The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1915. IRELAND AND THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 9 September 1915, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1915. IRELAND AND THE WAR

T was highly gratifying to the Irish people t of the Dominion, and at the same time eminently fitting and proper, that our New , Zealand Parliament should have taken occasion to protest against the nature of the cable news regarding Ireland and the Irish which is considered good enough ~ . for our New Zealand papers. We give some specimens of the sort of thing that has been inflicted upon us within a recent period. In our dailies of August 17 there appeared the following, dated London: Voluntary helpers are collecting;; today the registration forms in London, which has been subdivided into hundreds of enumeration districts. Women have proved skilful enumerators. Many Irishmen, anxious to avoid registration, quitted the Clyde ports amid demonstrative taunts and jeers. Some of the intending passengers were hustled and returned by trains.’ On the following day we were favored with this further portentous item : The crowds who demonstrated against the Irishmen leaving Scotland in order to avoid registration shouted “Cowards!” and expressed a hope that the submarines would sink them all. When the men return they will be dealt with by the registration authorities.’ The very next day we had a further dose of the same sort of stuff in the shape of a piece of special information from an alleged ‘French doctor : ‘A French doctor, after internment in Germany states -that . English-speaking German priests endeavoured on behalf of the military to . sow disloyalty among 2000 Irish prisoners at LimburgThen a proclamation was circulated urging them to fight as a German Irish brigade under the Irish flag for Ireland’s independence. Only three men succumbed to this appeal, and they had to be removed to Berlin

after being attacked by their comrades. Later on they ■ ©turned as missionaries " with a glowing ; account of the German treatment, and when the doctor left 15 others had enlisted.’ In some few instances the effect of these cables was aggravated by thoughtless or stupid or malevolent headings. It is little wonder, after* 1 a succession of messages of this sort, - that members of Parliament felt called upon to _ place on record in Hansard their reprobation of the methods ’ employed to slander Ireland, and their full and. hearty recognition of the loyalty and gallantry of the Irish people. Even if all of these messages were substantially true, and it were actually the case that a handful of Irishmen on the Clyde-or a dozen Irish prisoners in Germany had proved disloyal, such isolated facts would have absolutely -no significance, and could in no wise be considered worthy of being cabled to the uttermost ends of the earth. But there is every reason to believe that these items are violent and malicious exaggerations, sent by the cable-rigger for a deliberate purpose. As Mr. T. M. Wilford. admirably put it, ‘Such rumors as were being published are-ungenerous, untrue, and un-British.’ It is interesting to .note that these messages, have also formed the subject of a manly, dignified, and official protest on the part of the Executive of the Hibernian Society in New South Wales. In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, Mr. P. O’Loughlin, District Secretary of the H.A.C.B. Society, quotes -the objectionable cables to which we have referred/and submits the following points for the Premier’s consideration: 1 (1) That as the executive of the Hibernian A.C.B. Society in the State of New South Wales, a society consisting of over 50,000 members in the Commonwealth of Australia, we respectfully draw the attention of the Right Hon. the Prime Minister to reports published in certain newspapers in this State. (2) That we doubt the correctness of such reports, and, even assuming they are correct, the action of the press is a poor recognition of the valuable services rendered by the Irish nation to the Empire in the present war. (3) That we respectfully submit the Censor should exercise his right to prohibit the publication of . such matter, as it is not only calculated to create strife in the community, but is a gratuitous insult to the Irish nation.’ The Prime Minister’s reply to the communication has not yet been published, but on the face of it the Hibernian Society request is one that is entitled to friendly and sympathetic consideration. * Of the real action and attitude of the Irish people in respect to the war some faint indication is given in the official figures submitted in an extremely interesting speech delivered by Mr. John Redmond at a recent banquet tendered to a number of visiting Irish-Austra-lian priests in Dublin. ‘ Now, the duty of Ireland towards the war,’ said Mr. Redmond, ‘ has, so far, been nobly fulfilled. I have here figures which I know will be of interest to -every one of you, supplied to me by the Irish Government, and compiled for them by the Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police; and from these figures it appears that, up to June 16 (the other day), 120,741 Irishmen from Ireland have gone to the army. Of these 71,494 were'Catholics, and 49,247 were Protestants. Of that number 24,871 were enrolled members of the Irish National Volunteers. (Applause.) I got the figures going back right to the commencement of the war, and there has been a steady weekly increase in enlistments. ' The last figures show that for the four weeks ending on June 16 last enlistments in Ireland were 6270. Now, if you add to the 120,741 the Irish from Great Britain, the Irish from Australia, the Irish from Canada and New Zealand, and the countless Irish soldiers in the English and more especially in the Scottish and Welsh regiments, it is quite safe to say that at this moment there are at least between 300,000 ' and 400,000 sons of Ireland with the colorsapplause—i and the records of the war show clearly enough how they have fought. Gentlemen, the Ist Irish Division of the New Army has left our shores for the —-that is, /the 10th Irish Division, under the command of a

.’ v - ,fc "' v >.V.- ", V \ j, v .. . ; , ‘ " ,V v: i, ' distinguished Irish general, General Sir Bryan Mahon. ? (Applause:) That division consists of battalions ;of all the | great Irish ? regiments— Dublins, Lein- - , sters. Royal Irish/' and the rest of them—and we will watch with pride, __ but with no - uneasiness, how these Irish Catholic Nationalists from the South and West of Ireland in the 10th Division will account for themselves in the struggle for freedom on the Continent.' How the Irish soldiers have already accounted for themselves in this struggle is matter of history ; and in the long list of heroes who have earned decorations and distinctions the sons of Ireland occupy easily the foremost place, - . * But Mr. Redmond was not content with pointing to what Irishmen had already accomplished; in earnest words he urged upon them “to continue the splendid sacrifices they had made. ‘ But, although Ireland has done her duty nobly up to the present, I want to emphasise the fact that she must go on doing her duty in the future. She has sent out the first Irish division in the 10th. There are two other Irish divisions still in Irelandone in Ulster, another in the South of Irelandthe 16th Division. The Ulster Division, lam told, is full; and, inasmuch as it consists of men who a year ago were fully trained, according to the statements madelaughter—l am sure it is quite fit for the field and ready lor the fray. But the 16th Division, which has its headquarters at Eermoy, Tipperary, and Buttevaut, is not yet complete. A strange thing happened the other day about that division. Its numbers were practically completed when suddenly 1200 of its men were drafted away over to England to the I.oth Division. The result is that, the division has still to bo filled. Well, in view of the fact that between 6000 and 7000 Irishmen are being recruited every week, it ought to be easy after one week’s recruiting to fill that division. But the weekly recruits are wanted very largely for the reserve battalions, which are there for the purpose of filling the gaps in the Irish regiments at the front, and which must be kept up to a high level. 1 say these things because I want to impress upon the Irish people that' the fact that they have done so ■ gallantly up to the present does not exonerate them from the fulfilment of their further duty of continuing to send men into the reserve battalions and filling up as soon as possible this other 16th Irish Division.’ ‘The Irish,' said Mr. Redmond on another occasion, ‘are represented as a sentimental people. Thank God they are ! And their sentiment now is entirely with France, Belgium, and the small nationalities generally.’ * The situation, then, is this: That Irishmen have already done their. duty, and more than their duty, in regard to the war, and that their responsible Leader is at this moment urging upon them to redouble/their efforts and their sacrifices. Under the circumstances, it is unspeakably contemptible to attempt to cast aspersions on Irish loyalty by trumpeting to the ends of the earth the factif it is a —that a few Irishmen on the Clyde, or two or three half-starved prisoners in Germany, have fallen short of what might have been expected of them. In view of the facts and figures above cited, if any more of these ridiculous and stupid cables are inflicted upon us the Irishmen of the Dominion will have a strong case for demanding, and for insisting on the demand, that the Government take effective measures to put a stop to the circulation of these calumnies. ’