A BISHOP ON IRELAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11163, 20 March 1922, Page 5

A BISHOP ON IRELAND

MAYOR’S RESENTMENT

AUCKLAND SPEECH “DELIBERATELY DISLOYAL.”

“INSULT TO BRITISH MANHOOD.”

PE2, PRESS ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, March 18. In a speech at St. Patrick’s concert on Friday evening, Dr. Liston, coadjutor Homan Catholic Bishop, said his parents ■were driven from the _ country in which they were .born, and iu which they would have been content to live, because their foreign masters did' not want Irish men and women peopling their own land, but wished to use it as a cattle .ranch for the snobs of tho Empire. He was a native of Neiv Zealand, and loved his country. They could not say that Ireland had got all she asked for, ami all that her sons had died for, but she had got tho first instalment of her freedom and was determined to have the whole of it. (Applause.) The omnipotent hand of God had made Ireland a nation, and while grass grew and water flowed 1 there would be many to fight, and even die, in order that God’s desires might be realised. It seemed to him providential that the man who had faced the difficulties and carried them so far was there to. see that the rulers of Ireland were not duped by England. Ho referred to the men and women, who, in the glorious Easter of 1916, were .proud to die for their country, as murdered bv foreign troops. They could not forget these men and women, but, in order that their dream about Ireland might <jpome true, they could forgive. MAYOR’S COMMENTS. “AVOWEDLY AND OPENLY DISLOYAL.”

The Mayor (Mr Gunson) publishes the following: The speech of Bishop Liston calls for immediate action on my part. As Mayor, on behalf of our citizenship, I wrote to the Bishop on Saturday morning asking him to advise me whether he Kadi been correctly reported, though my long experience of the Press in Auckland’ gives me no cause to douibt the accuracy of the report. The epeeoli as reported, is avowedly and openly disloyal to King and country, and is an affront to our citizenship. It is seditious, and designedly calculated to cause the disintegration of all that Britishers hold dear. It is a studied insult/ to the citizenship of the Empire, to whioh New Zealand is proud to belong, a repudiation of England, a sneering reference to her as a “a foreign nation,” and an entire dissociation with disdain of the speaker and those for whom he said he sipoke. as “a right” from aill that pertains to the Empire. It is a challenge to all loyal citizens to raise thei ryoices in protest. Reference to British soldiers as foreign murderers is especially offensive and ■ unwarrantable.

“ACT O.F DISLOYALTY.” I take this first public opportunity, of saying with aIL the emphasis! possible that the oitizens of Auckland will not tolerate for one minute such a studied and deliberate act of disloyalty and of insult to British manhood and womanhood, and in making this intimation I wish to say that such seditious and ruinous speech will not be allowed ill the Auckland Town Hall or in any place which fhe aity administration controls or licenses. Tho Bishop and others holding views such as reported are not fit to longer enjoy the privileges and rights of our British Commonwealth and the protection of the British flag. This speech will be brought under the notice of the Attorney-General, and St will be my duty to adyise the City Council 1 to take other appropriate action. In the meantime, on behalf of the citizens of Auckland, I enter an emphatic protest in the foregoing terms.