Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 14 March 1918, Page 14

Current Topics

Peace Terms Many people are asking why we have not been allowed to read the full text of the Austrian Foreign Minister’s reply. And the study of the different attitudes of Mr. Llyod George and of President Wilson towards that reply makes it more desirable that we should know what the Austrian aims really are. President Wilson finds that Count Czernin spoke in a friendly tone, and that he sees the fundamental elements of peace with clear eyes and feels that Austria could respond to the American proposals with less embarrassment than Germany could. From the President’s remarks it also appears that Austria admits that the re-establishment of Poland is a matter of international importance, and that Belgium must be evacuated and restored, no matter what sacrifices and concessions that may involve, and that national aspirations must be satisfied in the common interest of Europe and of mankind. Only through President Wilson are ire made aware of these highly important admissions on the part of ustria. There is a fact that should give people to think furiously. What does Mr. Lloyd George mean by saying that the Austrian satesman had resolutely refused to discuss any terms which might be regarded as possible peace terms ! Obviously there is something rotten in the State of Denmark. War There is more to follow. President Wilson finds in the Austrian declaration an opening for entering into further negotiations. Mr. Lloyd George says there is no hope of peace held out and the war must go on. As a result of his attitude people who had begun to look for an early settlement are now sadly accepting as inevitable the fact that we are to have at least another year of war. The prospect is not a bright one certainly. The British Premier has admitted that we have no longer a supremacy on the Western Front, and, as we remember too well, even when we had we were unable to break through the enemies’ lines. True we were told that Von Hindenburg’s line was broken at Cambrai, but that victory has now come to be known as the Cambrai reverse, and officers in high places have been dismissed as a result of it. The Germans will be now in a position to further strengthen their lines. The retirement of Russia means that millions of men will be available for the West. This fact apparently justifies the gloomy note of Mr. Lloyd George’s recent utterances, and in the light of our present knowledge we presume that the sole hope of winning the war in the field this year depends on America and Japan. America and Japan have the men, but they have not the ships at present. Thus it comes to a question of transport. And the transport question comes to the submarine problem. Sir Eric Geddes does not deny that the menace continues to be very serious. British merchants now complain that private shipbuilders would have done far better than the Government has done. Under the circumstances we reluctantly conclude that neither Japan nor America will be able to send sufficient men to Europe to ensure a military victory this year. Still we do not accept the opinion that the end is far off. Mr. Lloyd George shuts his eyes apparently to facts which President Wilson sees quite clearly. The number of people in Britain who see with Mr. Lloyd George’s eyes is daily diminishing, and there is no denying that when it really comes to the question of peace the President will be much larger in the perspective than the present Premier of England. If, then, hope of victory by force of arms is remote— remote that not this year nor even next year may be assigned for —the only hope of peace in the near future is based on the fact that President Wilson assures us that in spite of Mr. Lloyd George’s denials our enemies are really holding out their hands and that he sees a chance of coming to terms with them.

Irish Outrages ; Our opinion as to the -genuineness of “Irish outrages’’ has been 'confirmed. 1 ' A' recent cable announces that the “cattle-stealing’’ and the holding-up of bankers was part of the Sinn Fein campaign to prevent a famine in Ireland. At a previous epoch of Irish history armed English soldiers carted out of Ireland corn for export to England while Irish mothers saw their children die of starvation. “ The Sinn Feiners are determined that there shall be no repetition of that tragedy. However there are genuine outrages in Ireland. From the London Catholic Times, we quote the following; “The members of the Cork N.E. Ward Sinn t Fein Club have issued a statement in which it is alleged that while they were studying the Irish language and history, their rooms were forcibly entered by a large force of police who savagely beat the occupants with the butts of thejr rifles and jumped on them and kicked them. One member it is stated received a severe bayonet wound through the leg.’’ A priest who happened to be in Queenstown a short time ago tells us that the attacks on the American sailors were due to the fact that the Sinn Feiners had a higher regard for, the honor of womanhood than the visitors in question, who came ashore from the fleet to enjoy themselves in a manner that did not appeal to Irish ideals. The facts related to us put the matter in a very different light , from the lying cables that are published in this country as Irish news. We have also received certain items of news from Dublin which bear out our recent assertion that penance is a long way from the soul of the English soldier, in Ireland at axxyrate. We note that a contemporary published lately some American accounts of atrocities in Armenia and Belgium with an editorial comment to the effect that they were for our benefit. We quite recognise that the mentality of our contemporaries makes it absolutely useless to point out that we never denied such atrocities, and as the rudiments of logic are obviously beyond the capacities of certain editors we are content to allow them to believe that to say that our faults were almost as bad as those of our enemies, is equivalent to saying that our enemies have no faults. Third-standard schoolboys would be rightly whipped for what appears to be a fair specimen of editorial intelligence in New Zealand at present. Catholic Influences at the Front Fat her Mart indale contributes an interesting paper, to the London Tablet in which he reviews the chief means through which the influence of the Catholic Church is brought tolxear on non-Catholics at the front.. He suggests that the war, ploughing down to the ele- , mental passioxxs of manhood, also leaves exposed the more emotional part of the soul and disposes men to receive new influences. In this way a religious .fact, will be able to penetrate into the depths of a heart that at ordinary times it could never have touched. The influences that may have such effects are chiefly the following: First, on the Western Front the men are in contact with a Catholic people and Catholic habits, and practices are revealed to them in a new light. The wayside shrines, the crucifixes, are for., the first time intelligible to men to whom their message is under the circumstances singularly direct. Secondly they become familiar with our devotions. Masses and prayers for the dead become significant for them, and the doctrine of Pux-gatory becomes an obvious truth. The teaching of a Church which holds that the comrades whom they loved are not only in Purgatory, but there may be actually helped by their friends on . earth, appeals strongly to non-Catholic t soldiers. Thirdly, with extraordinary eagerness non-Catholics . ask foxmedals and pictures of the Sacred Heart and of pur Lady. Many, too, have insisted on having with 'them Catholic men and officers merely because they are Catholics. Fourthly, the example of our chaplains' appeals to the men in favor of the Catholic religion. / The man who is free from the ties of wife and children is far more often in the forefront of danger. J In ninety cases out of every hundred ‘ when a chaplain is; found

in the front line he is the. Roman Catholic padre. One has only to go through an hospital among the returned men to ascertain their; views on ~. this j point. Other chaplains find themselves reduced to the role of goodfellowship, presiding at. canteens, distributing cigarettes, writing letters* organising concerts: in a word, they cheer the living but are able to do little for the dying. On the other hand our , priests stand frankly for " the supernatural: ‘‘l 'have known conversions entirely due to a comparison between the clergyman who, before an attack, went among his men giving out tobacco, and the priest who, to the kneeling rows of Catholics, imparted Absolution; between the Presbyterian who cheered his men to courage by the jest that * even if they didn’t all come back— Glasgow was overcrowded,’ and the Catholic priest who could make his men exult even in the prospect of dying now that they carried Christ within them.” In a word, the men now 'recognise that the Catholic Church is a ‘‘going concern,” a ‘‘working proposition.” It- is surely a cause of joy to our brave chaplains that their heroism has had such a reward as this. Those who mourn for dead friends among the soldier priests have their consolation. The harvest is great: how great we shall not know yet. But who can doubt that its greatness —all that has already been reaped, and all that the future will bringis in a very full measure due to the heroic devotion to their duty which was so conspicuous in our padres as to win them the admiration of men who were trained from their youth to hate the Catholic Church. Do we not already see some signs that others besides ourselves are beginning to awaken to the fact that after the war the Catholic Church will be a danger, not to civilisation, not to truth, not to religion, but precisely to them whose cardinal doctrine is to be antiCatholic ? Unrest in England Some time ago the publication in the London Times of a series of articles on the unrest in the country caused no small stir. There was indeed reason to be alarmed when the staid organ of oligarchy deigned to notice the complaints of the much-enduring workers who were bleeding in more than one sense for the benefit of profiteers and capitalists. Not only the Times but the House of Lords itself was awakened to the reality of the danger. Several of our hereditary legislators realised that things had gone so far that even they must make a protest in favor of the poorer classes, or perhaps it was that the imminent danger to themselves inspired the protest. At anyrate the danger existed and exists still. There are many evidences that the democratic movement is growing daily stronger, and that it is even trending towards Republicanism. Republicanism in old England ! No wonder the somnolent stupidity of the House of Lords was disturbed. But when processions of enraged men and women paraded the cities demanding justice and reasonable conditions, and when the voices of these people were raised in angry threats such as England never heard before, even the intelligence of the Lords was capable of interpreting the message!. Again, the Times allowed Mr. Wells to draw attention in its columns to the strength of republican sentiment in the country, and even to advocate the affiliation of ‘‘Republican Societies” all over England. Another writer in the Times pointed out the danger in national policy and national liberty from Kings who, in one way or another, are related to the German Royal circle, and the risk to the pco/de's welfare of monarchs whose spiritual home is in Berlin. In the House of Commons speeches have been delivered openly advocating a Republic. At a great meeting held in the Albert Hall to express sympathy with the revolution the establishment of a British Republic was freely demanded, and every expression of republican sentiment was cheered enthusiastically. At the Trade Union Congress, held in October, Mr. Robert Williams, representing the Transport Workers’ Federation, exclaimed: “Praise God when there will be a notice ‘ To Let ’ outside Buckingham Palace," and the words were greeted with

cheers. The marvellous thing about it is that the censor has not stifled" the discussion" a fact which is in itself an indication of the strength of the movement and the fearlessness of popular opinion. From the other side. there have come replies. Lord Harcourt has argued that a Republic is not necessary in England because the Crown is shorn of all its undemocratic prerogatives, which of course is exactly what the Republicans will not admit for a moment. The Globe very ineffectively puts forward the plea that as the King has worked hard during the war we cannot regard him as an expensive cipher, and it assures its readers that the Crown is the symbol of liberty over the length and breadth of the earth ! Even in Ireland, we presume ! When such a movement has taken root in England it is no wonder that in Ireland, which is bound to England onl}' on the strength of a law which English lawyers have admitted to be a shameful and disgraceful fraud, people begin to talk of a Republic for that country which has enjoyed such glorious liberty and isuch admirable justice under that same British Crown. Our readers will note the references to the German Kings with some amusement. In this country we have already proved that our King is not German, and everyone knows what an intelligent and reasonable press ours is. As a matter of fact we are inclined to think that King George is an Irishman. At anyrate he refused to take the oath of bigotry which was aimed at insulting the Catholic people whom the Protestants so often tried in vain to pervert or murder. We Catholics have no quarrel with the King: it is with his enemies we have a slight difference—with the men who swore to throw his crown into the Boyne and whose fathers strove tooth and nail to keep Queen Victoria from the throne. Already they feel the jaws of the trap closing and the last stand of the rats is in sight. Republic or no Republic, their day in England is almost ended. The “Carrion Crows” With its usual jealous regard for truth and honesty our press will probably go on telling those who can find nothing better to do than to read its vaporings on the Irish question that the Sinn Fein Party alone is likely to destroy the Convention. Our readers know better : the readers of every honest journal in England to-day know better. The ‘‘Carrion Crows,” as Mr. Birrell dubbed the people behind Carson and his supporters in Ireland, are at the old game. The selfish Castle office-holders are as usual ready to wreck the Empire rather than grant justice to Catholic Ireland. In an article in the December number of the English lie-view. Swift Mac Neill tells the English people the wretched story of how the predecessors of the nefarious gang prevented England time and again from doing justice to Ireland and making some atonement before the world for past crimes. There you will find the incredible tale of how in the interests of the Protestant Ascendancy the dirty work of England was done. There is no need to recapitulate it here. The passing of the Union by the suborned lords of the Pale who had not a shadow of right to speak for Ireland ; the cruel atrocities which made Lord Abercrombie protest that never even under the Cossacks were people so brutally treated as the Irish were under England ; the free quarters and all that meant; the sexual filth of the English and Orange soldiers, which, according to Belloc, drove a peaceful people into rebellion: that is the story ; and so far from being ashamed of it Carson and his gang are at it again. Can all the water in the sea ever wash England clean of the stain incurred when she made him a Cabinet Minister after his threat to kick the Crown into the Boyne? Will it ever dawn on the English people what a sorry figure they cut in the eyes of the universe? ‘‘Sinn Fein,” says Austin Harrison, ‘‘is Ireland’s answer to Carson’s Orange revolution. Sinn Fein is not a party movement. It is the spirit of Young and New Ireland, an emancipated Ireland. The young men are total abstainer's. They represent a new attitude. . . . Take away Dublin Castle a$ once. , , , Give Sinn Fein a

chance. The hew Republic will find itself.” Englishmen are beginning to awaken to the national disgrace and the world-wide shame brought on them by Carson, and by Lloyd George’s cowardly toleration of his tactics. It is perhaps well for England that they are. Sinn Fein will never ‘ compromise. That day is gone for ever. No promises will ever again deceive the Irish people as they did in the pastfor that we can all thank God. It looks now as if the packed Convention’s failure is certain. And no wonder ! It was said to be a Convention of the Irish people ; and the Irish people were not allowed even to elect their own delegates, nor was an assurance given to them that if the majority, such as it was, agreed its decision would be ratified. An Irish Convention Rather another chapter in the dirty story of deceit and perfidy. What will happen now we cannot even dimly foresee. But we may be sure that just as false promises failed to mislead the Sinn Feiners, - so, too, will the old plan of driving them to rebellion miscarry now. They made their protest. They showed the world how earnest they were. They gave the blood of their best for Ireland and the harvest has Been great. Beyond all doubt they will not again fight unless there is a hope of success ; and that hope they know as well as any one-can know is not in sight. We can only wait and see. But we may be sure that never before in all her history was Ireland’s destiny in better or purer hands. We hear frequently from those who sit in the councils of the Sinn Fein movement, and the note of quiet confidence and assurance of ultimate success is enough to inspire us with a strong hope that all will come out well for Ireland. It may not be very soon ; but the dawn is surely in sight. , England is more afraid of de Valera than she was even of Parnell. She will strain every effort in order to escape having to answer before a Peace Conference for her crimes in Ireland. But nothing that Irishmen can do will be left undone to drag in to the dock the Government that is responsible for so much oppression of that small nation in the western seas.