The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1919.

Evening Star, Issue 17086, 3 July 1919, Page 4

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1919.

PkesidenX Wilsost, from aboard his

Ireland.

steamer George Washington, in reply to a message from His Majesty the King, ■'(telegraphed that "ho possessed a strong f conviction of the troth ot* the King's mes\tege concerning new ties between the 1 great British people and those of the ■United Statea/' With that sentiment the r fktuii majority of the people of the two will be in complete accord. Not Ppeoce but a sword would have been given pto mankind if the conclusion of the recent [gatherings in London, Paris, and Ver[•saHea of the foremost statesmen of the Empire and the United States had : found their respective peoples not nearer jTbpft further apart on those principles [|jf International freedom, justice, and ■ {righteousness which at all times it has •keen their boast to maintain. On this jbotb statesmen and people on either sido (the Atlantic were, with comparatively few exceptions, agreed. On the future friendship, trust, and harmony between j&ese two great democracies, the crowned Mid the uncrowned, depend the peace and •alvation of mankind. No part of his policy in Franc© has more strengthened the hold Mr Lloyd George already had ppon the affections and gratitude of his Bwn countrymen than the loyalty with .which he advanced their wishes and his Own in building up and cementing the mutual respect and confidence of the two peoples the one for the other. Yet while this, happily, is the truth of the situation as now known to us, it is not the less true that there are possibilities of danger, if tot disaster, immediately ahead. That friendship on which the Empire counts, and on which its statesmen rely a3 constitutfaig the sure foundation of future peace, is at this hour, and has been for gome considerable time, endangered. Ireland blocks the way to the continuance of that complete understanding which is essential io.the preservation of international amity, and will continue to block it as long as the legislative relations between England and Ireland are what they are. We have not, perhaps, given that serious attention to the problem of Ireland that we should have given, or we have too carelessly and negligently affected to treat it as one of minor moment. The truth remains that the Irish problem is a very real one, and never more real or serious than when it threatens, as jt now does, to J»rtak those bonds of friendship that Bri- '-;. ■ Cain and America have of late begun anew to establish on more lasting and "assured i\; ■ Hines, The maintenance of cordial rela- "-'' -JtuKQa between Britain and the United

States i 3 imperative. This all thoughtful observers admit. They also recognise that the chief danger to such relations and to the continuance of a state of suspicion and doubt between England and Ireland have their origin chiefly in those acts of omission and commission with which the senior partner is charged in her dealings with Ireland. Until England has established her case and justified her Irish policy to America she will foil to securo that a'bsclut© confidence which it is vital she - should have. At present this confidence does not exiat. The United States remains a fruitful soil in which to plant tho seeds of Irish hatred and to spread the tale of Ireland's wrongs. Lord Reading, the Lord Chief Justice of England, and who was recently hailed at a mooting of Judeans as " the greatest Jew in the world," speaking in New ■ York prior to 'his departure for England, said : " Irish agitation has been the main cause of anti-British, feeling in America. During tlis-war it was quiescent, but as soon as hostilities ceased it again became evident-, and it has undoubtedly increased in intensity. It would ba folly not to recognise this fact; but tho vast majority of American /people, by getting to know vs better, have a, deeper feeling for the British than ever before in our time." Folly, indeed ! The fact, is too patent to be denied. Mr Philip Gibbs, the war correspondent, describing a precession he saw in JCe-w York on St. Patrick's Day, wrote: "One banner, led on by pxiests, bore the- -words ' W-& stand for free and independent Ireland.' and anothen;, carried by women and girls, eaid : ' England, d-amu your concessions! We want oit-r country.' In" the crowds I evexhe&rd many conversations, which convinced) me utterly that there will be no absolute friendship between England and America unt.il Ireland's desires have been granted, and I prayed to God that this may happen to safeguard the peace of the world, which, depends upon American goodwill." And what Lord Reading and Mr Gibbs have said is said by others who are equally eminent in their own sphere " The failure to grapple with the Irish question," wrote Sir Horace Plunkett, " is affecting adversely our relations with the United States." " There was running to-day in Ireland," said Mr T. P. O'Connor last April.in the Housa of Commons, "a curious result of British policy—a stronger anti-English feeling than he had known all his life. It was the same in America."

It is not necessary further to emphasise this phase of the problem. It remains indisputable that an appreciable section of American people of Irish birth and descent hate England, and are prepared to keep that hatred alive; also that one, if not the chief, aim cf British statesmanship to-day is to increase and strengthen by 'every legitimate means American friendship. How are these apparently irreconcilable objects to be achieved ? There is but one answer, and it is not that cf Professor W. Alison Phillips, who, -with a self-confessed wail of despair, has cried : " There are such tilings as insoluble questions, and. the Irish question is one of them." If the British Government would remain- secure in the certainty of America's friendship they must first solve the Irish problem to the satisfaction of the Irish people. "Although Ireland," says Lord Dunraven, "has gone so far as is possible to ruin her cause, there is justice in it, and the justice in a cause cannot be killed."