondent of', the Chicago Daily lviews, uoiiu-ailicts the suggestion that America may' interpose effectually" on behall of the Sinn Fein aspiratjoris a republio in Ireland. ' He 1 writes:—"America does not mean to imperil the peace of the lOnglish-speakinjf world, and so brijig the whole oi democratic civilisation into jeopardy, by .any mad folly in Ireland or elsewhere. -Peace in'tlie linglish-SpeaKing world, arid peacp with all-the world, is alike the corners'tpiie of .Ainericari foreign policy and the dearest wish' of the' American nation. 'Categorically during his 'campaign, tre'si-dent-iileot Harding told the 1-American voters' lie would not nieddlc. 1 with the Irish question, lioi- witli any other foreign "donjestic que'stioii| but would be ah American President. Thtrt he will 'depart ifrbm this attitude there is not the slightest reason to believe—fchere> is every ■ reason to ■believe tlie contrary—and, if he th',d> *.h,O American people certainly would bo quick to call him to account.

"As a" rriatte:c of -fact, international etiquette and amenity quite apavti',America, would not have a leg" to stand on in contesting the "■point of view "of the British Enipiro with reference to' Ireland; If we did such a thing, we should fly in the face of much of diir'theory arid all our practice as, a nation; we should make ourselves ridiculous beforo the''world." For in action, in (act, if not always in conscious philosophy, What have we'been throughout our history? 'We'havo imperialists, expansionists, unionises, enactoys of the doctrine that a -'small State' 'in "a strategica'Hy vital relation to a larger' State must accommodate its freedom to the 1-security of its larger neighbour." ''In'words"and in deeds wp have denied that a small nation has a right 'to independence' where such a right infringos.tlio higher right of aTyasily larger nation*to health and tranquillity behind secure frontiers; Cuba, Porto' Rico, H'uifai. ~S£n£6 "Dbniinga."{lie~wh6Te~"Carib'be'an, both flanks of the Panama Canal, the Bacifi<>-they all tell thg";apie''etory. ' "If you," "Sir, deem'"the" "audacity not wholly inadmissible, I will go tic longt-h of venturing to conjecture what Abraham Lincoln, were'lie'Priine Minister "o.E Britain to-day,, might say to the advocates of independence" "fov ".'irelird." I tb'ink h«> wo.uld say something jjke this: fin aslting Jor'self-aeteririmation for Ireland','you ask for more than Irish solfldetcrmination'; you ask for the opportunity to determine thq d?*tiny of tho'Pritijh, Kealms-. If you, havo'Kh abstract"right to m"dope'nc!ence, the British peoples have a higher concrete right to security for their immensely larger pom»lpiioffs.'"Thß right of the few to liberty is not so high a right as the right of tho many to live.- ' For did not Lincoln speak so to the Confederate States? With his -hand firmly upon the sword-hilt, lie said to the >. 'You have not a right to a self-detormination that' imperils the peaco and well-being of' the American Continent.' '

"And there is our Monroe Doctrine. Par excellence, it is the dpctrine of keep, ing potential enemies at' a dis&nco. . . '.

"And so I say, and say in all friendship,, it tho intransigent" faction, tho separatist faction, in Ireland is building its poKc'y and hopes upon tlie ■hypothesis that "Ameneji jyill gjrd and buttress the.m, it is setting 'up a dream-edifice on foundations of mist."