MANIFESTO TO THE IRISH PEOPLE

New Zealand Tablet, 11 April 1912, Page 43

MANIFESTO TO THE IRISH PEOPLE

The National Trustees, Most Rev. Dr. O’Donnell, /and Messrs.. J. E. Redmond, M.P., and John Fitzgerald, M.P., have issued the following manifesto to tlie Irish people: . Fellow-countrymen,—Once again the duty devolves upon us of making an annual appeal to you for - subscriptions in aid of the Home Rule Fund; and 'never before have we felt greater confidence' that your response will be worthy of our race and nation, and of the great cause of national self-government, upon which our hopes are set, and which is now ‘at last within measurable distance of final and satisfying vict0ry....,.4 For more than 33 years, since the inauguration of the present Irish movement, you have maintained an independent, unpurchasable, arid incorruptible Irish representation in the British House of Commons in order that your Constitutional demand for land and learning and liberty should be enforced. None of the funds now called' for will be needed for the maintenance expenses of the members :of the Irish Party attending the House of Commons. ' Those 1 expenses are now provided out of public funds. The sums, however, hitherto provided from the National Funds for this purpose bore only a small proportion to the general expenses of the movement, 1 and this year the expenses of carrying on effectively the National movement ,in Ireland and Great Britain will be enormously increased. Already, wo are informed, the Unionist Party in Ulster have raised £50,000, which they propose to increase to £IOO,OOO shortly, for the sole purpose of carrying on the propaganda in . Great Britain. . A multitude of their paid agents are at present swarming over every constituency in; Great Britain, visiting the houses of individual electors and pouring poison into their ears. Tons of. literature, millions of leaflets are being distributed all over Great Britain, and a Press campaign has now been inaugurated against the Home Rule movement arid the character of the people of Ireland unparalleled for mendacity and sheer ruffianism since the days :of the ParnelL Coinmission. ■ '• ; j ■, ,;I’’..", J"' , To carry on the Home Rule propaganda efficiently in Great Britain, and to hold the ground already won in the constituencies, it will be absolutely necessary to

spend a large sum.of money in counteracting this scandalous campaign. -. For this work an organisation has been founded, called the Irish Press Agency of Great Britain., It supplies speakers for English meetings, and exposes the infamous calumnies of Unionist leaflets and Unionist agents, and sends help in all by-elections; but to meet this immense activity of the enemy this organisation must be enormously developed. Unless we are, prepared to allow the vast expenditure of the Unionists of > Ulster to give them a disastrous advantage ■ over us in the English constituencies, we must spend on our organisation and propaganda in Great Britain a sum, bearing a reasonable proportion to that expended by our enemies. In Ireland itself a powerful and wealthy combination of factionists and avowed Unionists are carrying on a violent campaign and resorting to every conceivable device to wreck the National cause and dash the, cup of liberty once more from the lips of Ireland. To meet this campaign and maintain the unity of the country, it will be necessary to spend a considerable sum on the organisation of Ireland. In addition to this, there can be no doubt that the response made by the?. Nationalists of Ireland to the

present appeal, will ,be - taken as. a test of their - earnestness in the demand for Home Rule. ~ Swarms of cor-; respondents of the English Unionist Press,now infesting Ireland are sending... despatches. to their -; newspapers of' the most infamous character, contrasting the peace and, ,as they term ! it, the indifference of the Southern provinces with the warlike ardor of Ulster against Home Rule, and arguing that because.the Nationalists in the South allow Unionist meetings to be held they are indifferent to the Nationalist cause, whereas the men of Ulster by their 'brutal attack on freedom of speech in Belfast have proved their earnestness and their loyalty. r . . ‘ > - ..." ' This is a line of argument which we can face without fear. But unquestionably if it can be said that the 'Nationalists of Ireland fail, to respond to the appeal of- their leaders to’ furnish them with sufficient funds to meet the Unionist campaign in Great Britain, an argument could be founded on that failure that the zeal for Home Rule was growing cold ' amongst the people of Ireland. We therefore appeal with confidence to the Nationalists of Ireland to make the Home Rule Fund of this year a record, and by doing so to put the leaders of the National movement in a position to fight on equal terms with the enemies of Irish liberty.