SINN FEIN'S CHANCE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15157, 17 February 1922, Page 2

SINN FEIN'S CHANCE.

A LASTING PEACE.

ARE THE IRISH GOING TO PLAY THE GAME? By The Earl of Denbigh (Leader of the Catholic Laity in England). ' The “ settlement” of the Irish question has been received, on the whole, with considerable transports of joy in most quarters of the world, if we may judge from telegrams in the public Press, ifeo far as our home transports are concerned, they are probably greatly influenced by the feeling of intense relief from the state of tension recently existing and the dread of renewing hostilities in Ireland on a far worse scale than before. That deplorable event nobody would wish to see. If fighting again commenced, and resulted in a victory for the Government after an expenditure of life and money which we cannot addl'd, there would still be such a heritage of intensified hate embedded in the long memories of the Irish that we should be farther from the much-desired state of peace and contentment in Ireland than we have been for years past. There is, however, no denying the bitter feeling of resentment at compromising with opponents whose campaigning methods have been the subject of such severe condemnation by British Ministers; there is also the natural fear regarding the position of our national security.

PEACE WITH SAFETY.

The Government were in a position of great and admitted difficulty, largely through the faults of English administration and the alternate blowing of hot and cold that has been going on for years. Consequently, as it was worth going to great lengths of generosity in order to avoid hostilities, it is hard to see what else the Government could have done beyond fighting for as satisfactory a settlement as possible. If the signed agreement is confirmed by Dail Eireann and loyally and wholeheartedly carried out by the Irish them, selves it presents prospects of peace for their distracted country, combined with safety to ourselves, and the settlement of a problem which was doing more than the public is aware of to undermine the stability and continuance of the. whole British Empire.

UNFAIR PROPAGANDA. I pay little attention to the satisfaction with which this settlement is being received in foreign countries where, owing to the clever and wholly unsrupulous propaganda carried on by the Irish publicy department, the people have been wholly misled as to the recent events. I have just seen a copy of a well-got-up pamphlet in Spanish that had been handed to every member of the Cortes in Spain. Several pages of this purport to he a statement of the Irish case ■ —about as barefaced a collection of fanciful and exaggerated statements, combined with suppression of truth, as eould well be put together. Three-parts of this pamphlet are taken up with a so-called diary of murders and atrocities by Crown Forces, giving names, places and dates. Now I am whole-heartedly one of those who were convinced that the policy of official reprisals was a great mistake. I do not believe it did any good. It embittered many of the more moderate Irish, and this pamphlet alone shows what opportunity it gave to clever propagandists Why go back over 1,000 years grievances against England? Why deny us credit for our atteinpts to redeem the past by the legislation of the last 50 years ? It is not mentioned that when Mr. Birrell took over the Irish Office in 1906 both he and Mr. John Redmond admitted that Ireland had never been so peaceful and prosperous as she was then —hardly a condition one finds in a “tortured, robbed and cruelly-oppressed country.” The arming of Ulster set a had example, but no Irish grievance justified the rebellion of. Easter 1916, nor the deliberate policy of cowardly assassination which led to the hasty creation of a special police force. I refer to all this to show the kind of evidence on which foreign opinion has been manufactured, and which has gone so for in fanning Irish hatred in tine Dominions and America. Ido not want to harp on this string, hut it is as well to remember these facts when weighing the value of the world’s congratulations.

BURY THE PAST: LOOK AHEAD

We have now to consider as to the future, and let us, if we can, bury the past. Let Irish teachers cease, if possible, to feed their pupils on reminiscences of Queen Elizabeth, and Oliver Cromwell. Let Catholics try to forget the cruel and bitter religious persecutions and the disabilities under which they suffered until comparatively recent times. Let Orangemen realise that there is little or no sympathy in England with their one political cry of “To hell with the Pope,” or with their absurd fears regarding religious persecution at the hands of a Dublin Parliament. It is possible to make this settlement a success? Cannot Irishmen appreciate the fact that a great industrial population of some 40,000,000 cannot and will, not tolerate on its open and strategic flank the free existence of 4,500,000 people, unless it can be as. siu-ed of the latter’s friendly association and assistance in times of danger? Will the Irish never recognise that an island population so situated within 60 miles of our shores is a totally _ different proposition from a Dominion some 3,000 miles away?

PLAY THE GAME! Well, the possibility of making this settlement a success will entirely depend on the Irish themselves. First of all, is it possible to get any free expression of public opinion in Ireland? If it is not, are they a people fit for selfgovernment? If it is. then I feel confident that events will show that a large majority of the Irish are neither Bolshevists nor Socialists, that they are people opposed to the extremists who have terrorised them, and whose final defeat they would view with relief and pleasure. Are they going to play the game and work in friendship with us, or are the T.W.W., the transport workers and the gunmen to ho allowed to consolidate their position with the object of establishing their independent republic while working for revolution hero and the eventual overthrow of the British Empire? Tf this settlement is accepted hv Dail Eireann and its extremists are defeated in the next few clays we shall

probably learn much regarding the above problems in the near future. As Dr. Mahaffy, the late Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, used to say : “Ireland is a country where ‘the impossible,’ generally happens, and ‘the inevitable’ frequently fails to materialise.”

MUST GOVERN WITH A BIG G. I ani assured on the authority of both Unionists and Nationalists who know Ireland that if the best elements of Sinn Fein are able to form a Goverment they will “GOVERN”— with the largest of G’s. They know full well that the Irishman respects and obeys a Government that governs firmly and consistently, a fact that British politicians have too often ignored. I aril told they wish to win the respect of the world, and intend to show that, after all these years of demand for self-government, they are capable of carrying it out justly; that all the corner boys and farmers’ sous who have fought for Sinn Fein in the belief that victory will inean their acquiring their neighbour’s property (especially that of tlie loyalists in the south and west) for next to nothing will experience the surprise of their lives at the hands of a very heavy-fisted and efficient Sinn Fein police. Well, we shall see. If it comes about it will go far towards reconciling the North and removing the at present well-founded fears of Ulster as regards misgovernment and specially oppressive taxation by a Dublin parliament. It will tend ,in the near future to the unification of Ireland, for the continued division into two governments, I venture to say, is as unnatural as I am sure it will be found exasperatingly inconvenient.

THE ECONOMIC POSITION. Finally, let the Irish remember that theirs is an island without coal or minerals, possessing a population, for all its quick intelligence, not over-disposed in the south and west to steady, disciplined industrial work, besides being blessed from ancient times with an inherent capacity for quarrelling amongst themselves. Few Irish kings in the past, I believe, died in their beds! The Spanish people, in the document I have quoted, are gravely told that Ireland can support a population of 20,000,030! If this is so. which I take leave to doubt, they will have a rather “thin” time without a large importation of necessaries from England, with whom it will pay them well to keep on friendly terms. It is wonderful how you can reach the heads and hearts of a people through their pockets. Also, let the British give up .trying to judge the Irish mentality by their own standard. On Thursday evening last I attended that great service at the Westminster Catholic Cathedral, filled to the doors with an immense and devout congregation. I joined whole-heartedly in the T e Deum that was sung, but at the same time I could not help 'feeling that it was more of a fervent prayer of hope for the future than an actual thanksgiving for something already accomplished. A step forward has undoubtedly been made by the British people, and peace in the future will depend upon the Irish themselves.