The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1923. IRELAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11303, 31 August 1922, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1923. IRELAND

The major strength of the Irish Free State was seen at .the funeral of Michael Collins. The Free State showed its devotion to the dead leader and his cause with a devotion strong enough and deep enough to silence all possible doubt. It was a national display of grief beyond anything in all the centuries of Irish history that have passed since the day oil which the Irish nation mourned the chieftain who fell in the memorable battle of Clontarf. His comrades in arms and the people who had elected him their leader joined in the unprecedented display over his grave. The soldiery whose battle risks he had freely taken, and the men whose cause he had unflinchingly maintained have proclaimed to the world their fidelity to his and their ideal. Nothing was wanting to the great occasion. Everything possible was done to revere the memory of the man who had given his life for his country, keeping his plighted word, and facing,the hostility of a fanatical faction. In these splendid obsequies the Free State realised its freedom, in the fashion of all free peoples, beside the grave of Michael Collins, the people realised this fully, and formally proclaimed that realisation to a sympathetic and recognising world. It was, at the same time, a demonstration that the spirit of the great leader animates the people for whom he died, keeps them faithful to the cause he served so magnificently, and will nerve them to pursue the way in, which he led them, till their nation justifies the place it has won among the units of the Empire which their sons did so much to build up. Before his death, Michael Collins had called the people of the Free State to take up arms against the rebels, and they had responded in eager crowds, besieging the reoruiting offices in thousands. Suoh a response has seldom been made to such a call in any country. That great fact, together with the immense and impressive display at the dead leader’s funeral, is a measure of the whole-hearted, popular acceptance of the Irish Free State.

From thi9 session interdict. Every fowl of tyrant wing, Save the eagle feathered King, Keep the obsequies, so strict. The occasion was apt for quotation from the great dirge. What we have quoted fits. The rulers, leaders, and all representative men of the Free State were present. The military and civil chiefs of the State were in command of the obsequies. No outside element was present to exercise or represent any interfering authority. At the same time, the King—represented by proxy—of tho Empire, in which the Free State is a partner, vyao present at the obsequies. As was also his Minister, emphasising the fact that the right of the King to be present is fully recognised and established within the limits recognised by the Constitution. It is the first time His Majesty has taken part as constitutional Sovereign in a function entirely under the control of the Irish Government of the Irish Free State, supported by tho vast majority of the Irish people. The fact has a twofold significance of great importance. First, it signifies the official recognition of tho Free State as a unit of the King’s Empire. In tho second place, it means that the bitterness of all the centuries of trouble is buried in the grave of the man who, maintaining the new partnership of reconciliation, adventured ar.d gave up his life for hit) country. Truly can it bo said thafc the

solemn obsequies of the Irish leader are a great historic event. Every friend of freedom who is also a friend of Ireland will hope that the historic event will be a landmark of honour and profit to the British Empire for all time. Rebels are raising the voice of disparagement as might have been expected from their fanaticism. They are also keeping up the fight, beaten and shattered as they are Their cause has not a vestige of right, or justice, or grievance in its support. It is hopelessly beaten in the field, as it is in a hopeless minority at the poll of the nation. The only possible results of their fighting are useless destruction of life and property, public and private. According to military ethics, the prolongation of a struggle which has reached such a pass stains with murder those who prolong it, with its loss of life. And, morally, what else is such slaughter when the fighting is not only hopeless, hut illegal and without grievance for redress that cannot be redressed by peaceful method of recognised law ? If this great pageant of what is practically a whole people does not bring realisation of this great truth to the minds of these fanatical rebels against legal and rightful authority, it will he strange indeed. If the strange thing happens, the pageant proves that the triumph of right is but a small question of time and patience.