The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1914. THE IRISH NATIONAL VOLUNTEERS

New Zealand Tablet, 18 June 1914, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1914. THE IRISH NATIONAL VOLUNTEERS

jllpEsc, ERY . naturally, Mr. Ronar Law and his vuvf#£>® Unionist allies do not at all relish the idea ie National Volunteer movement in Ireland. ‘ln the course of a speech at f* Glasgow, says a cable in Tuesday’s papers, l Mr. honar Law said that the Nationalist Volunteers were in one sense far more dangerous to peace than the Ulster Volunteers, as they were less disciplined and not under a single leader whom they trusted or revered. The situation was fraught with all the elements of an explosion, which was possible at any moment, with appalling consequences.’ ‘The anxiety,’ according to another cable, ‘ has been increased by Mr. Redmond’s pointed recognition of the Nationalist Volunteers.’ For, as is well known, Mr. Redmond, with a scrupulous desire to avoid even the appearance of provocation or of a departure from peaceful and constitutional methods, had until recently discountenanced the volunteer proposal. Rut the great gun-running ‘ coup ’ the fatal blunder, as it will prove to be, of the Carsonites—precipitated matters. ‘Up to two months ago,’ says a cable dated June 10, ‘he (Mr. Redmond) felt that the movement was premature, but Sir E. Carson’s threats at the Curragh and occurrences in connection with gunrunning vitally altered the position. The Irish Party thereupon instructed its friends to support the Volunteers.’ •*

With or without the support of the Irish Party, the movement was bound to come: and, having come, nothing is more certain than that it has come to stay. It was bound to come, because it was the spontaneous, the obvious, and the absolutely logical answer to 'Ulster' threats and to Army disloyalty. Ireland, with magnificent patience and self-restraint, has fought and won the Home Rule battle on law-abiding and absolutely constitutional lines. Then, when the time has arrived for her to gather the fruits of victory, Sir Edward Carson and his minions brandish openly over her what Mr. Churchill has called the ' Bullies' Veto'—the appeal to violence and brute force—and those who are trained and paid to make such bullying impossible show that they are ready, in the interests of a political party, to betray their duty. Under the circumstances it was a natural impulse—the mere instinct of self-preservation ■ —that the Irish people should look to themselves for the protection and defence of the liberties they had so dearly won. The position was pithily put the other day by Sir Roger Casement at a great meeting in Tullamore to organise a corps of National Volunteers for King's County. Sir Roger said that ' they (the Irish people) were within sight of constitutional effect being given to their efforts,' and continued:

They Lad played the game constitutionally, and according to tlie rules drawn up by their enemies. They played the game loyally and faithfully, and were within night of winning; but now their enemies said they were not going to play it that way at all. There was an appeal to force. But two could appeal to force, and the first duty of the Irish Volunteers might be to protect and safeguard an Irish Parliament on the soil of Ireland.' Professor T. M. Kettle stresses the same point in these notable words: ' With infinite pain and labor we have won in this country a great part of the liberty taken from us by conquest. The Cromwellian settlement has been undone; the Irish people are back upon Irish land. We are on the eve of the passing of a measure that will re-create in Ireland an Irish Parliament. That being the situation, what happens? The challenge to force is thrown down to us by a Dublin lawyer (Carson) and we are told that he and his armed fragments in the North-east will prohibit the passage for Ireland of National Autonomy. When you are challenged upon the field of force, it is on that field you must reply.'

The arguments for the establishment of this citizen army of national defencenamely, the appeal to force and the unwillingness of the military to discharge their duty of maintaining law and order —are unanswerable. Who are they that can find fault with the promoters of the movement? Not the Army, whose Tory officers have so signally and disgracefully failed when called upon. Not the Liberal Government, which has allowed the Carsonites to drill and mobilize and import arms almost ad lib. And certainly not the Conservatives, who have applauded the ‘ Ulster ’ rebellion and have sworn to render the rebels both moral and material aid. For the existence of the National Volunteers, for what they may become, and for whatever part they may be destined to play, the Carsonites have themselves to thank, and must accept the whole responsibility. They have shown the way—and the Nationals have but followed the example that was set them. That the movement has a great future before it is already beyond question. It has spread, one may truly say, like wild-fire. At its head are Colonel Maurice Moore, who has seen service with the Connaught Rangers, and Captain White, son of the late Field-Marshal Sir George White, the hero of Ladysmith. Active politicians and those who call themselves no politicians, clergymen, dock laborers, colonels, farmers, solicitors, university professors and students, are all represented in its ranks. ‘On Sunday,’ says a London cable dated June 1, ‘ a procession a mile long, including a band of trained nurses in Red Cross uniform, accompanied the National Volunteers from Londonderry to Celtic Park, where a series of evolutions were performed with great alertness and precision.’ According to the Dublin Sunday Independent, the National Volunteers in Ulster now total 41,000, in Leinster 42,000, in Munster 27,000, and in Connaught 18,500. The enrolments, it is stated, are progressing at the rate of 5000 weekly. Two companies have been formed on Achill Island (off County Mayo), where the whole of the drill commands are carried out in Gaelic. The spirit of the movement has extended to America, where, according to a New York cable of recent date, the leading members of various Irish societies have met to form committees for the purpose of raising funds and supplying arms to the Nationals in Ireland. And if farther funds and assistance arc required, there will be a still wider response. *

Mr. Bonar Law and those who, with him, have been so completely disconcerted by the new movement, profess to see in it ' a situation fraught with all the elements of an explosion. It may be so. We venture to think, however, that, on the contrary, the movement will afford the surest guarantee of peace. In the first place, it will greatly' check, if it will not entirely put an end to, the elaborate press 'boom' of the 'Ulster' cinema army and its manoeuvres. By the side of the National movement, the 'mobilisations' and 'preparations ' of ' Ulster ' will cease to bo impressive, and will

cease to obtain for the participants that notoriety which has hitherto been their principal asset. In the second place, it must be remembered that the purpose of the new movement is solely and wholly defensive. In this connection it may bo pointed out that the trite old Roman motto—' If you wish for peace bo ready for war —still holds. Human nature—and especially Orange human nature— what it is, bloodshed is much more likely to eventuate where one section of the people is armed and prepared, and the other section is unarmed and unprepared. As Professor Kettle has finely said regarding the National movement: 'The impulse behind the new departure is not that of the swashbuckler or the fire-eater. Ancient Pistol has no share in it. In no country is the red barbarism of war as a solvent of differences more fully recognised than hi Ireland. . . . She never oppressed or sought to destroy another nation. What she proposes to herself now is not to browbeat, or dragoon, or diminish by violence the civil or religious liberty of any man, but simply to safeguard her own.' Animated by that spirit, it may be confidently hoped and expected that the new movement, which has been launched with such enthusiasm and at the same time with such restraint, will indeed become, as Mr. Redmond has expressed it, ' a valuable national asset.'