The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1919. THE ELECTIONS AND SINN FEIN

New Zealand Tablet, 9 January 1919, Page 25

T he New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1919. THE ELECTIONS AND SINN FEIN

LOYD GEORGE and the Coalitionists §11? IB secured a victory beyond tlieir expectatLOYD GEORGE and they-won itthey secured a victory beyond their expectations. We do not say they won it—they : got about 30 per cent, of the British votes. It is sufficient to say that they secured it; and time will tell what is to VTffik be the verdict of the people on the means they employed. No doubt they had a great advantage over all other parties: a Government that protected people like Moritz Mond and backed the directors of the “Dope”, fraud ought surely be well-provided with Party funds and it goes without saying that the sale of honors must have been a profitable business. Anyhow or somehow they secured a majority. They are in power for the present, just as

the Jingoes who were responsible for the-crime-of. South Africa got into power by playing on the excited -feelings of the people. Moreover, as far as the hollowness of political pledges goes, they are pledged to oppose -Hie resolutions of President Wilson on which, the, armistice was founded. It is remarkable that there. ie a want of agreement in the English press as to the -actual Coalition majority over all other parties. The cables tell that while some give the Coalitionists a bare majority of 45 over all others, there are other computations which give them a, majority, of as. many as 262. However this may be— it is not without bearing on the future— is quite certain that, what Lloyd George has. done is to destroy his old Party and to establish the Tories firmly in power for the present. He has kicked away the ladder on which he climbed how -long will it be before the Tories kick; away their .unscrupulous tool whose truest epitaph is found, in the . words which Swift Mac Neill wrote to the Can-temporary Review last year: No foreign statesman who has followed the doings of the Government in Ireland could with safety to himself or his own Government trust the word of a British statesman ? Lloyd George’s achievement up to date is that he has made it possible to put on record that damning verdict on the dishonor and untruth of the Government which he led during the war. n Let us leave him to his victory, and turn to Ireland. As we predicted, Sinn Fein has carried all before it at the polls, and the Nationalist Party is dead. John Dillon, who got his chance to be-faithful to the traditions of his father and lost it, was beaten in his own constituency by de Valera. The old Party had dwindled down to half a dozen, while * Sinn Fein, backed by the Independents, among whom will be found William O’Brien and T. M. Healy,is now the strongest and most united Irish Party since the days of O’Connell. At last we have the undeniable proof of the truth which we have repeated time and again*- while the “Propaganda” press was denying it: Sinn Fein represents Ireland There is no room for doubt on that point any more, though we *notice - that one - press liar of hoary and disreputable - notoriety - 5 continues - to deny it. Another lie that has received . even . official refutation is the oft-repeated- press canard, published with the intention of discrediting .Sinn Fein : and arousing hatred of it, that Sinn Fein would mot- be satisfied -with less than total .separation from England. We have more than once explained that the majority of the Sinn Feiners—and now by Sinn Feiners we mean the Irish people at home and abroad—would be satisfied with Colonial Home Rule, , and ~ that their demand amounts to asking that England make -reparation for the scandalous tearing up of a sacred pledge that the Irish people should be governed by ■an Irish Parliament. Moreover, de Valera, who was supposed to be a firebrand (which is not true), also pledged himself to the acceptance of Colonial' Home Rule. Now we have a cable telling us that Mr. Shortt, the Chief Secretary, says : “I do not consider. that the large Sinn Fein vote in the recent elections shows a demand for separation from England. I believe that from 60 to 70 per cent, of the Sinn Feiners can ; be : persuaded to accept Home Rule.’’ Words could not be plainer than that, but it is by no means certain that this official testimony will put an : end to the misrepresentations in our shameless Jingo press, and no doubt those who are paid to forge historical documents , and <to lie boldly will go on their unhonored way ; until their decrepit bones fall into the grave that awaits such anonymous ruffians. Sinn Fein has won ft has won in spite of calumny at home and ’abroad,- in spite, of * broken pledges, in spite of trumped-up charges and arrests of innocent men and women that , remind one of the blackest stories of the tyranny of Russia,. Sinn Fein, oppressed and persecuted, with .* its leaders in gaol .on lying accusations, has. won in Ireland, , while the ; man who was responsible for the -lies and the injustice and the broken pledges has won in England. All honor to the Irish people ! - *■ , -

, ; A last .lie remains to be noticed. ;- We ; are told that - Sinn Fein is embarrassed .. as the leaders - -are •in gaol, (owing ;to the Prussian ~ methods of the British Government), and that only inexperienced men remain to form a policy * Now that is about as silly a lie as even the , English press liars ever sent out -f&r the consumption. of - fools. First of all, Eoin McNeill is not in gaol. And you have only to compare him with Sir Robert Stout or r Mr. Hanan *to realise what -sort of guidance Sinn Fein will have compared with ours. Then the Irish Bishops and the priests are not in gaol so far as we know;-and;they are Sinn Feiners in ; spite of all the lies about them past and present. One can sit down and laugh when on© reads the statement sent out by some idiot in a Harmsworth office to the effect that the Sinn Feiners are embarrassed for want of guides. Only a fool would send-forth such a lie, and only a press like ours would be -silly enough , to publish it. It is in keeping with the • time-honored lie that the Irish people are too ignorant to rule themselves against which is the standing fact that no country ever made such progress as did Ireland during the short reign of the Irish Parliament. Sinn Fein has leader's out of gaol as well as in gaol ; and moreover it has a policy which is most annoying at present to the proud champions of small nations oppressed, not by themselves but by the ‘ ‘other fellow. Its policy is to wait and see if President Wilson is a man of his word; and failing him, it will go on to conduct the affairs of Ireland as the Hungarians once conducted those of Hungary, with contempt and disregard for the laws of them that rule Ireland as the Kaiser, would rule Belgiumby might not right. That policy would not have been possible three years ago. Now it is possible because the Lloyd George Government by its atrocious conduct has driven every sane Irishman and woman to the ranks of Sinn Fein. And what the people are at home, so are we, if worthy to belong to the greater Ireland abroad, Sinn Feiners all to-day. And- shall it last, this Union, To grind and waste ns so? O'er kill and lea, from- sea to sea, All Ireland' thunders, NO! Four million■ necks are stff to how — We know our might as men-; We conquered once before, and now We'll conquer once again, And rend the cursed Union , . ‘ . And fling it to the. wind— And Ireland's laws in Ireland’s cause Alone our hearts shall hind.