THE IRISH PROBLEM

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 4 January 1917, Page 29

THE IRISH PROBLEM

'-'"'}-' CAN MR. DUKE SOLVE IT " - ■ LORD WIMBORNE STAYS IN IRELAND. . . In connection with the cables which have been appearing in the daily papers - for the last few days J;stating that a conference was being held to ;discuss ; methods for the settlement of the Irish question, we /would recommend our readers to read the. following article from the pen of Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P. y It is /a . recent and we think a reasonable statement .of the difficulties to be met with in any process of settlement, :: while oil the whole it contains a strong ray of hope for final success. »We reprint it from the Dunedin Erenin;/ Star: —T ' -"/ .'"-.v" . , ~ *", "" *■> "' ■-■;■- 'The. task which Mr. Duke, the new Irish Secretary, has before him is not an easy one. - Nobody/feels that more than he does himself. In his favor is his undoubted sympathy with Ireland and with' her national aspirations. - For ' several years he braved" the anger of some of the extremists m his own party by calling for a recognition of Irish, Nationalists, and he one of the keenest of the group of English "Unionists who. pleaded and worked for the success of the late attempted settlement. He has reiterated these.views with special emphasis and with ' eloquence during the Irish-debates with which the session wound up. Everybody ?in Ireland is personally predisposed in his favor he has been promised fair play. " In addition he has in -Lord Wimborne, the Lord Lieutenant, an old comrade, tor they were both Unionist members together for Ply- . mouth in the dim and distant past. Lord Wimborne has since become a Liberal and a Home Ruler, and in the ; recent troubles in Ireland it is well known that lie fought hard against some of the executions. .' On the -othejphand, there is no denying that the state of Ireland is far from satisfactory. The resentment over the "executions, the wholesale raids, the large ■ number of prisoners, and the retention still in English gaols of- many of the persons thus arrested —all these things have created an exasperation the fierceness of which cannot bo exaggerated. . This exasperation is' maintained and augmented even by seme of the steps which have been taken under the still apparently omnipotent military rule. General Maxwell is still maintained, Another official who has excited a great deal of popular animosity is Major Price, one of the officials of an -older and out-of-date epoch of Irish history. 'Two Possible Methods.' v There are two methods of meeting this state of things. The first is by keeping up military rule, and the second is by the Chief Secretary throwing himself on* the good sense and the good-will of Ireland and restoring constitutional government. It is undoubtedly the desire of Mr. Duke, as he has more than once expressed, that military rule should come to the earliest possible end. The official world of Dublin, however, still sticks to its old traditions, and probably .a good deal of pressure will be put upon him to maintain these little coercive acts which are at once nagging and futile. Here is a sample of one of these methods : ' There was a convention of the Ancient Order of' Hibernians called for a town in Donegal ; interference was: threatened, at least in the papers, against, the meeting-, which was of a perfectly proper character, and interference actually did take place with regard to arrangements made for excursion trains. * .

V>- * : ‘ln the.meantime, things are not helped by the outrageous and unexhausted campaign against the Irish party. Everybody of any sense in any party in Ireland knows - that the one bulwark against anarchy in that country is the maintenance of the constitutional • movement, which means, of course, the presence 'of, the Irish party as its mouthpiece and guardian. . In the break-up of the settlement which has .taken place after ■ the rebellion and its suppression,, a good many Irishmen ./were in the mood to abandon the old ‘ways and the old ; • Readers, and to resort to the more desperate methods of

a different Xk* s movement owes most of its inception and its strength to the unnecessary severity with which the rebellion was put down.. % For some months some portions at least; of thclrish people have ; remained at an uncertain frame of mind. The break:down of the settlement, of course, only helped to delay the ■ return of- the Irish people to their 'normal state ofi, , sane politics. It remains to be seen how far the new * Administration will help towards bringing about a normal state of things.'*'" ' ' v > . "/."- 'The reappointment of Lord Wimborne -is very -/popular/; He possesses great wealth, is .proprietor of a : f Z- great iron and? steel works in Wales, is ; a keen sports- ; man, is lavish, is affable,' and he loves Ireland. H It /is/-. also a great advantage for a man in •'.his position to';'.'< u, have a wife of 'great beauty and of charming and 1 indeed fascinating manner. - Like {so many English people, > J the Wimbornes have'., been captured by Ireland, and % ,they were in despair for some weeks after„they had to 7 give her up.' / They were offered, iii the meantime the / dazzling w position_ of the Vice-Royalty of Canada, but - they never abandoned the hope of Returning te-their y work in Ireland, and refused ; and now their time has come again. It is well known in Ireland that Lord borne made fierce and repeated protests against the number of executions on which Sir John Maxwell insisted, and that, of course, has increased his popularity. •j ,; / ; Bought and Read. f : " : Then, again, there comes. the unexpected in Irish' f politics. For years a . crusade has been carried. on against the party, mainly by r one man and one hews- . paper. The Irish are a thrifty people, and the fortunes of this campaign have been largely influenced by > -J the fact that its organ can be bought for a halfpenny, while the Freeman's Journal, the. organ of the Na- . tionalist party, still remains at the old price of a penny. The '.Daily -Independent is bought by : some v 75,000 people, and read by of course double that number. < Its policy is not' approved ; it could not turn a single election in Ireland. J Mr. Murphy, its proprietor,,could - not probably" be elected for any constituency.- His last* attempt, many years ago, ended in a disastrous, defeat. Hut a paper which continually dropped the poison of distrust in the party, which could never do. anything rij?ht, finally got some hold of the people: and .though there was no confidence in Mr. Murphy or in the / ndependent, there was a steadily decreasing confidence in the Irish party: and in the: constitutional movement. of which it was the symbol and the creation. 'Payment, of Members! 'The bestowal upon the members of the British Parliament of the salary of .£4OO a year did a great deal* also to injure' the party. It awoke new. appetites and new rivalries, most of which, of course, had to be disappointed it excited some envy : and, above all, it gave critics an opportunity of suggesting that the salary was the underlying motive of the members of the party. You will judge of the excesses to which the -attacks on the Irish party have-gone when I tell you that it has ° been seriously suggested that -the main reason which now actuated the .counsels and acts of the Irish party was the small salary of £4OO per year. As a matter of fact, the salary was imposed upon the Irish party by. . parliamentary conditions ; the highest minds »of. the >-' —Mr. -.Redmond, Mr. Dillon, and Mr. Devlin were all fully alive to what a weapon this'salary would ■ put in the hands of the enemies of the party, and the'Irish party carried" a resolution against the salary, and : asked Mr. Lloyd George that in proposing it he should] not include Ireland. Mr. Lloyd George found himself unable to comply with the request. ... The Irish party •. were then s faced with a difficult alternative. If they ''f.'? voted against the proposal they would have saved their* party from the danger which they foresaw ; but, on the ■ other hand, by opposing the proposal ; and defeating it ; - they would be the means ; of inflicting a grave injury/ ' on the members of the Labor party, who have also been ; among Ireland's best friends, and would have placed themselves in collision with one of the leading principles of jfiir democratic forces in England • and without those

democratic forces Ireland would never" have' been able ' to .win her many reforms during the last quarter of a. century. '"Transition Period. - To some extent Ireland is -still 'in a transition ;. period between the excitement and resentment, of the rebellion and the restoration: of her ordinary- sane tude. : My recent information :from different parts of Ireland -leads me to the conviction that the justification of -the: Irish party is proceeding at a largely accelerated speed. r " Meetings are being /held in almost every part - of : the country/speeches and;^^resolutiohs have been made > vindicating .Mr Redmond from the virulent attacks to which he has been subjected. There was never any / doubt -as to where the solid body of 300,000 : peasant -.proprietors would stand ultimately,- Their voice was T'fnot.:heard in the tempest of passion created by the re-" K bellion, but it is rising more highly every day, and possibly before Parliament.rises again we shall find an Ireland liberated from the spectre of rebellion arid the will-o'-the-wisp rebellion methods.' , r : //-/'//