IRELAND

Otago Witness, Issue 3513, 12 July 1921, Page 25

IRELAND

ADDRESS BY REV. HOWARD ELLIOTT. Tho announcement that the Rev. Howard Elliott was to speak in His Majesty’s Iheatre last week under the auspices of the Protestant Political Association aroused widespread interest, and although admission was by ticket only or by membership card in the P.P.A., a very large crowd gathered to wait for the opening of tho doorg at 7 p.m. The disappointment of larg'e numbers was inevitable, and there were many running round attempting- every entrance to tile theatre even after the building, including the stage, was crowded to its utmost capacity in every part. The Mayor. Mr J. S. Douglas, presided, and the Orange Orchestra, under Mr Clarkson, prefaced the proceedings with several selections and then with the National Anthem. Mr S. G. Griffith, as president of the Otago Division of tho Protestant Political Association, spoke of tho splendid reception the P.P.A. had met with throughout Otago Central, where Mr Elliott and he had lately been touring, and said that strong branches were now beiiin- established in the various centres. The work had not been done without opposition, because the devil W’as not dead. _ The honour of being president of the division had increased to such an extent that he did not know 7 how he was going- to bear it without some assistance. The numbers had increased till the P.P.A. was the largest political organisation of any kind whatsoever in Otago. That was the position they deserved to hold, because the Protestants formed much the largest and most fail-minded section of the community 7. The subject of Mr Elliott’s address was comprised under two headings—“ The Empire of Britain or the Dominance of Rome," and "1 he Truth About Sinn Fein.” He began by congratulating- the meeting on being presided over by the Mayor, because he believed there was no section of the community that deserved better of the mayoral and civic authorities than the section represented by the Protestant Political Association. —(Applause.) He referred to the services rendered to the association by Air Griffith, and to the splendid ability he had displayed in the discharge of his duties as president in Dunedin. The Irish question, lie said, was being forced before tho whole world by a campaign and propaganda as vigorous a.s it was unscrupulous. In Ireland there was not only civil war, but- there was a campaign of murder, as cold-blooded and brutal, as callous and cruel as anything recorded in history. If there was any sense of right and justice that demanded such methods as were being employed in Ireland to-day, then the world had come to a terrible pass. This campaign of violence was being used also to prejudice our relations with all the other nations of tho earth. He went on to refer to Admiral Sims’s recent speech with reference to the use made by the Germans of the south of Ireland as a submarine base against Britain and America during the war. There was a. great deal of misunderstanding on the Home Rule question. Tho British Government was willing to give the Irish everything they were asking in the way of Home Rule, hut what they wanted was a separate republic so as to be an enemy at our back door, and that Britain and the Empire would never agree to. That was the Irish question in a nutshell. He Valera had said that- the object and end they had in view was Ireland for the Irish] and all Protestants out of it. To establish an enemy republic right against England in lhat way and allow Ireland to -become a hand of via media for all the intrigues that might be launched against Britain herself was an impossible demand. He claimed that Ireland had long been used by tho enemies of Britain as a base against her, as, for instance, by Philip at the time of the Spanish Armada, and by (he French in Napoleon's day. To grant the demands of the Sinn Fein would be to give the triumph to Rome and to defeat

Protestantism, for right down through the last 500 years at. the bottom of Irish agitation in all its forms had been the question of religion. It was a straight-out issue of the Pope and Rome against the King and Parliament in Britain. Why was it Ireland that agitated for a separate and independent existence, and not Scotland or Wales or New Zealand or Canada, or South Africa? The one thing that distinguish’d the Irish from the people of these other lands was their blind, superstitious devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. lie went on to elaborate the statement that there is no part of the Empire so highly favoured by the laws of the Empire as Ireland. The Irish had been given Home Rule. Their fanners owed Britain something like £49,000,000, which they declined to pay back. j hey hard nearly twice as many representatives as Scotland in the House of Commons, and in the matter of finance they had escaped with less than a fifth of their share of the Empire’s burdens. New Zealand farmers got Is 8d per lb for their butter, while the Irish farmers who refused to fight for the Empire or to send across their potatoes for the troops got 4s a pound. There was no restraint in Ireland in the matter of religion unless it was on Protestants. The fact was Ireland iiad no grievance or wrong from which she was suffering to-day. Yet all England’s concessions were lost, for still she got only abuse. The only section of the Empire that wanted to get out of it was the section under the domination of the Roman Catholic, Church. He proceeded to offer rapid proof that religion was at the bottom of the Irish question, and the mainspring of Jrish agitation to-day. lie quoted a manifesto of the Irish Sell-determination League, and said that England had a right to” Ireland because in 1174 Pope Adrian sold Ireland to Henry 11., though not one Irishman in 503,000 was aware of that. If Henry VIII Ltd not "kicked the Pope’s crowd’’ out of England there would have been no Irish question. Since then there had been six rebellions in Ireland, and he quoted authorities to show that nil of those had been j planned by popes and bishops and had received the material support of Rome and the papal benediction. The pity of it was that Protestants knew so little of their history and that so little of it was taught in our schools. The priests of Ireland had been teaching the boys and girls' of three generations there till a nation naturally kindhearted. volatile, sane, witty, pleasant, and companionable had become a nation of fanatics and bigots who thought that, the shedding of blood was a holy thing. Britain was the only Empire that had ever defied the Papacy and Rome bated her. Under tho Sinn Fein agitation there was nothing civil or political or industrial, but only the deep-seated age-long enmity of Rome to our Empire and our Throne. He appealed for { a. sum ot £250 from the auidonce as Dun- I edin’s share of a sum of £IOOO to be spent j in the publication of pamphlets in answer i io lies that were being circulated. We > would see the day when all the misrepre- ] sentations of Romo would be shattered and ] the bright, living truth of the justice and splendour of our Empire proclaimed to all the world. —(Applause.) The address, which lasted for nearly an hour and a-half, was listened to with tho closest attention and without interruption, save for frequent applause. A collection was taken up at the close .of ihe address, after which hearty thanks were accorded by acclamation to the Mayor, to Mr Elliott, and to the orchestra. The meeting closed .shortly after 10 o’clock with the National Anthem.