HOW SHOULD IRELAND BE GOVERNED ?

Evening Star, Issue 17328, 16 April 1920, Page 8

HOW SHOULD IRELAND BE GOVERNED ?

THE HOME RULE PROBLEM

Sir Horace Phmketfc, wbo has a better grip of the Irish Problem than any living statesman or publicist, has contributed to (the 'Manchester .Quardian* a weighty , article that deserves to be pondered by . every Troll-wisher of Imperial unity. This is what he has to say on the most engrossing topic of the present day—On what Knes of safety can the benefits of control of her domestic affairs be entrusted to Iceland? Ireland blocks the road to that AngloAmerican accord upon which more than ever before Western civilisation depends •—and blocks it in America. Readers of : the 'Manchester Guardian' have been I kept peculiarly well informed of tbe chief , manifestations of Irish pressure brought !• to beax upon the Government, Senate. »Dd public opinion of the United States in order to prevent any. co-operation between the British Commonwealth and the American Republic. And this at a time when in no other way can Europe be saved. Many competent observers believe that there are at the moment causes of conflict between the two great Englishsoenking Powers deeper than even the Irish cause. This belief has no doubt n increased the not unnatural indignation of j many Englishmen that the American | Legislature should concern itself with a j ouestion of our British, domestic politics. I with which they' have no more concern | than Englishmen have with, for example, : their negro problem. Whatever else may he in doubt upon this' perplexing question, those who have an intimate knowledge of the United states are agreed that a" real Irish settlement would almost ■ magically improve Anglo-American rela- ,' tions. I shall, therefore, in these notes ; try to explain, out of a study of 40 years \ of *my countrymen in America, why' sensible men.are convinced that so relatively small a cause would produce SO VAST AND FAR-REACHING AXEFFECT. I shali conclude' with a sketch of the only practicable Irish policy which, in my judgment, would win* the support o"f American opinion. My memory goes back to the early eighties, when ten or more million Americans of Irish blood cherished a bitter hatred against the country held responsible for the Great Famine, "i was living in the Western States when Gladstone suddenly shed the unpopularity he o.wed to his sympathy with the South in the Civil War. and became the idol of the American D-emocracv as a convert to Home Rule. But thouch he earned the gratitude of the Irish for his land legislation, he did not achieve Home Rule. He however, broadened the Irish question in America, making it political, and no longer as it had been in Ireland, mainly agrarian. He thereby immensely strengthened the 'inflnence of the. Irish in American politics. I remember how the phrase "Rnm, Romanism, and Rebellion" on a political platform wrecked the chances of the Presidential candidate, the speaker, a Protestant,clergyman, was supporting' T observed with keen satisfaction the "gradual dying down through the nineties of the anti-British sentiment as the tide of immigration became less great. The Venezuela and Sacaville incidents were unpleasant reminders that the old hate ■was kept alive, but soon the wise action. or more properly inaction, of the British Government (for which. I believe. Mr Arthur Balfour was mainly responsible) m regard to the Spanish-American War made the most lasting improvement of AngloAmerican relations since the Republic was born..

PRUSSIAN MILITARISTS DISAPPOINTED. But (there was ever an inrnlacable minority who kept the old fires" alight One day in 1911 I was "commending an Irish project to Andrew Girnegie for inclusion in his benefactions, when he complained very bitterly that rav countrymen Jit alliance with German-Americans "were blocking an arbitration treaty at Washington, and so frustrating h'is scheme of world peace. Thanks to Bemharcli, we now know that this was "according to p-an.' The Prussian militarists relied upon the Ulster difficulty to keep Britain put of the war, and if this hope should be deteated the German-Americans in alliance with the Irish-Americans were at least to keep the neutrality of the United States •unfnendlv to the Allies. When Britain entered tne war tvro of the most memorable utterances ever made in the British Parliament- smashed all the. Irish calculating of the Germans. Into Sir Edward l.reya; words "the one bright spot," Ireland, England, and America read the- meaning which beyond all doubt they bore to the speaker. John Redmond so reading them, promised that Ireland would jom Britain in the defence of RHit against Might, and immediately the Irish began, to rush to the colore. In the following- month self-government was conferred upon Ireland bv British law and the 'Te Denm' was sung bv constitutional tJome R.ulers throughout the world Dunng the period of America's neTitralitv there was a natural and proper reserve in the public expression of opinion upon other than domestic iasnes. "in private conversation T heard the bitterest comments trpon the promisee given to the representatives of Protestant Ulster that the operation of the Home Rule Act should be postponed until after the war, and then should be saddled with amendments which would snake it unacceptable 'to the vast majority of Irishmen. The dissatisfaction of the American Irish at ' what they regarded as a GROSS BREACH OF FAITH !

with the late Mr John Redmond and those who followed bis lead so splendidly in the first months of the war must b*e borne . in mind by all who would understand the recrudescence of the anti-Briti«h feeling in 1915. The Easter rising, although attributed to the trickery over the Home Rule BilL was pretty generally condemned in America, as indeed it was in Ireland But the executions which followed it aroused an indignation even among proBritifih Americans, the intensity of which was never known in England for the Teasora I have given. If i n hot blood English soldiers had shot down the Irish rebels as the anti-draft rioters in Xew .York were shot down in the Civil War, the whole transaction would have borne a, very different aspect. Certain it is that the shots which, at dawn after dawn in May, 1916, ended the lives of the Irish revolutionaries—more especially the poets and idealists among them—opened a sad chapter in the long Anglo-American misunderstanding which is not vet closed. From this period the tide of Irish sentiment in America again set strongly against England, and became a definite factor in the pacifist or anti-war movement in the States. Until April, 1917/ German-Amer-icans were still able to oppose openly the participation of the United States in the war against Germany. The alliance of . Germans and Irish in America became far more formidable, and was. of course, liberally subsidised. The typical Irishman has not -a single bond of sympathy with, the typical German, other than a common hatred of Britain. In the evenly-balanced Presidential campaign of 1916' this mi" natural hyphenate combination must have secured a second term for Woodrow "Wilson, and thereby caused one of the strangest paradoxes in history. ing under a banner inscribed" with = the legend "He kept us out of the war," they unknowingly placed in power the one American statesman who could the American people unanimously and enthusiast'cally into the war. AMERICA'S CHANGE OF FRONT. The moment America came into the war the belligerent sentiment overwhelmed all opposition. The German-Americans w.>re, of course, silenced. The Irish-Americans, with very few exceptions, hastened to demonstrate their loyalty to the Republic. Their leaders declared that by loyally responding to the draft American citizens of r, Irish blood would be serving alike the

"THE ACID TEST OF BRITAIN'S GOOD FAITH."

interests of Democracy and the- Home Rule cause. Thousands of Irish-Americans cherished tin's thought on the battlefields of Europe ; they are to-day no less clear in their demand that their faith shall be jnsttfied. In this demand they liave ffe sympathy of American soldiers, whose participation in Irish demonstrations and processions has become a regular feature of Irish agitation ii. America. In the early stages of America's war effort ai. Irish settlement was eo obviously nniwrtant that American, opinion, alwavs a potent factor in Ireland, could be counted upon to support any honest endeavor directed to that end. In America the Irish Convention was looked upon with great favor. It was hailed as the dawu of a new hope for Ireland. VVhen the Government torpedoed tWir convention by imposing Conscription m advance of self-government, thev no doubt relied upon the unhesitating approval by the American people oi a measure which their own Government had imposed upon the Irish in Amenta. And there was at first a considerable body of American opinion which blamed my countrymen for not submitting to . Conscription as their brethren--.' in America had done. -British propagat\a in America made the most of the ea<?\ against the Irish. Personally conducted parties of American publicists" politicians, -and Labor representatives were, easily made to see Irish behaviour through English, eyes. The most was mode of untoward incidents where American sailors were turned loose in the most disturbed parts of Ireland. .Soldiers' gossip and the. inevitable mutual irritation of com-rades-in-arms, when caused by Irish indiscretions, were carefully p-r.4rved. But some journalists emu- oil their own. As the whole tale gets told the judgment of the American people increasingly hr-lds the British Government to bl;i-:ne~for keeping Sinn Fein Ireland out of the war. An old frontiersman whom 1 hn<* known in the foot-hills of the Rockies in mv ranching days asked me : '• blow in Cod's name the Irish were kept out of th? greatest sernn in history?*'" He had never heard of Ulster, 'so I contented myself with the amnion that hundreds' of thousands of Irishmen at home ami abroad were maintaining the fighting traditions of the race, and left hint vet more puzzled. THE CONSCRIPTION ISSUE.

In his ?peeoh announcing Conscription for Ireland, Mr Lloyd Georu'e declared

it to he the intention of the Government to combine the iil-st=..Ted now departure, to which lie was driven bv the awful situation n n the western front, with a simultaneous grantine of sd f-govcrnmem-to Ireland. He admitted that in no other way could Conscription be enforced or Amenean cooperation, then considered to be essential to the victory of the Allies, assured. . During the rest of the war nothing was done in t-h» direct; -,n of Home Rule. Proposals—! think most reasonable proposals—for setting up a Provisional (.iovornmtnt in irolarxl. at least as renrc-s-entativeas the Convention, as an earnest of good faith in the pronrse of the larger concession were simply ignored. When the armistice came a victory election was rushed. The hanging of the Kaiser, making Germany pav. and a good time rlj round were the chief nb.nks" in the Coalition plat'orm. But there had to be an Irish plar.k. and this adumbrated a settlement when—and only when—the Irish after the hva*mct " I have described' kissed the rod held over them bv Fieldmarshal Lord French of Yores. "In that ludicrously impossible, event, the loyal, law-ahidmg—and incidentally well-drilled, organised, and armed—no-th-east comer was to be bv British la.w not to belong to the Irish nation. No sinHe article —no mr-derate-xised book —could adequately deseriln the IRISH SITUATION IN AMERICA at the moment. There Irish influence mav continue to have its ups and downs, domestic questions and foreign questions mav side-track it for a while. In the atmosphere which the Anglo-Trish misunderstanding eternally poisons, the Irish themselves may '-ompctp in blunders with the British, to their own teirmnrarv undoing Anything may happen, and whatever hap pens will, of course, be. misunderstood. But., suostantiallv. American opinion will continue to treat Irish self-government as the a-id (e,t „f Britain's faith in its declared war and peace policy. I have therefore, thought it well, instead of concentrating en the Irish question in -Amenta at the moment, to "srt out in order the course of events which lead me to the conclusion that there will n-u-ev be complete harmony between Britain and America until the British people the majority of whom, beyond all question, earnestly desire a real settlement, insist upon a large and generous measure of Home Ride. It must be one wl-'ch moderate men in Ireland, England and m America can support.

SUGGESTED BARTR QF SETTLEMENT. I will conclude with the briefest outline of the settlement which, in mv judgment, w.l! alone fulfil the condition!. I m against an Irish Republic, because t believe that it is impracticable- and i-'"I - S , „ a!!other I'°™ of Government which, if firmly offered to the Irish people, would, a.ter a brief period for popular discussion, be gratefully accepted and loyally worked. Tf vou want a settlement by consent, and not one which has to be imposed by an armv, Ireland must be treated as one of the self-governin" Dominions, m all respects saving only the question of naval and military" defence'•vlnch must for strategical .reasons be under a single central control. The unity ot Ireland must be conceded in the only posiblo way bv settill!Z up a y ationil - ar lament with adequate nowers for the discharge of all national functions. Ireland must also be allowed to have separate representation in the League of Nations, to which she is at least as much entitled as Australia and Xew Zealand, while her association with South Africa in the League would be peculiarly fitting. ' FOLLOW THE DOMINION'S" EXAMPLE.

If Lister wa.t s an Administrative Council or even a Parliament of her cwn or purely local legislation and administration the selt-governing Dominions furnish all the necessary precedents. Personailv 1 believe arrangements can be made in "a imita-.v Parliament and Government for the tiillPst protection of Ulster's special ,n----tei^s— the rullest recognition of her sentiment* and even prejudices. It would however, be fut.le as well as exasperating to Ireland to have the relations between the majority and the minority of her people settled in a Parliament where the majority are not represented. I l-,?ve therefore, suggested that the British' Pari l.amnt should m the first instance content themselves with determining the political relations between the tw? islandT aS uhen set up a constituent assembly, r«»ularly.elected and sitting in public, to 'determine all nitemal oueions. particularly the safeguards to b» given to .Lister. Friends of Ukter could trust the Impend Parliament not to enact a Constitution without such safeguardsfriends ot Ireland will hardly tolerate a continued rctusal by that section even to negotiate with the majority of their fellow-

AMERICA WOULD BE MOLUPTED I believe this general procedure would commend .itself to American opjrJon: but Americans would also have to be educated in the prec-se nature of the proposal I have sketched. They understand a repubuoand a federal relationship of separate States the-eio. But they have never considered in connection *ith Treiand the status of_ a self-governing Dominion, notwthstanomg the.:r knowledge of the Canadian s>-stem ; hence, when the Irish toid them mat the constitution of one of their btates would ao longer satUfy Irish pcli-

tical asprrat'ons and demanded self-deter-mination, there was nothing left but the sovereign independence of a republic. This caanrt be until a real League- of Nations has ended war. I have only one more word to say. If »j» Irish fetlVmsnt would not bt) the most helpful means to Anglo-American accord, then, indeed. 1 have been living in a dream aiui shall die m a nightmare.