PREACHING VERSUS PRACTICE IN IRELAND, 1914-1918

New Zealand Tablet, 14 August 1919, Page 11

PREACHING VERSUS PRACTICE IN IRELAND, 1914-1918

: \ .. ._ » , —r-r—----(By Archbishop Redwood.)

I.—Preaching. It is claimed by not a few that the British Empire is founded, not on might, but on the moral principles of liberty, justice, and right. This may be largely true concerning the British Dominions, but it is entirely false in reference to Ireland. The war aims were trumpeted again and again, with clear notes, ringing through the whole world and the fine phrases of President Wilson echoed them sonorously. Let us review some of these utterances in chronological order. August 6, 1914: "We are fighting to vindicate the principle that small nationalities are not- to be crushed,- in defiance of international good faith, by the arbitrary will of a strong and overmastering power." (Asquith, Prime Minister.) September 4, 1914: "We.are fighting for right against might." (Bonar Law, Guildhall.) September 19, 1914: "If we had stood by when two little nations were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarism, our shame would have rung down the everlasting ages." (Lloyd George, Guildhall.) \ ' September 25, 1914: "Room must be found and kept for the independent existence and free development of the smaller nationalities, each with a corporate consciousness of its own." (Asquith, at Dublin.) November 9, 1914: "We fight (five nations), not for ourselves alone, but for civilisation, drawn to the cause of small States, the cause of all those countries which desire to develop their own civilisation in their own way, following their own ideals, without interference from any insolent and unauthorised aggressor. That is the cause for which we fight." (Balfour, Guildhall.) November 9, 1914: "We shall never sheath the sword, which we have not lightly drawn, until the rights of the smaller nationalities of Europe are placed upon an unassailable foundation, and until the military domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed." (Asquith, Guildhall.) March 22, 1915: "We wish the nations of Europe to be free to live their independent lives, working out their own form of government for themselves, and their own material development, whether they be great States or small States, in full liberty." (Sir Edward Grey, Bechstein Hall.) September 25, 1915 :' "Let us war against the principle of one set of Europeans holding down, by force and conquest against their wills, another section." (Winston Churchill, The Times.) November 9, 1915: "We shall not falter until we have secured for the smaller States of Europe their charter of independence, and for the world at large its final emancipation from the reign of force.". (Asquith, Guildhall.) April 19, 1916 "We .are in this struggle the champions, not only of treaty rights, but of the independent status and development of the weaker countries." • (Asquith, address to French Senators in London.) November 9, 1917: "The British Government heartily joins Russian allies in their acceptance and approval of the principles laid down by President Wilson in his historic message to the American Congress." (British reply to Russian Government.) Now that historic message was this: "We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts —for democracy, for the right of those who subnet to authority, to have a voice in their own government, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for the'universal domination of right by such a concert of free peoples as will bring peace and safety to all nations, and make the world itself at last free." (April 2, 1917.) September 6, 1917: "But if this is the'day of great empires, it is also pre-eminently the day of little nations. It is around them that the greatest struggle for liberty centres." (Lloyd George; Birkenhead.) "

September 26, 19.17: “For the first time in history we may make an advance to the realisation of an ideal to which great men . . . have been groping their way. ... It is the creation of a world-wide policy uniting ■the peoples in a confederation of which Justice will be the base and Liberty the coronation.” (Asquith, at Leeds.) January 5, 1918: “We feel that government with the consent of the governed must be the basis of any territorial' settlement in the war.” (Lloyd George Trade Union Conference.) May 22, 1918: “No real culture, no national existence could be built upon oppression and the subjugation of nations rightly struggling to be free.” (Lord Robert Cecil.) July 5, 1918 “President Wilson yesterday made it clear what we are fighting for. If the Kaiser and his advisers will accept the conditions voiced by the President, they can have peace with America, peace with France, and peace with Great Britain to-morrow.” (Lloyd George, address to American troops in France.) How do these great and sonorous statements apply to Ireland ? a country aptly called by Hilaire Belloc (one of the best-informed publicists in Europe), “the oldest conscious nationality in Europe,” and of’ which Cardinal Mercier, a man of deservedly world-wide fame, says: “It is inconceivable that Ireland’s right to selfdetermination and nationhood be not recognised by the free nations of the world at the Peace Conference. Your country, the most faithful and venerable daughter of the Church, deserves justice from all mankind, and must surely receive it. The Irish people are the oldest and purest nationality in Europe, and their noble adhesion to faith and nationality the most glorious record in history.” (Message to Ireland.)

IT. Practice.

In the year of England’s declaration of war on Germany, it seemed hopeful to Ireland’s friends that ihe long constitutional struggle fox* national autocracy was about to close. A Home Rule Bill, very imperfect, no doubt, but still capable of much good, if later amended, had, after two years of merciless opposition, passed three times through the House of Commons] and awaited only the automatic operation of the Parliament Act to pass into law. • It represented, in Asquith s words, “a solemn international obligation, an obligation which, if it had been entered into between private persons in the ordinary concerns of life, would have been regarded as an obligation not only of law, but of honor.” But its enactment as opposed by a most violent and unconstitutional course. A small number mere handful of the Irish people, mostly occupying the north-east of Ulster, with the powerful assistance of the English aristocracy— eternal - foes of Irish rights and libertiesdetermined to thwart the thrice-repeated decision of Parliament. They openly preached rebellion, they drilled men, they landed arms —German aimsthey invoked the assistance of the Kaiser, they defied the forces of the Crown, and seduced their commanders from their allegiance. Nay, more, the Protestant Church of Ulster— the mouth of its leading dignitariessolemnly blessed and consecrated these criminal performances. Nor was this nefarious conduct confined to Ulster. Bonar Law and his party stormed the platforms of England with the protestation that if Ulster resisted the law she would not be alone. Then the Government, after an alternate trial of compromise and bluff, lapsed into semi-paralysed impotence. Finally, in March, 1914, they proposed a settlement by county option— each county receiving the right to vote itself out of the Bill; and in June an amending Bill embodying these proposals was introduced in the House of Lords. When matters were coming to a crisis, the King, two weeks before the outbreak of the war, took the unprecedented step of summoning the various party leaders to a conference, in hopes of reaching a compromise on the basis of defining an area in Ulster to be excluded from the operation of the Bill. After four meetings the conference could not agree either in principle or detail to such an area. This

was on July 24. < Then came - the war, - and - for six weeks : the Government declined to deal with the ;Irish situation at all. On September 16 Asquith at last brought in a Suspensory Bill, preventing the Home Rule Act from coming into force until the end of the war, at the same time declaring that the coercion, of Ulster was unthinkable. From September 18 the Home Rule Bill remained in a state of suspended animation on the Statute Book. - On October 2 Sir Edward Carson, at Belfast, declared the Home Rule Act .to be a nullity and dared anyone to enforce it in Ulster. Imagine what deep irritation and suspicion such proceedings aroused in Ireland; yet, in spite of all, Redmond was able to announce in Dublin, April 5, 1915, that over 25,000 National Volunteers had joined the British Army in response to his appeal, and that in all a quarter of a million Irishmen were with the colors. This was a wonderfully generous response, considering how recruiting had been mismanaged and discouraged, as Lloyd George himself admitted in the House of Commons (October 18, 1916) when he said that “some of the stupidities (that sometime looked like malignities) which were perpetrated at the beginning of the recruiting in Ireland are beyond belief. Affronts both public and private were offered to the Irish regiments; Redmond’s own offer of the service of the Volunteers for Home Defence had been ignored. The situation was further aggravated when a Coalition Ministry was set up, May 19, 1915, comprising Sir E. Carson, AttorneyGeneral; Sir F. E. Smith, Solicitor-General; Mr. Bonar Law, Secretary for the Colonies; Mr. Walter Long, president of the Local Government Board; Mr. John Gordon, Attorney-General for Ireland. It at once became clear that Ireland had been sold again, and forthwith the Constitutional party steadily lost ground. Exasperation born of disillusionment ended naturally in the rebellion of April, 1916. This event, though localised and lacking general support, was destined to mark a turning-point in the history of Ireland. Asquith’s visit to Dublin, Belfast, and Cork, immediately after the rebellion, in which he consulted the civil and military authorities, resulted in his announcing, on his return, in the House of Commons, that Dublin Castle rule in Ireland had broken down, and that the Government bad asked Lloyd George to negotiate with the Irish leaders for the purpose of reaching a settlement. That settlement (whatever its merits or demerits) was, on Juno 9 accepted by the Ulster Unionists, and on June 23 by the Ulster Nationalists. But the die-hard element in England resolved to wreck it. On June 25 Lord Selborne, the President of the Board of Agriculture, • a member of the Cabinet, made a bitter anti-Irish speech in the House of Lords, in which he declared that the exclusion of the Ulster Counties would be permanent. Finally, on July 24, Asquith announced that the Government would not agree to one of the principal terms of the settlement arranged with the full consent and approval of their own plenipotentiary, Mr. George, namely, the retention of the Irish members in full strength at Westminster. Redmond immediately denounced the breach of faith, and the settlement fell through. In December,

1916, Lloyd George became Prime Minister. In March, 1917, to placate America, then about to enter the war, Bonar Law again attempted an Irish settlement, by means of the Irish Convention, foredoomed to failure, owing to two imposed condition, namely(l) that something like complete unanimity should be achieved, and (2) that North-East Ulster should not be compelled to accept the findings—conditions both unjust and undemocratic. After the Convention failure, Lloyd George took up the task of settling the Irish question, and set about it by applying the Conscription Act to Ireland on the same day (April 10) as they published the Convention Report. Against this new and terrible attack on their liberty, the Irish people instantly closed up their ranks. The Mansion House Conference, repreup uiit?n i tiiiika. a lie iYi_ctiisu>ii nuuse representing all shades of Nationalist opinion, and backed by the organised power of Labor and the Church, decisively defeated this wicked and disgraceful conspiracy. Humiliated, but unconverted, the Government hit back. Scrapping at once all attempts to draft a fresh Home Rule Bill, they appointed a military dictator to “keep law and order’ in Ireland. "While, at fre-

quent intervals' they rattled the Conscription Act, like a sword of Damocles, over : the Irish heads, they radically changed the Irish 'Executive, and removed all or nearly all who had sympathy with Irish nationality. In explanation the Government alleged a German plot, which had no existence. And for alleged complicity in this German plot 81 persons were arrested and deported to England. During practically 10 months they were kept in prison without trial, though the Government failed to substantiate any definite charge against them, and failed to prove even the existence of the plot. Could a better specimen of Prussian militarism be produced ? But many more equally tyrannical actions are on record.

The General Election of December, 1918, with its overwhelming Sinn Fein victory, registered Ireland’s unanswerable claim to self-determination, for all parties on the platform were united. How was this claim met? “Ily the arbitrary will of a strong and overmastering power,” by coercion and repression—the usual .means to crush a small nationality. Arrests for the most trivial political offences were continuous. Vindictive and excessive sentences were imposed for the smallest offences. For instance, a month’s imprisonment for collecting in the streets; two months’ imprisonment for being suspected of drilling; for giving a name in Irish, and so on. Why, in 1918, there were 1107 arrests, 260 raids, 81 baton and bayonet charges, 32 public meetings suppressed, 91 deportations, 12 papers suppressed, 68 courts-martial, 973 sentences, and six deaths through military violence or prison treatment. A French paper recently stated that 860 persons were sentenced to imprisonment in northern France during 1917, under the German military occupation. The persons imprisoned in Ireland during the same period numbered 1333.

We fitly conclude with the verdict of a fair and candid Englishman, Major Erskin Childers, D.S.C. :

“To the great majority of Irishmen Great Britain now signifies Prussianism incarnate, and with good reason. . . The revolting scandal presented by Ireland at this moment cannot be permitted to last. Great Britain is making war, literally on the principle of freedom. 1 think it is true to say that in no country has the innermost inspiration of a national movement been so divorced from materialistic motives or so pure an outcome of u people’s passionate will to be master of its own soul and destiny. Force, simple force, is the reply; a military terror; machine guns, tanks, bombing aeroplanes; soldiers ignorant of law dispensing justice by court-martial ; a rigid censorship, and permeating society, a host of those detestable if indispensable products of military government, police spies and informers.

“Ireland is an almost crimeless country in the ordinary sense. Judge after judge has been receiving white gloves for a blank assize, while courts-martial fill the gaols with State-created criminals guilty, or suspected of being guilty, of offences, many grotesquely trivial, and all directly attributable to the absence of the first condition of* an orderly society, a government chosen by the people. A very few, a marvellously few serious crimes occur; for the whole system is an invitation, an incitement to crime. ‘ -

“Ireland is now the only white nationality in the world (waiving colored possessions) where the principle of self-determination is not, at least in theory, conceded. It is the last of the “problems” which were left in 1914, and it is comparatively the simplest. It is simplicity itself compared with those resulting from the collapse of Russia, Austria, and Germany, where the intermixture of races speaking different languages and the absence of clearly defined or maritime boundaries do cause difficulties of real complexity. Nevertheless, Great Britain is fixing and guaranteeing the boundaries of these new States, of which so little is known that the Prime Minister can joke in Parliament about his ignorance till yesterday of the position on the map of one of the numerous ‘Ulsters.’ Is she in the same breath to decline to deal with Ireland, whose uninterrupted historical identity and boundaries nobody can mistake? Ireland, the last unliberated white community on the face of the globe?” (Letter to The Times, May 3, 1919.)