CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 22 August 1918, Page 19

CONSCRIPTION IN IRELAND.

To the Editor. ~' . . Sir, —The accompanying letter, which, in the interests of fair play, I ask you to publish, was sent to the Otago Daily Times in reply to a comment on . Conscription in Ireland by “Civis,” a contributor to that paper. A summary only, bearing but a faint resemblance to the original, appeared under the heading ; of “Condensed Correspondence’' in the Otago Daily Times of August 15. — 1 am, etc., J. Robinson. South Dunedin, August 16. The Editor Otago Daily Times. Sir, — “Civis” is evidently recovering from the wounds he received in his last attack on the Irish, for he is now well enough to commence another offensive. In his latest effort with the aid of the New York Times and a Texas paper which doesn’t seem to have a name, he strafes the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Irish bishops because they are opposed to Conscription being enforced in Ireland. The New York Times belongs to the Northcliffe press ring, and, as in duty bound, it tells its readers that the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who was deputed to lay the case .against Conscription in Ireland before President Wilson, would not be welcomed in America. -That the British Government did not share this view is evidenced by the fact that it required the Lord Mayor to submit to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the documents which were intended for the eye of President Wilson alone. Of course the Lord Mayor could not assent to this, .and the visit had to be abandoned. It was not, however, as has been said, because the Lord Mayor was doubtful of his welcome in America, but because the British Government did not wish President Wilson to hear how a small nation was being treated by the very people who are supposed to be fighting for the rights of small nations. If “Givis’ ’ wished to be impartial he would not have expended all his powder and shot on the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Irish bishops, but he would have condemned also every responsible person, body, and journal by whom Conscription was opposed. Mr. Asquith and Lord Wimborne opposed it. The Manchester Guardian , the Nation the New Witness, and the Westminster Gazette opposed it. The reason given for the opposition was that Conscription in Ireland was contrary to the principles for which the Allies are said to be fighting—namely, the rights of small nations and the right of self-determina-tion. At the Ulster Presbyterian Assembly several clergymen, in protesting strongly against Conscription, said they were glad to hide behind the coat-tails of Sinn Fein. In the South of Ireland there is a Unionist Anti-conscription League, which has a membership of several thousand. General Botha said the British Government would not dare to impose Conscription on South Africa. Conscription was rejected in Australia, and it should be noted that the majority of soldiers at the Front voted against it. In order to carry it in Canada the Government found it necessary to allow only those women to vote who had relatives at the Front. The British Government has no greater right to impose Conscription on Ireland than on Australia, South Africa, Canada, or New Zealand. Its only authority to make laws for Ireland is the Act of Union, and as that Act, as has been repeatedly admitted by English statesmen themselves, was placed upon the Statute Book by fraudulent means (The most vile and base proceeding in history, Mr. Gladstone terms it), it follows that there is no real authority at all. It is the opinion of many that the National Cabinet by its Irish policy is doing its utmost to lose the war. Other nations • cannot be expected to believe .that British Ministers are sincere in their war aims. The words, “rights of small nations,” almost ceaselessly flow from the lips of Mr. Lloyd George. Lord Robert Cecil, speaking at the Mansion House, said that “the German belief was that you can dragoon free nations into artificial unity and make them accept alien rulers. On the other hand, you have the principles for which we stand freedom, the old doctrine of which we in

this country have reason to be proud, that'government must be carried out with the consent of the governed; that no greatness, no culture, no national existence can he built upon the oppression and subjugation of nations rightly struggling to be free. Those are our principles.” Is it any wonder that the Huns can laugh in derision and tell the nations of the world to “look at Ireland’’ ? Lord Robert was speaking of the peoples subject to Austrian and Russian rule, but Russia never treated her Jews worse than Great Britain treated Ireland, and Austria gave the Poles far better treatment in every way, as to language, religion, and liberty, than ever Ireland received from Britain. When Britain declared war on Germany there was great enthusiasm in Ireland, because Britain, who had just consented to give Ireland u, Parliament of her own, was going to defend the rights of a small nation ; but the enthusiasm was soon killed, because the IrMi were quickly made to understand that they were to fight, not for freedom, but as galley-slaves for their masters. They were to aid in freeing every small nation except their own. If the Government had upheld the democratic principles it professed it would have had the aid of another half million men of Irish blood in the first year of the war, and it would have had America’s help not one year ago, but two or three more. Even under the ruling conditions, Ireland has done remarkably well. She has sent 300,000 men to the Front, and if America sends the same percentage of her population she will send 7,000,000. It is surprising that under the circumstances they have done so well. They are not asked to fight for freedom, but for the Balfours and the Lansdownes, Carson and his Orangemen, who calumniate and villify their national claims and scoff at their religious faith, and hold them in bondage because of it. A writer in the Glasgow Observer says that “British policy in Ireland has made Sinn Feiners by the hundreds of thousands, and advises the Government that if it wants to make millions more to continue as it is doing, and it will be astonished at its success ; and if it wishes to imperil the Empire it will be gratified. Now, Sir, I claim to have shown that the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Irish bishops were justified in opposing a measure which is opposed also by responsible leaders, bodies, and newspapers : and I hope I may be pardoned if I advise “Givis” to give up writing and to try potato-digging.—l am, etc., J. Robinson. South Dunedin August 10.