JOHN DILLON IN AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 2, 3 May 1889, Page 29

JOHN DILLON IN AUSTRALIA.

(Sydney Freeman's Journal, April 20.) In our last isßue we gave a necessarily brief raporc of the arrival and reception of Mr. John Dillon, M.P., at A lelaide, on Tauraday, the 11th in?t. Sir Thorn is Grattan Esmmla an! Mr. John Diasy reached Australia several weeks before tha hero of the Plan of Campaign, but in order that hi might hivjthe honour of opening the mission on which the three members of the Irish Parliamentary Party were despatched to the colonies b/ their chief, the two juniors refrained from making any public appearance till Mr. Dillon's arrival. Mr. Dillon came out to Australia in tha R.M.S. Orient, on which steamship also came, singularly enough, the fiarl of Kin tore, the new Goveruor of South Australia, aad the Irish patriot and tbe Tory aristocrat landed the same day at Alelaide. Adelaide has never enjiyed the reputation of being particularly strong oa H >an Bule, bat it certainly came out ia fin < style ia its w>vcoaai to Joba Dillon, for the local press assures us that his reception quite toot tbe shine, as a demonstration, out of that of which the new Governor was the object.

U-reat preparations had b^ea mide to fitly weloma Mr. Dillon, and care was take a that the recap, ion should not clash with that accorded to the Earl of Ktncore. By an eirly train Sir Thomas Ksmonde, M.P., and Mr. J. Peisy, M.P., wqo reach?! Adelaide from Melbourne early in the week, went djwn to Lirgs Bay wita Mr. P. Giynn, M.P., of the South Austnlian House, and president of the South Australian branch of the Irish National League; Mr. W. Dixon, vice-president ; Messrs. MDjnali an i Boss (vlelb>urae delegates) and Mr. P. Whalan, secratary of 'he recaption ommittee. Mr. Dilloa had made no preparitions for landing in Adelaide, and was busily occupied in packing up. Tbe Melbourne ddlegvtes were empowered to ask him to opeu his campaign in South Australia, aad this Mr. Dillon at onca consented to do. By 11 am. the steamer Adelaide, chartered by the reception cDnimittee, cioae alongside tba ocean liner and steamed round her several times. Sac was crow lei with visitors, wbo broke fj/th into lusty cheers as soo ■ &) they reached the Oriant, and their heiny enthusiasm was rodjuolji when the famous Home Ruler appeared on deck an I bowed his acknowledgements, whilst a powerful baad on bo»rd played sach s iirin;? national airs as " The Wearing of the Green " aud •' God a ive Ireland." The Orient was soon crowded by the welcoming party, many of whom were members of Parliament aad members of the Catholic clergy. About 2 o'clock the steamer Adelaide started for tbe port, the passengers on board the Orient assembling all along her decks and loudly cheering the delegates aB they bjre away. At Port Ad -laide a bugo crowd lined the steamer's wharf, and cheered again aad again as they caught s gbc of Mr. Dilloa and his om rales. No sooner had the party stepped aiborj, whore carpstin.j was laid dnwa to the carriages which were in waiting, thau the Mayor of P-»rt Aielule and the Mayor of the Semaphore welcjm3d the delegites ia a iiW kin I words, which were suitably ncknowle Iged by Mr. Dillon ia a brilliant little speech, interrupt I by euttumas ie cbcir.-.

Mr. Dillon taid : I have cjmj here su tie represeutativi of the Irish party to appeal for our ciu&e to the people of A'lstnlii, and I ome with the most pertect confidence tli-it wbji you your aitentioj to that causi you avill c nneid ) with tn ) whea I say that it i* a just and honourable one (cheers) au 1 canioE fa'l tj exerc sj its influence over that grea: Empire to whica you belong an I to which you ar-s contented to bjloug ( h.-er^) All wa ask is thtt wo in lrelaai' should stand on the s i aj relau jn tj the K'npire us you do in Australia, aad I feel coafileat that thcjre h hirlLy a mm ia this great country, who, haviug experienced what it is t > hive the control of your own affairs «n i iha administration of yo it ow j laws, whether he be an Kuglisbmaa, a SjJtchmvi, a Welshman, or an Irishman, who would wish to deny to bis fellow-subj jets in Ireland a mode of government which means prosperity for her as opposed to that wnich his male the name of Lc .nd a bv-wjr 1 for poverty, dibtress, ana misery (loud cheers). We are willing and anxious to form a pare of the British Emoire, but wa never will consent to do so ou terms that arc disaonourable to a fro«f ro« miv (renewed cheering). We will, to the utmost cf our p>wer, oppose s rantrera mak'ng our laws aud admmistnng them, aid I bjuivethit if to-morrow the sauie eys em were attempted h re as we are obagjd to submit; to in Ireland you would tiad that the people here would not be ao lawaoiding, so peaceable, or so prospetoui as th.iy ttr** (chjers). You are welom ng to-Jav a Governor who cojoes to represent tbe Crown. You cau afford to do so, because the Ci-owii does not seek to interfere with your liberties or your rights (c v ieers) : and I question whether if he c une with a p jlicy to estabhsu here m A lelaide a dstle system tmeb as that which we have lo bear in Ireland yju would receive him so warmly (cheers) Toe loy»lty of Austraii us secure, because it is base iua liberty cheering). We want t) bask in liberty in Ireland, too ; and uo'il we have limrtv aid iqual righ's in Iceland I don't sje what right anyone has to expjet loyalty or respect for the law amoogit uj (coeers). I think it would bj d.tti^ult to witness a m re msgn fisent demonstration of the effects of our policy and tt aching — a policy which has been thrown vi our teeta as one of oppression and assassination, aad for the purpose of mowing hatred botween the people of England and Ireland — o to give .» more conclusive answer to this cuar^e ilia i t ) sei Li jre Hi'igiH i ai 1 Soo'ch cjlouiits coming to lute i to an Irish Jim spjikingoa bjtialf of his people (cheert,).

On arriving in Adelaide ths en hasiastn of the Irishmen and others o.eseut was such mat the/ Wdie with difficulty prevented from taking the horses out cf the can iage and dragging tbe patriot ihiough the sirtet themselves. As it »a«, ilr, Dillon wai gieeted with dtafeuiiig cheers as the carriages of ihe rtceptioii assemblage passed along. Mr. Dillon was yresentei with au aldresa beautifully illuminate I, the cl ising sentence of which re id as follows : — ' We Wi lcoine you as a man of Hereditary patnoiism, of an etrnestaess of couviacton and Btiengtb of honest character tb v hive wou the ruspeet ot eve i opo >p n-*niis, and a leader i f a m>V'ineit whose en I is tj obtain ioIreland as tbe precursor of true reforms, a system of self -governm j. t

that will satisfy Irish aspirations, strengthen Imperial unity and thus close the blotted pages of a too Bad history. 11 Mr. Dillon, who was received with prolonged cheering, said : It would be impossible for me to convey to you the feelings which are raised in my heart by the warmth of the reception with which I have been greeted today on this the first time in nay life that I have seen .Australian soil. We have been held up before tha world as murderers irfa the accomplices of murderers, accusel by great newspapers her; and in England of everjikind of ciime ; and it h«s bean sought to be established befoie the civilised world that the people of Ireland had sunk so low in the moral scale that they could find no man better to represent them in the House of Commons than a mm whosj hands were red with the murder of fieir fellow-countrymen. We have bad to face a storm of calumny and an atrocious conspiracy of inventions and lies such as, I venture to say, no bjdy of public men ia the history of civilisation has ever been assailed with (cheers), and we bave had to bear the hatred of those woo rale and administer the law in Ireland. Why has this been so? I maintain— and I hope to prove it to the people of Australia — (cheers) that our crime is of one character, and one alone, that we refused to staud by while we saw the suffering people oppressed and robbed (cheers) ; that we dared to face the Government and even the so-called laws — corruptly administered as they are in Ireland — rather than see the masses of the labouring people of our country robbed of the property which they had put upon the soil, as they had been robbed for generations past (cheers) ; that we raised in the path of a corrupt faction who plunder and mal-govern the people ot Ireland an organisation so powerful that they have been unable to put it down, and that for the first time in the sad and disastrous history of the people, to whom, nevertheless, I am proud to belong (great cheeiing), we taught the peasantry of Ireland that they did not need to recur to the bland. rbuss, or assassinations, or outrages to save themselves from cruelty, and oppression, and extermination (cheers) — because that is what eviction means in Ireland — but that we could furnish them with an open, legitimate and legal meats which would be allowed in any civilised and free country, by «vbicn they could defend their rights, their property, and their homes and their lives, and that we sought to turn them from the practice of outrage to the practice of open association, (loud cheers). For this we have been assailed ; for this we have been called murderers. We have appealed to the civilised public opinion of the world, as I to-day appeal to the civilised public opinion of Australia, and I think that after what has occurred recently in London we shall find our enemies less anxious and less ready than they have been to use the weapons of calumnies and lies (cheers). They had better, before they accuse us of crime again, remember the old saying of the Gospel, that a man " should take the beam out of bis own eye before he looks for the mote in that of bis brother " (hear, hear, ani laughter). The men who dislike it because we refuse to leave the peasantiy defenceless in the hands of their taskmasters, had bet er not accuse their political opponents of dishonesty in carrying on their work. I shall have another opportunity of speaking on iJlis Irish question, and I believe from what I have seen that I shall receive in Australia an limes t and fair hearing from all classes of the people (cheers and snouts of "You will," and "Never fear"). If I do I can have no doubt whatever of the result; I can have no doubt that the people who have thus experisnesd the results of fiee institutions, who have exercised the utmost extent of freedom which we demand and Bhall insist on getting in Ireland, who have found that freeJom consistent, with union in the British Empire will, when thjy once listen to our arguments and the statement of our case, sympathise with suffjrers from oppression and corruption, not seek to deny to their brother subjects in Ireland the rights which no man dare take away from themselves (loud cneers). I shall show you when the proper time arrives that ihe man who attempted to set up here in Australia such a Government as we aie compelled by force of arms to submit to in Ireland would turn the whole population of Australia into rebels to-morrow (hear, heai). I want to know what there is in the soil of Ireland, or what there is in the blood of an Irishman, that should make him lie down under a system of slavery that Australia has never submitted to. Would you allow your laws to be ma'ie for you in London 1 Wuuld you alluw Englishmen and Sco'chmen to be sent over here — people who never saw your colony before — not to administer the colony as your present Governor has come to administer it, according to the wishes ot the people of South Australia, but wituout tbe slightest leference to your own feelings and wishe- /(" No," and cheers.) I venture to say that the man who attempted such a thing would mejt with a very cold reception indeed. 1 refuse to believe that an intelligent people when they once agree to listen to our arguments, woulu acqui^gcj in imposing on ub in Ireland by a system which they would not themselves tolerate for one hour. I wish to take this opportunity to convey to you on behalf of my people our deepest thanks, both fur the great assistance you sent us iv 1879 and 188U, when £80,000 came from the

people of Australia to the suffering poor of liclaud.but also for tae help since sent us to cany on the political struggle on behalf <_f the Irish people (cheers) We can never forget what Australia did for them then ; but, although we shall alwajs remember that assistance wiik

the deepest gratituue, at the same time there was bitter humiliation

to all ol us who reprtsented the people of Ireland, that we, living in ft rich an 1 fertile country, should be driven to come hereto take your hard-aarned money to feed our people. Why was it so ? I say it wan the result of the pernicious .md base system which strips our people of the money they cam, and tben throws them on the cbarity of Australia an i other foreign countries, which supported them. Ever since then I have striven to secure with all my power that there shall never more be a f mine in Irelaad, that you bhall never again be called upon to ontiibute to the starving poor of that country (cheers). Mo , believe me, if you only understood the thing

thoioughly, your contributions went not to the starving poor, but . jAkthe Kndiordß of Irc'and (hear, heai). What happened was this: people were depnv d of alt the f >od they had, ttien you i^d all the charitable people iv the woild were invited to spud contributions to fetd the people of Ireland ; and. therefore, we shall teach our people that it i« a shame and a disgrace to their manhood

to ses any outside people come to their assistance so long as the soil of Ireland teems with food for their support. I trust I shall see most of you again on a near occasion, when I shall go more into detail oa this Irish question (ioad and continued cheers). Sir Thomas Esmonde and Mr. John Deasy were also made the recipients of flattering addresses.