“THE CANDOR OF SMUTS”

New Zealand Tablet, 30 May 1918, Page 23

“THE CANDOR OF SMUTS”

Mr. P. J. O’Reg under date Wellington, May 22, writes thus to the editor of the Evening Post : Sir, —Your eulogy of General Smuts in the Post of Monday last calls for some comment. The cable message which evoked that eulogy told us that in the course of a speech at Glasgow University, General Smuts, in referring to Ireland, stated that he did not “admit the right of anybody to be an exception to the common obligation of common duties.” Apparently the General forgot that in his own country there is no conscription for service abroad. On tire eve of the last South African elections, his friend, General Botha, in the course of a policy speech, gave an undertaking that no man would be commandeered for Europe,” and quite recently he found it necessary to reiterate that assurance, saying that he had trouble enough in hand without attempting conscription. Thus we find that South Africa furnishes an illustration of the very exception of which General Smuts disapproves. Again, it may fairly be pointed out that, although she refuses to accept conscription, the smoke had barely lifted from her battlefields when South Africa was granted selfgovernment. Ireland, on the other hand, after years of sustained and orderly endeavor to obtain a right which she has maintained through upwards of seven centuries, found herself cheated and betrayed because a Liberal Government cowered before a truculent clique of reactionaries who openly prepared for civil war. Moreover, she has seen the warmongers rewarded. She has seen the Carsons, the Milners, and Smiths promoted to Ministerial rank ! In the face of such amazing facts, it sounds just a little impudent for General Smuts to lecture Irishmen about their duties.