IRISH TERRORISM.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 12063, 27 May 1920, Page 7

IRISH TERRORISM.

CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT.^ ■ London, March 29 | The Morning Host to-day, in an editorial, bitterly attacks the Government for its mishandling of the Irish situation. It says the British Government must either grant Ireland complete independence or conquer Ireland. ~ “We are justified in assuming that it does not intend to abandon the country to rebels,” it says; “then it must deal with them, and the longer it delays the more blood will be shed. Either Viscount French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, has sufficient military forces io suppress tha Sinn Fein nnder 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 ho fettered by orders from 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 Majesty’s 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 legislation. Direct action in the form of a strike is rightly deprecated, bat in Ireland direct action in the form of asuasination seems to be regarded, not even as an offence, but merely as a playful habit of enthusiasts.

The Manchester Guardian says:— “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 system of private vengeance which has taken root is spreading. For this complete breakdown of the safeguards of civilised society, the Sinn Feiu cannot avoid its share of responsibility. It is incredible that its responsible leaders should approve acts of murder by gangs. It is time for the party which says it rules the nation, to clean itself of this dreadful stain.’’

The Daily Mail, the Daliy Express and the Times all refer to “the reign of terror*’ in Ireland and point out how the murder of Alan Bell, resident magistrate of Dublin, shows 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 editorial 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, ail of which lay stress on the serious situation and makes suggestions for changes in the Irisn Bill, which is to come np before Parliament to-day and which the writers believe will help in a settlement of the controversy. “Both i.u 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 ox 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 Hoys :

“One indispensable amendment is that the area of the northern Parlia meut 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 Ireland more definite authority and representation on it to persons other than pledged extremists. Another of the newspaper’s suggestions is that the financial powers withheld by the recent Bill should bo conferred on the Council of Ireland,

Lord Dumaven, who says a majority of the people in Ireland are so convinced of the fraudulent nature or the Bill as to consider its examination a mare waste of time, also favours the inclusion of the whole of Ulster in one legislature, while Sir Horace Plunkett, who says “the state cf Ireland is the worst in living memor3’, “ declares that the army of occupation cannot he removed because the only Government In Ireland is the military authority, “the incompetence of which is being shown daily with tragic proof, ’’