Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 7 August 1919, Page 14

Current Topics

King Billians Fall Out The Carsonites suffered a serious reverse at the recent East Antrim, election. Every nerve was strained to secure the return of the Carsonite nominee. Press and plutocrat did their bit. Carson himself issued a solemn declaration that if his man was not elected he would resign. Well, to make a long story short his man was - not elected nor did Carson keep his word. The press was very sore over the whole business. It was all the sorer because those wicked Nationalist papers were rejoicing over the situation. The real significance of the result is that for the first time the Ulster democracy have defied the “bosses’' and not only selected but elected their own man. How interested in Major Moore’s victory the Carsonites were may be gathered from the fact that at one of the meetings Mr. Thomas Moles, M.P. for Larne, told his hearers that he came to the constituency charged with a message hot from their leader’s lips.” The message from Carson was “IF THEY VOTED FOR MR. HANNA AND PROCEEDED TO MOCK UNIONISM, THEY MIGHT LOOK OUT FOR A NEW LEADER.” After the defeat, after the mocking of Unionism, Carson was asked if he would keep his word and retire. His answer was that he had no statement to make! What the Americans Saw The report of the American envoys was suppressed by the Censor in Ireland, However, the Daily News managed to get hold of it and to publish some extracts from which we may judge the rest. In order to reveal the truth to those compassionate people who were so hysterical over alleged Hun atrocities some years ago and to give them something real to go on with we publish an extract which deals with the visit to the political prisoners in Mountjoy Gaol. We wish to make it plain that these things did not happen in Russian dungeons, nor in Prussian prisons: they happened under British rule in a small nation fighting for self-determination : “The governor told us that we were to be admitted to the prison, but with the understanding that we should not speak to any prisoner nor seek to fix the identity of any prisoner exhibited. . . One of the men who accompanied us upon the visit was an official of the city of Dublin, well acquainted with all of the political prisoners, so that we had no difficulty in identifying them. They were confined for the most part in groups, the majority of them being locked up in steel cages built in the yards of the prison outside of the buildings proper. These cages are exact duplicates of those used for wild animals in the larger zoological gardens, such as Lincoln Park and the Bronx in the United States. , . “We found a great number of cells underground too narrow for human occupation, without beds or covering for the prisoners, no ventilation, pitch dark and extremely cold, although the weather at the time was not severe. The chief warden admitted that these cells were at times occupied by prisoners. Our information, well authenticated, was to the effect that a large number of political prisoners were taken out of the underground cells after we had demanded admission the night previous. “We found one of the political prisoners still in solitary confinement. He presented a pitiable spectacle. The miserable cell was cold and badly ventilated. He was in an unkempt condition, highly nervous, palpably undernourished, and had a wild glare in his eyes, indicating an extremely dangerous mental state. He tried to speak to us, but was quickly silenced by the warden. • “The political prisoners in this gaol without exception are men of the highest standing: journalists, lawyers, business men, skilled tradesmen and laborers. Many of them, confined for months, have not been in-

formed of the charge against them. All of them are denied the ■ right pf trial by jury. When charges are made— of the most trivial characterbail is denied. They were all emaciated and appeared to be suffering from malnutrition. Of the thousands of German prisoners we have seen in France, none of them showed such a wretched physical condition or had countenances so marked with pain as the prisoners in Mountjoy- ‘ ‘As we were leaving the prison wo were attracted by shouts in the rear of the main hall of the prison. Looking around, we saw Pierce Beazley, one of the political prisoners, an Irish journalist of the highest standing and one of the most beloved men in Ireland, being hustled through the back doorway by a burly prison guard. Beazley cried out: ‘I want to call your attention to the fact that this brute, who has me in charge,, is about to punish me for saying, “Long live the Republic!”’ We immediately protested against the assault, on Mr. Beazley. The governor of the prison hastened back to where the men were, and after a hurried whispered conversation with the guard returned and said that we could be assured that no punishment would be inflicted upon Mr. Beazley.” The report deals with various other matters, and makes serious specific charges. Sound Catholicism Environment is a powerful influence for good or evil. It affects not only physical qualities such as strength and stature, but also, and in no less degree, moral habits and intellectual views. In an atmosphere of paganism, among people whose principles are material and utilitarian, it is inevitable that Catholics will suffer, and that the suffering will be greatest among the weakwilled and the weak-minded and the least spiritual. The law of the survival of the fittest is verified here. While adverse conditions may be utilised by the more robust for their improvement, they must influence deleteriously the weaker brethren—and sisters. Hence in countries which are predominantly pagan—or Protestant, which is nearly the same thing nowadays—we may expect to find Catholics who, while professing the faith and holding on fast to the essentials, have, nevertheless, a very un-Catholic mentality and very unsound views about matters which are as clear as daylight to the right-minded. Father Rope, M.A., an" English priest, has some very hard sayings on this subject for certain of his fellow-Catholics under the Union Jack. We refer to them here because we have time and again had to say almost the same things to certain “Cawtholics” under the Southern Cross. “I am a Catholic,” he says; “so far from being ashamed of that name, I glory in —and in nothing else. . . . But there is a so-called British Catholicism (and West British !) . . . of Anglican mentality, often orthodox in words and the contrary in deeds, the Catholicism of Mrs. Craven’s letters about Ireland, the Catholicism that speaks from Orange platforms, makes friends of the Church’s worst enemies, clamors for conscription, places the whole duty of man in hatred of a people at war with us in a conflict whose authorship is not yet clear (whatever successful journalists may proclaim), joins in a truly fiendish plot to force conscription on Ireland (and tries to commit the Holy See to that exploit), corrects the faith by substituting German nationality for original sin, carps at the Holy Father’s efforts for peace, winks at the seizure of Rome and secret treaties, cries break with Austria while flattering the Third Italy and French Freemasonry . . . plays the game of Codlin and Short with the Almighty, vainly imagines that ‘Rome leans on the English-speaking Churches’ (I happen to know that this is a delusion), and screams for ‘the strong hand’ in Ireland whilS prating of oversea Huns. That is clearly not the Catholicism of Rome, and therefore none at all.” Strong, hard words those, dear reader, but every one of them rings true. Have we not the same brand of “Cawtholics” here? The “my country right or wrong” variety, the flag-flappers, and the maffickers, the “toney”- gentry who , daily sell their

birthright for a mess of imperial potage, the weakminded who will howl over Prussianism when done in Belgium but will never find a word of sorrow when it is done by OUll EMPIRE in the land of their honest parents, the brainless and the spineless and the heartless and the faithless who go with the crowd and help effectively to add to Ireland’s burden and to assist the enemies of the religion which ought to be dearer to them than anything on God’s earth if they had only souls to realise it. When we think of the simple, honest Irish fathers and mothers whom they despise and whose shoes they will never be worthy to loose, we- often ask ourselves, how did the apostasyfor it is hardly less come about? How did such a progeny spring from such a stock ? Where are the fine old Catholic principles that defied the power of England and gave Ireland her glorious martyrs ? Where are the principles for which our fathers died ? And it all comes back to the consideration from which we started. It is the environment, the godless schools, the pagan politicians, the decay of morals, the weakening of paternal authority, the pursuit of pleasure, and the want of character towards which all these things contribute inevitably. “British Catholicism,” indeed ! We cannot for sheer pity's sake pass it by with Dante’s scornful Non ragionianio! But let us pray for them all. Daughters of New Zealand We take it for granted that most of our New Zealand girls frequently devote themselves to the unprofitable and not very elevating custom of admiring their charms in a looking-glass. It may not be out of place for us to hold up before them a metaphorical mirror in which they can see themselves clearly without the deceptive medium of their own vanity and the more or less important aberrations thereunto due. According to a London correspondent, quoted by the Oyunakc Times, one of our own soldiers when in England gave to an interviewer a by no means flattering explanation of the fact that many New Zealand boys married girls in the Home countries : “One of the men spoken to, who confessed that he was not married, seemed rather brutal about the New Zealand girls. In answer to a certain question, he said there were plenty of girls in New Zealand, but he did not blame the fellows for not marrying them. In his opinion they were too stuck up; they wanted when married a life of ease and luxury, with no work, plenty amusements, and no end of fine clothes. ‘I wouldn’t marry one’ of them,’ he added, 'and the blokes are sensible to get hitched up before they go back.’ Another said : ‘Here the girls have been brought up in a different way. They are taught that home is their proper sphere. Down there things are not the same. The girls do not take the same interest in home life.’” The reasons given may or may not bo the explanation of the facts. However,' there is no denying that the speakers uttered some very bitter and very wholesome truths. - In Ireland and in France the homely virtues are still to be found. Ireland especially holds fast to the ideals which are all-important for the regeneration of the world; to the purity of womanhood, the sanctity of marriage, the love of children for parents and the appreciation by parents of their duties and obligations towards their children. The soldier, no doubt, spoke mainly of English girls. In England, for one reason or anotherperhaps on account of the decay of real religion among the masses, perhaps because of the scandal of frequent divorce cases reported with sickening details in the pressthe old-fashioned Christian ideals are not found as whole and as strong as they are both in Ireland and in France. Nevertheless, there is more home life in England and more public regard for purity and decency than in New Zealand. English parents, especially of the middle classes, know their duty better and . do it more conscientiously than parents in New Zealand. On the whole, our critic expressed the ■ matter well when he said that the girls in the old countries are ‘ ‘ta,ught that home is their

proper sphere;” and 1 that the colonial girls "wanted a married life of ease and luxury,' with no work, plenty of amusements, and no end of fine clothes.” This candid report hurts; and it hurts all .the more because it is the truth. Some time ago we wrote about a kindred subject, pointing out how hopeless is the future of this country if it depends on the “flappers” of to-day, with their latch-keys, their cigarettes, their wines and. spirits (in far, far too many cases), their knowledge of French of a kind not restricted to irregular verbs, their insane love of pleasure, their lack of restraint, their prodigal extravagance in dress. When .we keep our eyes open, when we hear - what we cannot help hearing about the girls of our towns, and remember that they will be the mothers of the future, we may well pause to ask what will the children be —if indeed one can mention children to a large part of modern womanhood without being regarded as old-fashioned. Here comes in the thought of another phase of the selfishness in connection with a subject as delicate as it is important. Enough for us is it to ask again what sort in quantity as well as in quality will be- the future generation that depends on the “flappers” of to-day and tomorrow. The evils hinted at in that homely soldier's talk are unfortunately very real and very dangerous. Like a man of common sense he would hesitate before choosing as a life-partner and as the mother of his children the pleasure-loving, vain, extravagant, uncontrolled modern New Zealand girl who in her folly thinks that her display and her “fast” manners will find her a husband, whereas, as a matter of fact, the thinking men will be warned off by these very things. Some time ago, dining with a friend in a restaurant many miles from Dunedin, we made some remark on the display of furs and costly attire all around us. He was a single man, and his sole comment was to say that the average man had to think more than twice before he asked a girl whose dress cost so much to marry him. It was but an echo of what the soldier said to his friend in England, and a confirmation of what we have been, saying here. Lack of character is at the root of such folly. And lack of home-life and of proper parents is at the root of the want in character. It all comes back to the fact that our young people are living in a pagan atmosphere, encouraged by pagan politicians to drive God out of their hearts as the Government drives Him out of the schools. It all comes back to the sad truth that the schools of New Zealand are undermining the morals and the manners of the race, and that Mr. Han an stands for ruin and desolation worse than ever .the war brought upon us. In an old, old book which the “flapper” seldom or never reads you will find the following words: The grace of a diligent woman shall delight her husband ... ■ . • ■ Her discipline is the gift of God. Such is a wise and silent woman, and there is nothing so much worth as a ell-instructed soul. A holy and shamefaced woman is grace upon grace. And no price is wori\hy of a continent soul. Sot against the foregoing these other words which are found in the selfsame book; The sadness of the heart is every plague: and the wickedness of a woman is all evil. And a man will choose any plague hut the plague of the heart. A wicked woman ahateth courage and maketh a heavy countenance, and, a wounded heart. Feeble hands and disjointed knees, a woman that doth not make. her husband happy . As a yoke of owed that is moved to and fro, so also is a wicked woman; he that hath hold of her, is as he that taketh hold of a scorpion. ... There in the inspired words of Ecclesiasticus are two pictures ; the one of the woman who makes a home for her husband and her children; the other of the woman who drives man from home and rears up children to despise her. There, too, is at once a lesson and a warning for the girls of to-day who will be the wives of toonorro-vy, Unless the lesson is learned and the

warning heeded, what of the future? If some strong man would hose the, pagans out of their talking-shop in Wellington and put in their place Christian statesmen who believe in God and realise that only in His fear and love can this country be saved, he would be the saviour of New Zealand. As long as we have the weak-kneed placemen, the unprincipled vote-catchers, the time-servers and lip-servers, so long are we likely to have the godless schools and the godless youths they turn loose on the land. Eat and drink, for to-morrow you die, is the motto of the girls to-day. And so surely as they are concerned only about eating and drinking and dressing, so surely will the Dominion die.