Correspondence.

Thames Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 10196, 19 January 1907, Page 4

Correspondence.

HOMIE! .RULE FOB, liRELIAIND,

(To tih© Editor.)

•Six 1,- —Mi* Devlin c«meisi to usi as the accredited envoy, of -tin© Irish National Party, and to> pla.ce clearly before us the. true position of affairs on. the Irish question. .1 ami) pleased to see so' mulch interest taken? in his reception, as it shiows clearly noi matter ho>wi far-away from hioane an Irishman may :b© he will neiver forget ihiisi country, and his. country's wrongs. The Rev- TL A l,-Williams is not taken very seriously by the people, of Thames, and righitly s», -asi he has always been noted for his; carping criticism on eveiy question, whether it be political, municipal, or otherwise. His fear of "Rlome 'rule" is .simply rot. It is the bogey that has been dragged iip by bigots for hundreds of years, but thank God! people airei not so narrowminded in thesis times and in this country to take notice of suah a. thing. Oil fchia .local eiommlittee I notice the names, of several citizens who are Protestants. This is as it should be, and shows clearly how rotten is the argument of "Home Rule ■ means Rome Rule." Ireland's greatest patriots "JhiUira Ween Protestants,- and; in the partly to-day this still holds true "Justice," in his; reply to Rev. T. A. Williams, deals fully with the.conditions prevailing' in Ireland's under the 'present government, and shows clearly t-ha benefits to be derived from: Home Riuile'. Indiai it is true has awoke to lier condition, and already we see the agitation for Home 'Rule is spreading there. The struggle for Irish inde-

j pendence has 'been going on now. for i many weary years, and! is the longest the world! has ever •seen- They talk of 'her loyalty, etc.; wihien one thinks of the persecution and injustice meted out to Irelandi is it any'wonder 1. But Ireland bias always !been. loyal where hlere sons wWet wanted! to defe.nd-^-a,ye, a,nd how many of 'them have lajid down their live® for Englandi. It would bei miore reasonable to expect thie Boers in South! Africal. or the i Hindoos of India to be eternally loyal ito • th:ei British thian to expect Ik-eland to willingly continue ai connection or ( enter into an alliance with England ( tha* in any way sinlblordiniated Irish material interests and national ideals to the policy of the British! Empire. The wrongs inflicted by thta British! on the Boers have been, brutal and bloody. Britain has shot, 'hanged, andl entiled Boer patriots during n, hundred years —dragooned and driven i omit on to the veldt successive Boer I Republics time 'afteir 1 time', and "con- , oeritrtiited 1" out of exisitonc© scores of thiousands of Boer women and ohildlfeni in . mili-taiy. icamp* During a: hundi-ed and fifty years; Britons naive bribed and feutohered thie natives of India; -out of their lands and liberty, and iblow their patriot® from the cannon's mouth. Blub bad/bitten 11, and black ;as is the tale of Woe toldl by BW 'and' Hindoo agains* BWtislhl rule it can in no' sense coniipare withi Engr land's rule in Ireland during sieven lnmdr'edi yearn An Irishrman whio* cam forget; and forgive his 1 country's wrongs -'is either a political, a raoiall, on* at religious i-<enegi'aidei—ftfobia'bly all three. Whem Home Rule is granted to Ireland the wbrld shall see. the greatest alliance possible for Efnglish statesmieri.'tb' accomplish!; an-alliance between thle British.people and the men of the gi-'eatest soldier race on the eai'thi. ;AJn alliancei which will end all this bitterness and strife upon thi6 mloinerit of its consummation- —-. when Ireland has its own Parliament in. the Four 'Courts on College Green. —-*I am, etb.

ULSPEBiMIAIN!. Thlaniies, 18th January, -1907.

In "Justices letter in yesterday's* issue it; r'eadl "the time will oomei when hiei". sons;, whoi were driven fromi her shioresi tor "New Zealand, will come ; to her inidi." Iti should ha,ve read "New Ireland (America)."