CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15221, 20 May 1920, Page 3

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT.

VrZ? f?? N * March 29 - T »« Morning Post to-day, m an editorial, bitterly aE IT\L%^S^ tOK its mißhandli^ It says the British Government must either grant Ireland complete independence or reconquer Ireland. "We are justified in assuming that it does not intend to abandon th! country to rebels," it says ; "then it must deal with them, and the longer it delays the more blood will be shed. lather Viscount French, Lprd Lieutenant of Ireland, has sufficient military forces to suppress the Sinn Fein under martial law or he has not. As the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, stated recently, he is prepared to send reinforcements to Ireland, and the assumption is that Lord French can act effectively if he chooses, or is he fettered by orders trom the Government? In either case, Viscount French, having been charged with the duty of enforcing the law in Ireland, 'and having failed to ' discharge his duty, has no honorable [ alternative to resigning. "Upon .the British Government falls the responsibility for the present state of affairs in Ireland and His Maejsty'B subjects are daily paying with their lives the penalty for the inaction of the Government. Does the Government contend that it is actually unable to protect life and property in Ireland? If that is the contention there is only one answer. It must make way for another capable of fulfilling the primary offices of a Government. 'Will the Government maintain that an organised campaign of murder and outrage is a legitimate method of obtaining the desired legislation? Direct action in the form of a strike is rightly deprecated, but in Ireland direct action in tho form of assassinations seems to be regarded, not even as* an offence, but merely' as a , playful habit of enthusiasts. Tho Manchester Guardian. Bays:— "There is no need of minimising the dreadful reign of terror, into which Ireland has been delivered. Since the beginning of this year there have been at least thirty murders of Government servants. ; The moral of the murder of the Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Cork is that the appalling sjstem of private vengeance which haß taken root is spreading. For this complete breakdown of the safeguards of civilised society, the Sinn Fein can not avoid -its share of responsibility. It -is incredible that its responsible leaders should approve acts of murder by gangs. It is time for tho party which says it rules the nation, to clean itself of this dreadful sjbain." The Daily Mail, the Daily Express and the Times all refer to ° "the ' reign of terror"- in Ireland and p'oint out how the murder of Alan Bell, resident magistrate of Dublin, Bhows that the citizens are kept by fear of death from making the slightest move to prevent outrages, apprehend murderers or place a knowledge of the facts at the disposal of the police. The Times devotes a three-column editoria] to the Irish situation, besides printing long letters from the Earl of Dunraven, president of the Irish Reform Association, and Sir Horace Plunkett, chairman of the Dublin Convention, all of which lay stress on the serious situation and makes suggestions for changes in the Irish Bill, which is to come up before Parliament to-day and- which the writers believe will help in a settlement of the Controversy. "Both in respect to the circumstances and the consequences which it may entail, the occasion is grave beyond measure," says the Times. "We can remember no emergency in domestic politics that- has surpassed or even equalled in significance the decision with which the House of Commons is now confronted." The Times then points out that it has held that "while the Irish problem is essentially one of British concern, in which foreigners have no title to interfere, unrest in Ireland affects to a disadvantage many aspects of home and foreign policy." Reviewing the efforts the London Times has ■ made to secure a settlement , of the trouble, the writer considers the defects in the Bill remedial and says: "One indispensable amendment is that the area of the northern Parliament should embrace the- whole of the nine counties of Ulster." Largely upon this question, it says, rests the ultimate stability of the new Irish constitution and the hope of evolving peace from the discord. The newspaper also advocates giving the Joint Council of Iretartd more definite authority and representation on it to persons , other than pledged extremists. Another of the newspaper's suggestions is that the financial powerß withheld by the recent Bill should be conferred on the Council of Ireland. , , Lord Dunraven, who says a majority of the people in Ireland are so convinced of the fraudulent nature of the Bill as to consider its examination a mere waste of time, also favors the inclusion of the whole of Ulster in one legislature, while Sir Horace Plunkett, who says "the state of Ireland is the worst in living memory," declares that the army of occupation can not be removed because the only Government in Ireland is the military authority, "the incompetence of which is being 'shown daily with tragio proof,".