THE CASE OF IRELAND

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 14, 16 July 1921, Page 7

THE CASE OF IRELAND

TO THE SUITOR.

, Sir, —That yon should stigmatise the leaders of the Irish' nation as "men who have organised crime and terrorism," was at all times, as you no doubt ,were well aware, a cause of deep indignation to those of yd'ur r-eadei's .whose sympathies are with Ireland. But that you should see fit to use those words in your leading article on 11th July, on the very day when the armistice took place in Ireland, on an occasion when even Downing-street spoke of "the suspension Of hostilities," seems to reveal you as an implacable enemy of Ireland. In doing this, you have violated one of the liufest traditions, of tho English spirit, •\vliich respects the bravery of its foes, even whilst combating their cause. You have been guilty of the offence before. But you ai'e doubly guilty in repeating it on the day of the truce. We had thought that the truce was to hold not only in England and Ireland; but in the iJohiiriions as well—for there, too, there has been a conflict of spirits, a conflict in which you have, with singular chivalry, been persistently on the aide of .tho stronger opponent. We are well aware that it has been the fashion in our colonial press to inflict such opprobrious epithets on the Sinn Fein leaders, But did the press realise tho logical consequences that , should follow from such an attitude? For if these men were murderers and criminals, then it was the duty of tho Empire to root them out, to treat them as our •Judges treated Crippen and Holt, and other such malefactors. Do the English people who live closer to the Sinn Fciners consider then! in that light? "I venture to say," says a distinguished English, writer, "there is not a man, woman, or child in England that regards Patrick Pearee and de "Valera as murderers." Least of all has the English Government regarded them as such, for Was not Mr. Lloyd George so anxious for tho company of Mr. de Valera arid his frifends, that he fined them £150 each, because they would not come and join 'him in the "finest club Jn Europe"? Nay, he offered them £400 a year for the mere pleasure of their company; and so anxious was that fine flower of British chivalry and purity, Mr. Horatio Bottomley, for the companionship of in en who shot down English soldiers on tho streets of Dublin, that he once wanted the Sergeant-at-Arms, in the House of Commons, to go and fetch them by force. Again, if these men were such as you have represented them, is not this the position that we have reached: that this great and glorious Empire, that defeated Napoleon and broke the might of Germany, has fallen so low that it has had to call a truce and enter into a conference with a gang of convicted criminals and murderers? Is not the truth rather that Mr. Lloyd George has recognised at last that Mr. de Valera's hands are, if iiot as nimble, at least as clean as his own? And would it not be wise, then, in the interests of peace, to drop 1 the epithets which came so readily to your pen whilst the conflict was raging? If in the past you could not find it in your heart to speak a word of pity for the weaker side; you can'now, at least, by refraining frbnr such expressions, help tlie Empire in this hour of fate. For whether, you recognise it or riot, just now the womb of Destiny is big with possibilities that may make or break us all. . . . .

. We are ioth to take up too much of your valuable space, and consequently would simply point out that you are'mistaken ■■when you set down the Easter Rising as thb cause that shattered . Redmond's hopes. The rising was an effect, Hot a cause; the cause. riiay be tersely described in the words of Mr. Lloyd George as, "the stupidities, nay the malignities,..of.the British Government." We would further remark that- to describe the chosen leaders of 80 per cent, of the electors of a country as "extremists" is.to make a wrong use .of that word. For the word implies the existence of a large bulk of opinion—that of the great, sane' majority, which "extremisls" do not. represent. The Irish leaders do represent , that great, sane majority, and it would therefore be more futile to call them extremists than toapply such, a term to Mr. Massey and his Cabinet. In conclusion, we would re; spectfully ask for an explanation of the sentence:. "Ireland must be kept within the Empire." What is the strength, of the word, "must" in. that sentence? Has God given you a right to Ireland? Or do -you simply mean that it is to your advantage to keep it by force?—as wh6 would say: "I have it, and I won't give it-up." Is not that the position of the entrenched burglar: "I have the loot; it's yours, conic arid take it, if you are strong enough"? And you, Sir, and we; Sir, and all of us; boast that we fought for the freedom of small nations and the advent of the reign of Justice into the world.—We are, etc., SELF-DETERMINATION LEAGUE. ' 13th July. [We should not have thought it possible for . any sane man—whether his sympathies are with Ireland in her struggle for self-government 6r hot—to; deny that one of the principal lAcftiods by which her- claims have recently been pressed is "the Organisation df ( crime and terrorism." We are confirmed in the belief by the prolix and tortuous ingenuity with which our correspondents seek to explain away a fact that it is impossible to deivj. It is, of course, mortifying.to learn that our perversity in looking facts in the face "seeiris to reveal us as aii implacable enemy of Ireland." Fbrtuliiiitely; "things are not always What they seem." If The Post has become "an iitiplacable enemy of Ireland"'it is certainly not by a, process of self-deter : rhinatidn, but by the pontifical edict of a Self-Determination Leaguo Which is ready to determine 'things not merely like, as the Sinn Fein motto says, for "ourselves alone," but for others also. It is some consolation to know that in the oiitfer dai-knefe> of implacable, hostility to Ireland to which wo are thus consigned wo have such men as tho late John Redmond and ' Bishop Cohalan; Cardinal Bourne and Cardinal Logue td share our misfortune.—Ed.]