The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1916. IRELAND AND THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 12 October 1916, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1916. IRELAND AND THE WAR

T is only a . few weeks ago since Sir Edward II :*> Carson said in the House of Commons that f T 13 would be a weeks ago for Ireland if Mr. Carson said in the House of Commons that it would be a good day for Ireland if Mr. Redmond and himself were to shake hands on the floor of the House. Heaven knows it would ! but melodramatic talk of that kind leaves everybody cold unless it is obviously sincere. The Orange leader has quickly abandoned his unaccustomed and probably uncomfortable pose, and reverted to the much more congenial role of deliberately and maliciously stirring up trouble for Ireland, and endeavoring to create a situation which will indefinitely delay Home Rule. Writing in the London Times, as Friday’s cables inform us, he states that ‘ there are more Ulsterites at the front than from the whole remaining provinces, and calls upon the Coalition Government—now hopelessly Tory— to deal drastically with * shirking Ireland.’ The statement regarding the alleged preponderance of Ulsterites amongst the Irish recruits is sheer falsehood, as Lord Wimborne’s official report unanswerably shows. This report covered the period from August 2, 1914, to January 8, 1916; and the figures are thus summarised : NATIONALIST RECRUITS. Outside Ulster ... ... ... 43 435. In Belfast ... ... .... 5 000 In Ulster, excluding Belfast ... 6*,810 Total 55,295 UNIONIST RECRUITS. Outside Ulster ... ... ... 2 288 In Belfast ... ... ... 21 883 In Ulster, excluding Belfast ... 6*Bll Total ... 30,982 As to ‘ shirking,’ it is pertinent to ask, Who are the real shirkers? and the question is not difficult to answer. They are the men who talked loudly about the sanctity of a ‘ scrap of paper,’ and who have themselves trampled upon such a document; the men -who gave their written word, and then, at the bidding of a handful of coroneted nobodies, ran away from keeping it; the men who made a bargain, and shamefully broke it; the men who signed a solemn contract, and then basely and disgracefully violated it. It was we believe, ‘Jimmy’ Larkin, of Syndicalist fame who promulgated the doctrine, ‘To hell with contracts’and honest men throughout the Empire rightly hurled condemnation at his .head. And now we have the

‘ aristocracy ’ . of England, led by the Lansdownes and the Norfolks, • themselves acting out this vulgar dishonesty, and then, with cool effrontery, turning round to denounce their betters for ‘ shirking.’ The intelligent public will have little difficulty in placing the label where it rightly belongs. * From the outset of the present war Britain has posed as ‘the champion of small nations as the protagonists of ‘ liberty ’ and of the claim of all nations ‘to live at peace ’; as the defender of ‘ the right of small peoples to choose their own rulers.’ For over a hundred years these rights have been contemptuously denied to Ireland. Her claim to self-government has been derided, and a succession of Coercion Acts unparalleled in the history of any European country has been enforced, resulting in three rebellions and culminating in a bloody insurrection which, after encompassing the deaths of hundreds of citizens and the imprisonment, without trial, of thousands more, has left the country under the lash of martial law. At the present moment a British General with 40,000 troops at his command .is the de facto ‘ Government of Ireland ’; and through the appointment of a Unionist Chief Secretary and a rabidly Tory Attorney-General the official government has been handed over to the country’s political enemies. And now, to please a fire-brand and sedition-monger like Sir Edward Carson, and intolerant reactionaries like Lord Lansdowne and the Duke of Norfolk, a knock-kneed Government is asked to give the screw another turn, and impose conscription upon exasperated and humiliated Ireland. Mr. Redmond was speaking the words of truth and soberness when he said that the enforcement of such a proposal would immediately lead to bloodshed and disaster. It is hard—as recent experience has shown —to place a limit to the stupidity of a British Government where Ireland is concerned, but it is difficult to believe that a Cabinet of even the most hopeless invertebrates would allow themselves to be cozened into any such insane attempt. * The remaining points of Mr. Redmond’s Waterford address do not call for extended notice. He reiterated his opinion about the Dublin rising and its effects, but placed the responsibility where it rightly rests, on the shoulders of the British Government. The lesson of that ill-starred adventure, as we have already pointed out, is not that Home Rule should be denied; it points, rather, with painful emphasis, to the folly of having delayed it so long. The Times professes to be anxious to make recruiting successful in Ireland, ‘ which is a particularly valuable reservoir owing to the magnificent fighting qualities of her sons.’ If that is England’s aim, there is one way, and one way only, to accomplish it—and that is, to treat Ireland with some little touch of decency and humanity, and to satisfy her just aspirations and demands. Until that is done, neither Ireland nor England will know real peace.