Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 30 May 1918, Page 14

Current Topics

German Plots and Sinn Fein Outrages For some days we have been reading in our press that the Government is busy arresting priests, laymen, and women in Ireland, and we are told that this is done because a pro-German plot has been unearthed. We are also told that the wholesale arrests prevented a rebellion from breaking out. The Irish papers have denied that any such plot exists;.the Nationalists and the Sinn Feiners have denied it; and, so far, no justification has been given by the Government for the truly Prussian procedure of the past few weeks, To try to get at the truth of the matter we must go back a little. Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington wrote to an English paper before the Easter Rising a letter in which he said that the Castle gang, stirred up by the Tories axxjd the Orangemen, were doing their best to drive the Irish into rebellion by urging Mr. Birrell to do the very thing that has now been done. Mr. Birrell was a strong man and he kept the “carrion crows in their places until by false manifestoes and other means the harm was done and the Rising engineered. Later on the same ignoble crew tried to get Lord Wlxxxborxxe to order wholesale arrests with the purpose of destroying whatever chance of success the packed Convention might be supposed to have. They raised a scare about pro-German plots and about Sinn Fein secret societies exactly on the same lines as the present hullabuloo. Lord Wimborne was a decent man who would not sell bis soul even to please an Orangeman, and he frankly told the Government that the talk of pro-Germanism among the Sinn Feiners was all moonshine. Now what happens? General French, who sowed the seeds of anarchy in the army three years ago by declaring that he would not obey orders and enforce the laws of England if these laws did not please the Orangemen, having been lately found unfitted for the task of leading the British forces, is sent to Ireland to do the dirty work with which Lord Wimborne and Mr. Birrell refused to soil their hands. And no sooner is he in power than the Tories and the Orangemen have their will and another effort is made to discredit Irishmen in the eyes of the world and to wreck the prospects of Home Rule. This is the interpretation which anyone who knows the history of British rule in Ireland must put on the cables lately offered for our consumption here. Is There Evidence ? For a whole fortnight the charges have been broadspread and not a tittle of evidence to justify the arrests was adduced, with the result that we look on the whole thing as another choice specimen of British Prussianism. Let us recall how bishops, priests, and people are united in Ireland lately, and how Eoin Mac Neill was enthusiastically put at the head of the poll at the Sinn Fein elections, it being well known that he was the leader of the moderate party and an opponent of force. Remember again Lord Wimborne’s declaration that the Sinn Feiners were not pro-Germans. Remember, too, how the Orangemen and the Tories tried to drive the people to desperation, just as they did drive them to rebellion by their sexual filth in '9B. Anyone who can appreciate these facts will never believe that there is any German plot in Ireland that would warrant the wholesale arrests of the past weeks. It may be that there are a few, there are in every country, who would welcome another rebellion, and who would be pleased to treat with Germany or with any other power that would help, to free Ireland from her tyrants. But we say without hesitation that Lord Wimborne was right when he said that Sinn Fein was not proGerman. Sinn Fein is anti-British, but not proGerman in spite of the fact that the stupidity of the Government is enough to make Irishmen pray that a summary vengeance may overtake those who are responsible for so much suffering and injustice. Irishmen who know with what facility the British Government

has manufactured jn'oof of Irish outrages when it suited them are puzzled to know where the Sheridans and the Ashtons and the Pigotts are now. Are all the perjurers and informers engaged on the shameful press propaganda against which Mr. Asquith protested in the name of common decency At any rate we see that the Government is now looking for proofs in A inerica to justify its tyranny in Ireland. Probably it will find proofs there. It could also find them in England, where there is, in very high places, as much pro-Germanism as in Ireland or America. A cable on Saturday night completes the farce : Lloyd George begins to doubt if there is any plot! Monday morning : the cable is changed : Lloyd George has no doubt that, etc., etc. What will it be on Tuesday? How They Do It A word here about the inglorious press propaganda, which makes every decent man ashamed of the British Government, will not be inapposite. First remember that the capitalists are making a good thing out of the war and that the end of the war will mean the end of profiteering; then remember that Lord Northcliffe is the greatest enemy of the Democracy in England and you will have the elementary bearings of the press propaganda. In the light of these facts one can understand why Lord Laxxsdowne or anybody else who dares speak of peace is denounced almost as a traitor by the Northcliffe gang, who apparently have the support of such brainless members of the Mouse of Lords as that anti-Irish Catholic peer, Lord Denbigh. Here is .an instance of the way the gang goes to work ; Mr. Gardiner points out that when Lloyd George had to face Mr. Asquith’s fire in the House of Commons lately the Northcliffe organ, the Daily Mail , told its readers next day that cheers of approval for Lloyd George drowned Mr. Asquith’s voice. What did happen was that the tumult of applause which greeted Mr. Asquith was so great that it began the moment he arose to reply to Lloyd George and continued for many minutes with an enthusiasm which showed clearly that the House was not with the Prime Minister at all. Mr. Gardiner denounces the distortion of facts as a “scandalous falsification” and he refers to Northcliffe as “a master of poison gas.” So far has the scandal gone now that when Mr. Lloyd George gives the word half a dozen London papers are ready to jump off and spread news exactly as he wishes if fu spread. Among the prominent papers thus prostituted are all the Nox'thcliffe organs, Lord Rothermere’s Sunday Pictorial , Sir George "Riddell’s Xews of the World, Reynolds’ , Lloyd’s Weekly , and the Observer, edited by that political acrobat, Mr. Garvin. In Ireland they are ably and scandalously seconded by the Irish Times, and lately in America the Northcliffe mission resulted in the lassooing of a number of editors there who would do anything for a price. Whether the efforts of the gang reached as far as New Zealand or not we do not know, but at any rate the job is so well done here that money would be thrown away in that direction except as a reward for past services. Every one who knows anything about Ireland can see for himself what sort of “British fair play” Ireland gets in certain of our colonial dailies. Did any man ever know one of them to apologise when a cable came to hand revealing how their abuse and their lies were founded on nothing better than the hate of some insane Orange ranter or some bold British Prussian who forgets to tell the truth, in his eagerness to slay a small nation or exterminate Catholics ? British fair play is one thing as it is preached. As it is practised it is another thing; and there is no more sordid and shameful thing on earth as far as Catholics and Irishmen know of it. As we have said already, the cables that on Saturday night announced that Lloyd George was doubtful about the existence* of a plot in Ireland are now made to read that he has no doubt about the plot at all ! The evidence of the statement issued to the press is of -no account. Conscious of its worthlessness, the persons responsible regret that they cannot give details as it might be awkward for certain friends of theirs. If

this sort of thing were done by Germany what a shriek of wrath and derision would arise from our Jingo press. But whatever we do is right. That is the law now. Knowing that De Valera was already engaged in a struggle for Irish freedom it is not impossible that he would again fight if there were a hope of success, even if that hope depended on the help of a foreign power such as the Orangemen invoked. With him there would be a small section of the Sinn Feiners and a large number of the British subjects who deserted and found a refuge in Ireland during the war ; but evidence or no evidence, we state that there is no great proGerman plot in Ireland and no widespread movement towards rebellion. A pro-German plot in America is quite another thing, and we have little doubt that the millions of Irishmen there are willing to help any power that will help them to loosen the tyrant’s grasp on the neck of the small nation they love. T. P. O’Connor sadly confesses that they are not pleased with England at present. Q. B. Shaw Settles the Irish Question G. B. Shaw is a man of many parts and of infinite variety. He now proposes to settle the eternal Irish question which Lloyd George has so badly bungled. Shaw’s method has the simplicity of genius. It is (1) to get the Orangemen on his side by blowing the Sinn Feiners sky-high : (21 to placate the Sinn Feiuers by telling them what asses the Orangemen are : (3) then, both parties being well disposed to listen to him, he will reveal the solution of the whole difficulty, and all will live happy ever afterwards. lie begins by stating that Sinn Fein is a disgraceful, obsolete sentiment, horribly anti-Catholic, and acutely ridiculous in the presence of a crisis which has shewn that countries twenty times as big as Ireland cannot stand alone. The following piece of criticism of Sinn Fein is essentially Shavian: “Forbidden to wear uniform or carry arms, they formed a procession throe miles long, fully equipped and armed, and gave an impressive funeral to Thomas Ashe, whose body lay in state under their guard at the Dublin Guildhall, with the British army hiding in the cellars.” With a word of ridicule tor the pretensions of the Irish in asking for representation at a peace conference, he passes on to discuss the folly of Ulster. Of the Orangemen he says: They have a penny-dreadful vision of an Irish Parliament establishing the inquisition; massacring the Protestant infants; condemning all the maids of Ulster to the doom of Maria Monk: inviting the Pope to transfer the Vatican to Maynooth ; exempting the priests from the jurisdiction of the civil law ; making mixed marriages illegal ; reviving the penal laws with the boot on the other foot : and crushing the shipyards of Belfast by huge import duties on steel, raw materials, and everything English, whilst dispensing unheard-of bounties to farmers, graziers, dairymen, and convent workshops.” He scoffs at the fears of religious persecution and at all the other Orange catch-cries, and he sums up by telling Ulster that, although the South might be able to suffice for itself and support itself, Ulster is up to the neck in old-world industrialism and completely dependent on others for existence. Then comes his solution: “Being obvious it will not bo new. It will indeed be older than Parnellism. But when it was new it was 100 good to be true. And bigger places than Ireland had to come first. it will bo none the worse for us now that it has been tried on the kangaroo.” This is execrable writing for Shaw, with its “new,” “true,” and “kangaroo,” but one never knows whether he is laughing at his readers or not. Anyhow here is his panacea: (1) Ireland must force Home Rule on England as a measure of common humanity and good political sense—and of course Scotland and Wales will have Home Rule as a matter of course. (2) In a Conference formed for the consideration of Imperial questions Ireland shall be represented. (3) Ireland must get Dominion Home Rule-, “It remains only for the Convention Secretariat to draft the Bill. All" they need is a pair of scissors and a pot of paste, a. set of «opie» of the British North America Act, 1867, the

Commonwealth Constitution Act, 1900, and the South Africa Act, 1909, with a few special clauses which the Convention must by this time be able to draft with full knowledge of the political, fiscal, and industrial considerations which demand specifically Irish handling and conciliation. Then strike out the colonial names and figures and replace them with Irish names, and the thing is done.” As a parting shot he adds the note : “The expense can be covered by selling the existing copies of the Home Rule Bill as waste paper.” This scheme is set forth in a pamphlet entitled, 11 ow to Settle the Irish Question, by Bernard Shaw (price sixpence net). It is worth spending a few pennies on it. It is more than clever fooling, as all Shaw’s humor is more than mere humor. Neither Sinn Feiners nor Orangemen will appreciate his criticisms of them, but in sober truth the solution is just as simple and just as easy as ho pretends. Nothing but English stupidity and Tory dishonesty stand between Ireland and the measure of colonial Home Rule which justice and common sense dictate. And because the Tories are both stupid and dishonest England is telling the world that she is fighting for the rights of small nations and all the world is laughing at her hypocrisy—except Ireland, which weeps tears of blood. Oliver Plunket With dee]> satisfaction all Irish Catholics will read of the decree recently issued for the Beatification of Oliver Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland. He was born at Loughcrew in County Meath. At sixteen he went to Rome to study, lie was ordained priest in 1654 after the completion of his collegiate course, during which he was a model of diligence and piety to his fellow students, among whom he was eminent for his ability. There is still preserved in the ancient Irish College in Rome a copy of a petition he sent to the General of the Jesuits on June 14, 1654, praying that he might be allowed to continue in Rome and dwell with the Oratoriau Fathers at San Girolamo della Carita. The necessary permission was granted, and for three years he lived among the Oratorians, waiting until such time as his superiors might judge it well to send him to Ireland. In those days every Irish student had to take an oath that Tie, would return home after his ordination and face the danger of persecution and death which awaited him at the hands of he English, who loved Ireland then as they do now. As we have seen, Oliver Plunket was dispensed from his obligation for a time. And while he was at San Girolamo the fame of his learning became known abroad, with the result that he was invited to take the chair of theology in the College of Propaganda, a post he filled with distinction for twelve years. In 1668 he was nominated Archbishop of Armagh, and at the end of August in that year he bade farewell to Rome and went to Ireland. It is related that before he left he went to visit at the hospital of Spirit© Santo a Polish priest of great sanctity who embracing him said: “My lord, you are going now to shed your blood tor the Catholic Faith.” The words were prophetic. On the octave day of St. John the Baptist, July 1, 1681, ho was executed at Tyburn, where his head was cut off and his body quartered. As the Pope remarked, speaking of the Beatification of this heroic martyr, it will bring a special joy to the present and past children of the old Collegio Irlandese, which prepared Oliver Plunket so well for his great life and his glorious end. The hearts of all the priests who were educated in the same alma mater will be uplifted by the tidings of this new glory of their mother. Many will flock to Rome to share in the glory when the beatification takes place, and those of us who cannot attend will be there in spirit. There is no country where English is spoken that has not received bishops and priests from the college that prepared Oliver Plunket for Heaven. Not to mention the numbers of distinguished sons she has given to Ireland, she gave to Australasia Cardinal Moran, the present Archbishop of Sydney, the Arch bishop of ftpipbftUg, tpfi IlEhOjj of jji]pfgj||i, anti in Or,

Croke, a Bishop to Auckland. We who have lived within her walls are familiar with the portraits of distinguished churchmen that line the corridors, bringing back every day the memory of those old years when the same price was set on the head of a wolf and of an Irish priest. The faces of Oliver Plunket, of the brave Bishop Heber Macmahon, of bishops who lived and died in distant lands true to the traditions of our missionary forebears, of Cardinals whose learning and piety are an honor to the Irish Church, of theologians and scholars whose scholarship was an ornament to the college, became well known to us in the days when we walked where they had walked before us. They taught us as they looked down silently from the walls that it was our business there to learn how to imitate them and to profit bv their high example: Mementote praepositonnn vestronnn imitamini fidem. Generations of students come and go even as the bloom comes and goes on the orange trees in the garden, or as the clear water flows out of the fountain across which, tradition has it, Dr. Croke once leaped when he was a student; but the pictures on the walls look down unchangingly, and the little lamp burns, year in year out, in the chapel where we knelt so many mornings long ago. To us who are proud of our alma mater, and to all Irishmen and Irishwomen, the news of the Beatification of our martyr-Archbishop and patriot is glad tidings. Let us not forget that through the Communion of Saints he is with us and watching over us. Let us not forget Ireland also.