The New Zeland Tablet THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1917. THE DUBLIN RELIEF FUND

New Zealand Tablet, 28 June 1917, Page 29

The New Zeland Tablet THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1917. THE DUBLIN RELIEF FUND

ORE than a year ago now news reached f Mil t US as a of the destruction fORE the a year ago now cannon and us that as a result of the destruction of the city by the cannon and high explosives used by Maxwell, and of the wholesale deportation of men who took part in the Rising, or who were suspected of sympathising with the Sinn Eeiners, or for other reasons which nobody understands and which the Government refuses to make known, there was terrible privation and suffering in Dublin. A little later, with the sanction of his Grace Archbishop Walsh, Father Bowden, the Administrator of the Pro-Cathe-dral, Marlborough street, issued an appeal to all the friends of Ireland beyond the seas telling of the pitiful condition of the women and children of the Irish capital, and asking for assistance for those sufferers whose only part in the Rising was the burden of hardship and hunger that had fallen on them as its aftermath. Marlborough street is only a stone’s throw from the scenes of the heaviest fighting of Easter Week, and all around the Pro-Cathedral are situated the tenements in which the poor of the city lived. No man in Ireland was better qualified to speak for the Dublin sufferers than Father Bowden, who was daily witnessing the dire want which moved him to make such an earnest appeal to our charity and our patriotism. Consequently when his message came over the seas, endorsed by the Archbishop of Dublin, we all realised that it was our manifest duty as Christians. to do all in our power to alleviate the sufferings of those innocent victims of circumstances for which they were in no way responsible. * • To those who have hitherto found it hard to understand what want of reason and what bitter bigotry are at the root of the Irish grievances the attitude of certain papers in Christchurch at the time when a Relief Fund for Dublin was being organised ought to be very illuminating. In this distant colony a little clique set themselves to oppose the work of Christian charity proposed to our people. It did not matter to them that Archbishop Walsh, and all the Bishops of New Zealand, recognised the crying need of aid in which the helpless women and the little children of Dublin stood. ' They had the audacity and the unparalleled impertinence to declare that there was no necessity at all for the charitable activity with which the people of the Dominion bestirred themselves to respond to Father Bowden’s appeal. Apart from the

cowardly cruelty of their action, it was a direct insult to the Hierarchy of New Zealand and to the Archbishop of Dublin. If they were ashamed to have the tale of the sufferings of those innocent people exposed, in view of tho fact that the British Government took no steps to help to mend the situation they had right to keep silent, and if possible draw a cloak of oblivion over the shortcomings of a Government which, directly or indirectly, was responsible for all the trouble. But the ingrained bigotry and the stupid prejudices of centuries did not allow them to pursue so obvious a course ; so they practically said that they did not believe the testimony of the Hierarchy, and attempted to discourage the people of New Zealand from obeying the dictates of Christian charity. Had it been a question of Belgium, or Serbia, or Poland, how they would have wept, and called on others to weep with them ! But it was only Ireland. And what were the sufferings and the wrongs of the Irish to them ? The whole incident was a magnificent example of the spirit that, in the Old Country, has made the treatment of Catholic Ireland a reproach to England and a contradiction of her assurances that the interests of small nations concern her. It had a result the bigots little foresaw : it put our people on their mettle, and it won the sympathy of every lover of fair play in the Dominion, thus contributing to the success of the fund.

And, as the weeks became months, from every parish from Maunganui to the Bluff money came in steadily, and long lists of generous subscriptions began to appear in our columns in splendid testimony to the noble spirit of humanity of the readers of the Tablet. All the parishes responded generously, Dunedin and the little Taranaki town of Hawera were conspicuous where all were praiseworthy. And the pounds grew to hundreds, and the hundreds became thousands, until ere long his Lordship Bishop Verdon was able to cable to the Archbishop of Dublin the magnificent sum of £2500. Still the offerings reached us from cheerful and generous donors, and quite recently a second sum of £2500 was sent to Archbishop Walsh. Since then a sum of £132 has been received, making the grand total for the Dublin Relief Fund, £5132. We have cause to congratulate ourselves on the success of this work of charity conducted through our columns. We have reason, too, to be proud of the Catholic people of the Dominion who responded so eagerly and spontaneously. We tender to all donors our cordial thanks. We thank them in the name of the women and children of Dublin, in the name of Archbishop Walsh, who inspired the appeal, of Bishop Verdon who became its patron here, and in the name of our holy religion and of our common humanity, and of the dear land of our fathers. God alone knows how sorely the money was required, and how great will be the measure of our reward for helping in their need His own poor and His .own little ones, whose sorrow has in many instances ii>een changed to joy by the contributions sent them from this far land. It was in God’s name, and in the name of His love the appeal was made. He Who will have us known as His by no other sign than that of charity, Who appeals when His poor appeal. Who is helped when they are helped, and Who will not let even a cup of cold water given in His name go without its reward, has written in His eternal Memory the names of all those who have done their part in feeding and clothing the Dublin poor for whom He did not ask in vain.

A new society has been started in Ireland under the name of the “Federation of Daily Mass,” and Pope Benedict XV. has conceded several plenary and partial indulgences to it (states the Brooklyn Tablet). The Irish have ever been faithful to the Mass, even in the terrible penal period, when, as Father Bernard Vaughan says, it was the Mass that matteredthe Mass that was banned as idolatrous, and its adherents hunted down to death,.