Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, APRIL 1st, 1920. IRELAND’S SAD PLIGHT.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 April 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, APRIL Ist, 1920. IRELAND’S SAD PLIGHT.

The very deplorable state of affairs in Ireland excites the deepest sympathy with all who are concerned in the effort to bring about a normal condition in the much distroughf country. The progress of events there as recorded ; n the daily cable news, excites the gravest fears for the immediate future of the_ country. Ireland has long been a problem, and day by day it grows more and more difficult to solve. The conditions now appear to he getting cpiite out of hand. Almost every day brings from Ireland news of some new outrage or assassination, and there is no sign that the feeling that is behind this campaign of murder and terrorism is losing heat or strength. On the contrary, the situation appears to be going

from bad to worse and there seems to be no means of relieving it. During January, Lord French made a statement to the Dublin “Journal” in which after stating that fighting was still proceeding in Ireland ho said: “It would seem that Ireland is condemned to play that role for eternity. Once again we shall subdue the agitators, and a period of tranquility will follow. Then once again trouble will break out.” Lord French, one may hope, is mistaken in Lis gloomy forecast, for j the change of opinion in Britain has j been so groat that in a period of “tranquility” does come, British statesmanship will probably succeed where it has hitherto failed. A period of tranquility can come, suggests an exchange, only through a moderation of Irish feeling and an inclination on the part of Irishmen to accept some compromise involving sacrifices by the two extreme wings of Irish opinion. In the meantime, unhappily, tranquility appears to be farther off than ever, and nobody

can find a sure remedy for the Irish malady of crime and intimidation. To many people there appears to be nothing for it is but the policy of using all the resources of the Government to suppress crime and restore order. To introduce in Ireland, they say, an v change of system, without ridding it first of this political and moral pestilence, would be to condemn the Irish people to utter disaster. The terrorists, they maintain cannot be metamorphosed into decent and law-abiding citizens by making political changes, of whatsoever extent. This is probably true enough, hut it is a consideration less likely to appeal to Irish feeling that the wise warning of Mr Justice O’Connor, reported in a cable message last week. There is neither beauty nor virtue, he said, in liberty that comes dripping with innocent blood. The only hope of improvement lies in the possibility that Irish opinion can ho enlisted in support of this view. “The Times” has been urging that a more wholesome* condition of affairs could be created if the Irish Executive were to modify its policy so as to make a sharp distinction between “political” offences on the one band, and on the other band felonies that a if- equally opposed to Divine and human law