Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1920. IRELAND.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15273, 22 July 1920, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1920. IRELAND.

Tlie perplexities of the Irish problems seem to increase day by day, and events in that troubled country are rapidly i hastening towards a state of civil war. I The problems relate .to the present as fAvell as to the future. The most pressing question to be answered is not who will be the future ruler but who is the present ruler in. Ireland. Sipn Fein claims to be a government in existence and operation. The British Government has a similar claim. Surely it should be possible for the -Government of the Empire — the heads of all tho self-gov-(erning dominions together — to determine ; who is to have jurisdiction in that kingdom. Such a state of affairs as is reported to-day cannot go on indefinitely or Ireland will be reduced to the state of desolation that BolshevUc terrorism has "brought to Russia. Hitherto it appears to have been the privilege of one group of Irish citizens to shoot soldiers and officers of the peace at sight, to burn barracks, and perform other acts which elsewhere would be highly criminal. Some persons suspected of these crimes are arrested by the Government and detained until they go on hunger strike, when they are released. There is no. possibility of convicting and punishing, a person caught red-handed for murder because jurymen are » terrorised ' and. assizes cannot be held. Other tribunals unknown, to British law sometimes arrest offenders against their group, try them at once and execute them before they have a chance to get hungry. Whilst the revolutionary group has had ample license for some time past, soldiers and constables, exercising the utmost forbearance and acting under orders of authorities anxious to placatfe rather than. to provoke havo frequently not returned the.firo of their assailants. Numerous constables and, soldiers have been killed and hundreds of barracks, police stations and court houses throughout the country been burned down. Cattle have been driven from tho farms of people suspected of. any loyalist sympathy, many of whom have beeu blockaded in their homes for months because of the boycott ' imposed against them. There is no security for life or property anywhere in the country. The marvel is' that move incidents such as that reported to-day from, Tuuni have

not occurred, Ii; speaks volnnies for the discipline of the British forces, *he forbearance and courage of the Irish Constabulary that after cruel, treacherous and cold-blooded murders of their comrades the v, have not. broken bounds and done as" they did in Tuam—endeavored to give tlie Sinn Feinei's a little retaliation, a taste of their own, medicine. Clearly the present drift sannofc go on without an open conflict andl bloodv civil war at some time or another. "No nation," writes Mr Wnw ston, Churchill, the Secretary for War, "ever established its title _ deeds by a campaign of assassination. Great Britain, having come grimly through the slaughter of Armageddon, is certainly not going to be scared by tha squalid scenes of sporadic warfare enact-, ed across the channel. The British may be alienated ; they may be irritated ; eventually they may be infuriated—but they certainly are ; not B°™& to be terrorised by such actions. We? are told." he adds, "that the present? Home, Rule Bill is not sufficiently extensive in its scope. If that is all the complaint, the remedy is easy. Let anyreputable body of Irishmen, backed by a strong element among- their fellowcountrymen, come forward and say : 'If the Bill is broadened in these respects, we will help you to put down the murders and thereafter assume the responsibility of governing the country-?. Parliament would then be forced to «neet' them at once in most earnest consultation, and no one believes that mirfrtcdifficulties would be permitted- to.'obstruct" a practical settlement. There are, however, two things, and only two, that Great Britain can never grant for any Irish appeal, either violent or conciliatory. We can never concede tho setting up of an independent republic/ nor can we compel Ulster, by force of arms, to participate in the Dublin Parliament. On both these issues theBritish nation must stand and fight over ten years, over twenty years, over a hundred years. Time can make no difference to the British resolve; Americans went through the agony of civil ■war, destroying a million lives to preserve the vital integrity of the country. British patriotism is no less vigilant and resolute than .theirs: 'The power of Irish nationalism to inflict^ a mortal injury upon the British Empire has passed * definitely away. Irishmen must reab'se that along the path of violence thev will find nothing but in-,-creasing resistance bv a superior force, but that another path is at all times open, bv which they may constitutionally and speedily obtain virtual selfgovernment. On one hand there is nothing but barbed wire and walls that can not be scaled. On the other is an open door. - Real reconciliation with the Irish, and a final settlement of the age-long series of misunderstandings would be art advantage .Jor which Britain is ready to make extreme exertions. It rests with the Irishmen of t'LVB present hour to set in motion sttch ; a beneficent train of events.-"