DUFFY'S DECLARATION.

NZ Truth, Issue 121, 12 October 1907, Page 1

DUFFY'S DECLARATION.

THE STRENUOUS SINN FEINIANS.

Ireland, poor Ireland, the "disItressful country" whose sad, history has moved to tears some of the best and bravest of mankind, and has caused them to, perform prodigies of valor and to a'cbieye masterpieces of political tactics; is 'beginning, at last, to get tired of. the. perpetual, but fruitless, attempt to obtain from the English Parliament that political justice which, long . ago, should have been: admitted to be 'the. rip-lit of the Irish people. It is but little that the • people of Ireland ask—merely that they be nermitted to govern themselves. The inhabitants of that Hibernian land are a distinct people, .whose ways of looking • at things arc not those of the s. ■•English would-be conqueror, and these people ask, not that they be allowed to set up an island Government antagonistic to that ; of the English people, but that they be permitted to legislate for themselves upon all matters affecting, the welfare of the Irish people. It is legislative independence that the people of Ireland ask for, it is is true, but not separation. There is no more reason to expect hostility from an Irish 'Parliament than from a Canadian Parliament, an Australasian Parliament, or any other Parliament of the Empire.

It would be much more reasonable to expect trouble from the newlygranted legislature ol the Transvaal than from . any Parliament that might be set up m Dublin by the people of Ireland. The Boers of the Transvaal were, quite lately, m active rebellion against the might of England ; they, with arms m their j hands, faced the soldiery of ' Eng- ; land and foufeht fiercely for the maintenance of their independence. With such courage and capacity -did it-he Boers fight that there were not a few among the ejiemies of England upon the Continent of Europe indue- ; ed to believe that England's downfall had come at last, and that the little South African Republic would slay the great Power England, just as David of Holy writ .slew the odious giant. Yet it is to - these people, who taxed the might of England to the utmost, that EngJand has granted legislative independence, while it refuses it. to the patriotic people of Ireland, some of Whom fought for England, and helped to preserve her power during her hour of danger ! 1 ..

England, iii refusing selfrGovemment to Ireland, shows herself more unjust than Russia. We ■ hear much of Russia's unjust treatment of Poland, but the fact is that the people of the latter country desire,' and ask, not for legislative independence; but for absolute separation. 'lf they were willing to be content With a■Parliament, if they occupied a 1 position similar to that of' the Irish people, there is no good reason to believe that Russia would be unwilling to grant a Parliament." Russia has not interfered with the Parliament of Finland, except 'by the Ukase of November, 1905, Which fUkase was issued to democratise its Constitution. In Finland there is a Parliament based upon aclult suffrage elected every three years, m Which there is payment of members, and m which even women are allowed to sit. This Parliament, which acknowledges the supremacy of the Czar, does not touch questions of naval and military defeice or what ara called the "fundamental" laws of the Empire, but all matters exclusively affecting Finland are dealt with by the Finnish ParSiament, without any interference by the Russian Autocracy. 'What the Russian Autocrat and the Camarilla at his back did not deny the Finnish people the British Government, with the Plutocracy at its took, refuses to the Irish people.

Is it not -astonishing m view of the Jact that England refuses what is not refused either by Russia or Lv Austria— the ripht of self-government fey the members of a race that is not so numerous as the race eiving its name to the Empire--that the neople of Ireland despair of doing any good for themselves by taking arr- further notice of the British Parliament, and that they, there*ore, are m -Kxeat numbers,- -giving m (bheir adherence to the Sinn Fein S^nent. Sinn Fein (pronounced Shin Fane) means "Ourselves Only, i Sit expresses KM /d«krmiaa*ioa

of tKe Irisfi people to rely no more upon things English, but to "devote the whole of their own attention to the building up of the greatness of Ireland by 'the efforts of the people of Ireland. A cablegram published m i the daily papers recently is eloquent of the aims of the Sinn Feinians— if they may be so called. The cablegram reports certain remarks alleged to have been made to a representative of the , "Westminster Gazette" by Mr Geo. Gavan Duffy, a .son of the late Sir Charles Gavah Duffy, and what George said as to the aims of the Sinn Fein organisation was certain-! ly of a nature to commend itself to the unbiassed student of history, particularly of the history) of ..the Irish people.

• Sir .Charles Gavan Duffy was one of the most prominent men of the revolutionary Young Ireland movement. Unlike some of the . other leaders of the movement, he escaped severe punishment, and came to settle m Australia ; and, m this country, he soon achieved prominence, and the very highest political position m the gift of the people of Victoria. It is probably, however, because he was an advocate m his day of redressing Ireland's grievances by force, that the "Westminster Gazette" interviewer has sought to discover from Duffy's son whether the new movement, the Sinn Fein movement, is a movement of insurrection. Mr Duffy has,.however, made it perfectly clear .that it , is nothing of ibhe sort.

. There will be no violence, says Duffy, because violence is no longer "feasible"'; there" willbe organisation 1 of a kind of voluntary boycott of everything English, m order that, by relying upon themselves onlyV the Irish people may obtain that which they -have failed- to obtain from the English Parliament. There is to be elected a National Assembly of 300. members, which is to meet m Dublin and : constitute an Irish Parliament whose, decrees will "be voluntarily submitted to by the people of Ireland. This. National Assembly is to advise the ; various county „ councils,- to- organise a voluntary Protective policy, to found and control a National Stock Exchange, and to es- , tablish a National Consular ser- : vice. Mr George- Duffy expresses the opinion that Irishmen m Ireland and the United 'States will, subscribe. £50.000 a year for the purpose of providing the financial sinews of war to maintain the Sinn Fein Parliament and its policy.

Everybody w-ho wishes well to Ireland, everybody who values patriotism, and everybody who loves Democracy will hope that, at last, Ireland has found the solution of the problems that have waited so long for solution; The present state of things is of a character that no man— lrish, or whatever his nationality may be— can contemplate without sorrow. Ireland is bleeding to death, for, every year, the most stalwart of her population leave to seek a more hospitable asylum m another country; In ; 1841, Ireland had a population of 8,175,124 ; but every decade it has sunk, until at the census ol 1901 it was but 4,458,385. Siich a terrible loss of population as this no country can endure with impunity, and it is, therefore, not a matter of wonder that some of the patriots of Ireland are amon-g the most active opponents of emigration from their beautiful isle. May the Sinn Feinians, or Sinn Feiners, grow and prosper ! „.-,.