IRELAND'S PROBLEMS

NZ Truth, Issue 578, 15 July 1916, Page 6

IRELAND'S PROBLEMS

HAS REVOLUTION HELPED HOME RULE?

THE CASE FOR SELF-GOVERNMENT

' The Exclusion or Inclusion of Ulster

<By "Bara Fostus.')

(CONCLUDED)

I am here chiefly concerned with force, Revolution, if you will. Now, for centuries force has been the moral written over Irish history. The Land Acts of 1903 were consequent upon the do Frayne evictions which appalled the civilised world. But our anti-Home Rulers never weary of affirming that the Sinn Fein Republican Brotherhood, Gaelic Leagues,* Fenianism, Ancient Order of Hibernians, etc., are responsible for modern outrages m Ireland. The statement is false and reveals an ignorance of historical facts. Suppress every political organisation m Ireland to-day and upon the smouldering ashes of to- morrow there would arise myriad kindred orders. Irishmen do not forget '98; from Grattan's bloodless revolution, with all its amazing vices, the Tithes Wars; Emancipation, Education and Land Acts down to the latest rebellion. Agrarian methods alone have have wrung from English statesmen a

MEAGRE SEMBLANCE OF REDRESS for Ireland. But, and here lies the crux of the hMeousnesa of the whole problem. It Is only from England that opposition against Home Rule emanates. Scotland by an overwhelming majority, Wales by unanimity of representation, are m favor of Home Rule. Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, all explicitly support tho demand of Ireland. In this matter England stands against the demand of the entire Empire. The primordal crux overlooked by antiHome Rulers is this, "that whereas the Act of Union (Scotland) embodied V7»iat was — not m name only but' m reality— a treaty of contract freely made between two independent States, tho union with Ireland lacked all the elements of free consent between independent contracting parties which lies at the basis of every genuine contract. It was, m short, an agreement which, could it have been referred to a court of law, such as now obtains, must have Leon at once dissolved as a contract hopelessly tainted with fraud and corruption. Again, let it never be forgotten by anti-Home Rulers that Scottish aliuirs remained afterwards, even more no-- than bufore, under the contol of t'rotlar.d. Ireland since, as before Iho 'Union, has been governed m the main m accordance with English notions, applied i" many cases or misapplied M' English officials. Neither Si-.ou ' or English history can, ex- <•«■;;£ by the. misreading' of past events, be forced into teaching the lesson that Ihu iiiilnre of the policy m Ireland is duo to the peculiarities of. lrish char;u l;.r. Take the latest anomaly, the I'liiuu of South Africa. It Is here noticeable that government exists, vested with very considerable powers for local affairs. The Union with Irekind abolished tho entire local legislature and brought Irish affairs under tho control of an assembly which had

NEITHER TIME NOR TEMPER to consider them on their merits. In so far as it enacted separate beneficial treatment for Ireland, the Act of Union has been a dead letter. Legislation when directed to industrial questions 'has been framed solely m the interests of Great Britain. Ireland has had separate treatment only In the form of repressive enactments. In short, Ireland's position under the boasted Union is that of a conquered country held down by force of arms. In plain language, the Unions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, ar© realities; the Union between Great Britain and Ireland, merely a specious name.- "But," thunders our arm-chair, anti-Home Rule critic, "self- government for Ireland cannot be safely granted because there is a party In Ireland, and among Irish - Americans, which . desires separation." No one denies the existence of siich a party. The Question la, what are Its numbers and Influence? There or© uudoubtedly many men „. m England, (there are probably some m parliament), who would prefer a Republican Government. Yet they do not render the Monarchical systems insecure, becauso the citizens enjoy all the reality ot freedom. Let it be Conceded that Separates exist. Does any person outside Bedlam ever believe that ouch a party, or even all the Irish forcea m tho world could destroy England's military and naval powers? Is it reasonable to imagine that a country, AGE-LONG OPPRESSED, granted self-government, would be bo Imbecile as to risk its new treodom or Its prosperity by going to war with England? The all-Important thing for Englishmen, nay, for all those opposing Home Rule, to remember, Ls that to-day Ireland, to use Meredith's apt phrase, is "England's broken arm." producing no more soldiers than are required to 'maintain England's army of occupation. The Idas' In military strength m thla way is a tact, present and permanent. Need one dwell upon tho religous aspect, the gaunt spectra which Protestants habitually conjnr* up, the fear of Catholic unfairness towards non-Catholic? Wolfe Tone, Emmet Smith O'Brien, John Mitch el, Isaac Butt, Howe, Fox and Parnell,

knew their Catholic countrymen too well to have any fear of that, and the record of local government confirms their confidence. "Furthermore, Mr. Lindsay Crawford, Past grandmaster of the Independent Orange Order, is an avowed Home Ruler; Sir T. W. Russell, who m 188S and 1893 did more than any ten men to defeat Home Rule, has been converted by succeeding years. Lord Dunraven, o one-time denouncer of the Nationalist movement, frankly declared for selfgovernment for Ireland, and "J'at," the oracle of the "Saturday Review," and Frank Hugh O'Donnell consistently support Home Rule. All the abovecited believe that it would LESSEN THE ECCLESIASTICAL POWER, f co greatly abhorred by Orangeism. The' on© thing, however, which our Orange friends will never realise is, that the great power of the priesthood m Ireland, m temporal matters, arises from a combination of circumstances for which the clergy cannot justly be blamed. It arises, first, from the t e M°H° n & the t0 a church, Whi j2L, Btm woarß crown of martyrdom, and whose position m the Ireland of to-day constitutes tb« one complete triumph of a race so long menaced with extermination. It arises, secondly, from the void left by the disappearance of the local aristocracy which governed Ireland forty years ago, when the friends and relatives of those who managed the "Castle" managed also every county and every parish. Again, the power of the priests is established by direct enactment of the bureaucracy and the dependence of the schoolmaster on the priest, so habitually exaggerated by Ulsterites, is largely due to the rules of the National Board, which debar the teacher from all political activity, thus imposing on him a civil servant's disabilities without giving him any security of tenure. The claim of teachers for enlarged rights has been supported, not merely by politicians, but by ecclesiastics, notably the Bishop of Raphoe, Prominent among the avowed and stalwart workers for that conception of government which would establish m power are men like Mr. Redmond. Mr. Dillon, and others, who have again and again contended against an undue exercise of ecclestl- j cal .power. Thus it is that whenever i the canons of logic and argument have been resorted to they Inevitably failed to secure redress, while lawless methods were productive of beneficial legislation, proving that Home Rule has been materially HELPED BY REBELLION AND BLOODSHED. ■ But if. as anti-Home Rulers avow, Home Rule will be a crime against Ulster, that any conciliation granted with the intention of softening the tone and temperament of th« Irish j people must prove disastrous m the extreme, by what nn">» will they call the eighteenth century Ulster "law- < lessness" which obtained for the then ! Ulsterites, The Tenants' Rights Act? If Home Rulo is a crime promising "bitter fruits," under what label shall we establish the Tenants' Rights Bill? It should be obvious that great social changes during the past half century have taken place In Ireland. Th« present writer has witnessed the change of landlordism to occupier, the transference of governmental powers from a caste and an effete bureaucracy to the masses. Both Instances imply more re-births. Both are, as yet, only half born. But it la obvious that if Ireland is to have self-government, birth must go on. It cannot for eternity hang In labor between two worlds proclaiming death and deliverance. We live In an age of MUCH VAUNTED HUMANITARIANISM, but our action gives the lie direct to our claims. Beyond the seaa far away lies the haven of our Irish heart's desire. Home Rule would gild the evenings of our lives and cure the memory of many earlier woes.