INDEPENDENCE OF CATHOLIC LUXEMBURG THREATENED

New Zealand Tablet, 18 September 1919, Page 37

INDEPENDENCE OF CATHOLIC LUXEMBURG THREATENED

Right Rev. Louis 0. Casartelli, Bishop of Salford, has issued an important statement to the Catholics of the Allied countries regarding the fate of Catholic Luxemburg. The statement is as follows: . ~ ~ The following brief paragraph, which is going the rounds of a part of the press, generally in an obscure , corner, will probably have passed almost unperceived and unappreciated : “It is confirmed that the American command has conveyed to the Luxemburg authorities tho desire expressed by the Entente that the plebiscite on the country’s future, ■ to take place shortly, should be postponed to a later date. It is felt that a plebiscite of the kind of government tho people of Luxemburg intend to have in future, and the eventual reunion of Luxemburg with a foreign Power might raise complications at present which it would be preferable to avoid.” Yet by every Catholic, and I venture to add especially by every American Catholic, it ought to be read with the greatest alarm and even indignation. What is tho issue? The little Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, with an area slightly less than that of Derbyshire and a population the same as that of Nottingham, is practically the last thoroughly Catholic nation and State, sovereign and independent, left, at least in Europe. At the beginning of the war it was on tho very first night suddenly and silently overrun by the mighty German army, without warning or power of resistance, and held down helpless by the same ruthless power till the collapse of Germany and the welcome entry of the Allies. The Luxemburgers, whose hatred of Germany and the Germans long antedated the war, were all along in sympathy and aspirations on the side of the Allies. Many thousands of their young men got into France and enrolled themselves in the French army, fighting valiantly for the Allied cause. There was an “Oeuvre des Soldats Luxembourgeois an Service de la France,” which had a branch office in London. And what has the Armistice and the prospective peace brought this gallant patriotic Catholic little people The prospect of the loss of their liberty and independence. And thatapparentlyon the part of tho Allies ! It may seem hard to believe, but there is little doubt that the present deplorable crisis is owing to the machinations of an anti-clerical, Masonic, and Socialistic combination of forces, working against the dynasty and against religion. The fate of the ex-Grand Duchess Adelaide is instructive. During the war constant attempts were made to blacken her character as a pro-German. Her unpopularity with the radical and Socialist bloc in Parliament dated from some years before the war, when she strove hard, as long as she constitutionally could, to prevent the passing of an anti-religious Education Bill. Since the war she sacrificed herself for her country and abdicated in favor of her sister Charlotte in the hope of peace. Unfortunately the Bishop of Luxemburg, Monsignor John J. Koppes, a valiant champion of religious educatioh, died last November 29, and the See has not yet been filled up, so that the Catholic Luxemburgers have no , ecclesiastical head to champion their cause before the world. All impartial observers declare that the vast majority of the people are passionately attached to their independence and freedom from foreign rule as during the last 80 and more years. They are not, and wish not to be, German, French, or Belgian— just Luxemburgers. To quote Mr. H. C. Bailey, writing in the Daily Telegraph (January 10, 1919); “All Luxemburg stands together for independence. The events of tho last four years have only strengthened tho desire of the little State for complete freedom. w Whatever the flag, Republic or Ducal, autonomy is its blazon.” * J The outcry for a republic and against the dynasty was certainly engineered by tho anti-religious element in the country, with outside help. Still, the form of government is a secondary one; the people want first and foremost to keep their autonomy. Meanwhile, two tendencies are showing among the Allied Powersone in favor of the absorption of Luxemburg into Belgium, another in favor of her annexation to France. I am not speaking of a mere customs’ union, but of the extinction of autonomy. Now, -on President Wilson’s policy, Accepted by the Allies, who has the right to decide the future of a nation, however tiny, however insignificant? Surely, on tho principle of self-deermination, the nation itself. So the Luxemburg Chambers decided upon the democratic step of a referendum, called in the extract quoted a plebiscite. There

is little r or" no T doubt what - the i result v would j be. ; Certainly in favor, of autonomy, most probably also of -the dynasty.* And so the mighty “Quadrumviri” (as the Italians . style them),• step in and (proh pudor 1) through the agency -of the command of the democratic ■ and liberty-loving Americans intimate that the plebiscite must be put off until the fate of. the little nation has been. decided • beforehand by the ■ Entente! ( The paragraph is so worded, in ;its last sentence, ■as , to suggest ; most disingenuously that the plebiscite might .be cast in -favor of an - “eventual reunion of Luxemburg with a foreign Power,” whereas ( everybody knows that it is just this catastrophe that the referendum would avert. - * • ; ’' . . ' * . If this gross act of injustice to a small Catholic people is really to be perpetrated by the might of the Entente, ' it will surely be a blot r on , the coming peace and endow Europe with a new .. Alsace-Lorraine. At least Catholics, and especially English, Irish and American ’ Catholics, though powerless to avert so great a wrong, can utter a solemn protest, in the sacred names of religion, justice, and peace, against the outrage. One feeble voice at least shall be raised, even if unheeded and unheard, inspired by over 40 years’ knowledge, admiration, and love for the gallant little liberty-loving land, the patrimony of St. Willibrord.