Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 16 October 1919, Page 14

Current Topics

European items According to La Croix, 3276 . French ecclesiastics were killed in the war. Nearly 1000 received the decoration of the Legion of Honor, 383 got the Military Medal, . and 7848 the Croix de Guerre. . The Jesuits who had been expelled came back at the call to arms from all over the world, and it is estimated that 900 of them served with the colors. Of these, 62 got the Legion, 39 the Military Medal, 310 the Croix, and 595 received citations in the Orders of the Day. Catholic France won the war, and now that the Jews and Masons are safe once more they have shown no sign of undoing the wrongs done to the Church. They are all honorable men ! The Italian people have by now learned to love Mr. Wilson. The Peninsula press asserts frankly that Italy never wanted war and that it was only through the bribery of the Allies the Government was induced to break faith with Germany and Austria. The Government sold Italy for a price; and at the end o'f the war the Entente again sold both Government and people. Wilson is regarded in Italy as the chief traitor and in every caffe and ostena from Chiasso to Tarento many very rough things are said' over the wine about the Yankee word-spinner who proved such a windbag when a man was sought under his skin. In the process of crushing Germany it was decided that Mr. George’s genius must succeed where Napoleon failed. Germany must be deprived of her army and never given a hope of mustering even enough armed men to bury a general respectably. As a sign of the success of our Mr. George, consider that three military organisations already flourish in the new Germany The numerous civil police may be transformed into a military force almost at a moment’s notice; Herr Noske has raised a large body of home guards to cope with the fepartacists; and there are, over and above, the 200,000 allowed by Mr. George. A nice little army all told ! . J

England's playboys have arranged for another farce. By way of showing the world how sincere they were when they asserted that the war was fought for self-determination, these higher criminals known as Cabinet Ministers have now arranged that the Irish system of government shall be drawn up by French Muckpherson, Shortt, and Long. A Labor man named Barnes was also thrown in. There is no mention of a single Irishman on the boards. Yet one of these days when the Irish people have once more told the clowns to take their British and Orange sham to perdition we will be told that these Irish are hard to please. If there is anything in all history to surpass British hypocrisy and dishonesty we have never heard of it Do you observe there is very little said now about our Mr George's election cry, "We must hang the Kaiser" ? And do you know why ? Facts which are leading many people to doubt if all we were told about the war is true are emerging. If the Kaiser were tried they would not emerge, they would march. It is a lovely world to live in, and we are a patient people. But sure we won the war and made all safe for Democracy and put despotism in its place and killed secret intrigues and liberated all oppressed and persecuted people, like Ireland, India, Egypt, Korea, and so forth. And. what more does anybody want? It is not the Kaiser alone who ought to be tried.

A Problem for Anglicans Among Christians, theoretically, there can be no hesitation in admitting that Christ founded one Church and only one, and that He committed to that Church one Divine Faith and only one. In practice Catholics are the only Christians who are consistent with that principle. For them truth is one j and indivisible; there can be no room in the Fold for those who deny what the Church teaches; the man who believes in

the Divinity of Our Lord cannot be put' on the same plane as the man who denies it. In the majority of Protestant. sects 'no ~"' such consistency can -. be found, and the result of 'the right of private judgment is a chaos of beliefs." Anglicans profess to be a branch of the Catholic Church and to hold the Faith in its purity yet while making such a profession , they are constantly manifesting to the world that it does not matter, to them how much or how little a man believes. They say it does matter; but their practice proves that' it does not. Not only among the laity but also among the bishops a fine freedom and irresponsibility is allowed, impossible to reconcile with their theory. Early in the past year an incident occurred which must have brought home to many sincere Anglicans the absurdity of their whole position, and its utter untenableness. To go back a little further, the Bishop of Oxford published about two years ago a Manual of Christian. Doctrine, purporting to set forth the teaching of the Church of England. This book was attacked by Canon Benson, then Dean of Durham,, who proclaimed that the doctrines in the Manual, were not by any means the teaching of the Anglican Church. That fact in itself might be insignificant if the Dean, who denied the exposition of the faith of Anglicans, as understood by the most scholarly and orthodox of the bishops,"was speaking for himself alone and not for the Church. He might be dismissed as a crank or a modernist—which comes to the same thing—and there would be no more to say about the matter. But he was not. On the other hand he was so cordially approved that he was presented to the vacant See of, Hereford by the Baptist Premier who is the real visible Head of the Church of England, and thus the seal of orthodoxy was set on the man who had practically told Dr. Gore that he was a heretic. Now both certainly cannot be in the right, even from the Anglican point of view. If Dr. Gore is not a heretic Dr. Henson must be one; and if Dr.. Henson is orthodox Dr. Gore cannot be orthodox. What is the logical position ? In matter of fact it is this: the Church of England recognises as equally fit to teach the faithful two men, one of whom believes in the Divinity of Christ and the other does not; in other words one a Christian and the other a Freethinker. And the consequence is that in the sight of the Anglican Church it cannot matter whether a man is a Christian or not. As a sample of the creed of the new Bishop of Hereford take the following words from a sermon he delivered in October, 1914: "Jesus in the belief of Christians is the human medium of God's supreme Self-Revelation. In Him the unseen Creator "Himself became incarnate. What is this but to say that there is that in human nature which makes man competent to fulfil so august a ministry What is this but to maintain that human nature is so kindred to Divine nature as to be capable of revealing God?" There can be no doubt that Dr. Gore would unhesitatingly say with ourselves that such assertions are at the same time heresy and sheer nonsense, and that only a heretic could hold such opinions. But considering that out of 38 bishops 33 congratulated Dr. Henson on his appointment to the See of Hereford, it is plain that they do not think it necessary for an Anglican bishop to be a Christian, and that, whatever they may preach, in practice they have denied that the Church of England has any further concern about maintaining intact the teachings of Christ. Dr. Henson is certainly heretical. The Church of England not only tolerates, but approves, him. What is the consequence but that the Church of England is heretical? And if Dr. Henson is not even a Christian, where is the Church of England which receives him, from Lloyd George, with open arms?

Irish Government The recent blood-and-thunder tactics of Jock Muckpherson having failed just as egregiously as the awkwardly-staged German plots of Mr. George and Rex Carson, it seems that the foreign Government which holds Ireland by force lias found it necessary to make another effort to persuade , the world that there

is . such a thing as political honor , among the high-class criminals who specialise in tearing up treaties and violating the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. The new scheme is Dominion Home Rule. There is the old side to it—the tomfoolery about safeguarding Ulster. Ulster, mind you, as if everyone did not know that the majority of Ulster is for an Irish Republic. As a sample of the sort of nonsense usually talked and written about the business, we quote from the Otago Daily Times , October 9 : “The old division between Ulster and the rest of Ireland remains a dominant, abiding fact. Ulster desires to be left as she is.” If Ulster desires to be left as she is, why has the Government refused to allow all Ulster to take a vote on the issue ? If Ulster desires to be left as she is, how explain the fact that a majority of the Ulster Counties are for a Republic? Ulster does not desire to be left as she is. Ulster desires independence, and neither ignorance nor dishonesty can obscure that plain fact. It is likely that once more the dishonest twaddle will be allowed to wreck all hopes of a settlement. Ulster will not be left out: that is certain. Nor will the rest of Ireland consent to leave out a part of Ulster, which would involve leaving at the mercy of Orange savages a large minority of Catholics who would have no security for life or property. One scheme might work. It is possible that the Nationalist Party—by which we mean the selfdeterminationists—would agree to county option, which would, we believe, mean that all Ulster would in a very short time come in. We have little hesitation in saying that IrelandSinn Fein included—would accept a full measure of Dominion Home Rule. But nothing less will serve now. If left to county option only three —namely, Down, Armagh, and An—would be at all likely to remain out at first. And in each of these three there is a large number of Catholics who would have just as much right—and moreto consideration as the Protestant minority in Ulster would have in reference to the rest of Ireland. There is this vast difference, however: the Catholics are Irish people; the anti-nationalists are not Irish, and they represent a foreign garrison, and on no grounds have they any right to stand in the way when Ireland demands self-determination. When we remember how other small nations were set up without much consideration for much larger minorities, we realise the true hollowness and hypocrisy of the Government’s platitudes about Ulster. The appended statistics will help our readers to see for themselves the true state of affairs between Ulster and the other provinces of Ireland: The following are the figures from the Census Report, 1911: Ulster. Catholics ... ... ... 699,202 Presbyterians ... ... 421,410 Episcopalians ... ... 366,773 Methodists ... ... ... 48,816 All others ... .« 53,881 The following is the present representation of the counties: Union- Sinn Home Ixxdepexxist. Fein. Rule. dent. Antrim ... ... 3 Armagh ... ... 2--Cavan ... ... —2 Derry ... ... 2 1 Donegal ... ... Down ... ... 4 1 Fermanagh ... 1 1 Monaghan ... —2 —•— Tyrone ... ... 1 1 1 13 10 4 1 The City of Belfast elected seven Unionists and one Home Ruler. The elections throughout Ulster showed the strength of the various parties to be as follows:—• . .

Unionist ...... ... ... 254,023 ' Sinn;; Fein- ... | ... >vyr 153,146 ■ Home Rule - ... ... ; 82,078 Labour ... ... ... 10,087 Independent Unionist ... 17,552 Owing to the electoral areas imposed by the British Government the Unionists secured one representative to every 11,000 supporters, while the Sinn Reiners only secured one representative to every 15,000 supporters. A majority of the Ulster counties—five out of —voted anti-Unionist at the last election. They were:. Anti-Unionist. Unionist. Cavan .... ... 43,418 Fermanagh ... ... 13,041 11,292 Donegal 34,439 4,797 * Monaghan 21,488 4,497 Tyrone 30,142 24,993 In two of the remaining four —Antrim and Down—the Unionists had very large majorities. In Derry there was a strong anti-Unionist minority, while in Armagh one division containing 16,000 voters was not challenged by the Unionists, and in the other two divisions there was only a majority of 10,000 for the Unionists. Secret Diplomacy Again We recently read in English and Scottish papers that Prince Henry had published in the German press an open letter to his cousin, King George, challenging the latter to a full inquiry into the origin of the war. He was probably inspired to do this by the publication of some confidential reports and memoranda from the Russian archives by the Bolshevist • Government. In the light of these documents, which were edited by Professor Pokrovsky, Commissary of Finance, it is easy to understand why our press has thrown so much limelight oil Bolshevist atrocities while preserving a wonderful silence concerning atrocities committed by our Allies, the anti-Bolshevists. We give for what they are worth some extracts from the archives : On September 12, 1912, Isvolsky (Russian Ambassador at Paris) reported to his Government that he had conversed with Poincare on the subject of Balkan complications :—“lf a conflict with Austria were to result in armed intervention on the part of Germany, then France will immediately recognise this as a case affecting her alliance, and will not delay one minute in fulfilling her obligations towards Russia.” In the same month Sazonoff (Russian Foreign Minister) visited England. , He wrote to the Czar:—“After having confidentially initiated Grey into the contents of our naval agreement with France, and having pointed out that the French Fleet, in accordance with the treaty, would be active in the southern scene of operations and defend our interests by preventing the Austrian Fleet from breaking through to the Black Sea, I asked the Secretary of State if England would not for her part do us the same service in the north by diverting the German squadron from our coasts in the Baltic. Grey declared without hesitation that if the circumstances in question were to arise, England would do her utmost to aim the most effective blow at the might of Germany.” Grey also informed Sazonoff (who had already heard if from Poincare) that there was a Franco-British agreement, according to which England had pledged herself to help France not only on sea, but also by landing troops on the Continent. Sazonoff then had an interview with the King at Balmoral. Fie wrote to tlx© Czar;—“The King expressed himself with much greater definiteness than his Minister. With visible emotion his Majesty referred to Germany’s attempts to vie with England as a sea-power. He said that a conflict would not only have consequences disastrous to Germany’s Fleet, but also to Germany’s overseas commerce : ‘We shall sink every German merchant ship we shall get hold of.’ These last words apparently express not only the personal feelings of his Majesty, but also the attitude towards Germany that prevails in

England." (The words J in italics 'are sin English in the original document.) s ; «fe ] ~.;:.. .:,:r ...'.., ~; -rIn April, 1914, King George and Sir Edward Grey were in I Paris and - Isvolsky reports:— Sir Edward Grey is of opinion? that no Continental convention, but only a naval agreement, could be concluded between us T; and 1 England,' for England's land forces have already been assigned to certain regions and cannot operate in conjunction with Russian forces." , ; r : These agreements were, of course, kept secret. •Even the British Parliament was ignorant of them. Nevertheless, thera were a few outsiders who suspected what was going on behind the scenes. On March 10, 1913, Lord Hugh Cecil asked in Parliament if it was true that England was under an obligation, arising owing to an assurance given by the Ministry in the course of diplomatic negotiations, to send an army out of the country to operate in Europe. Mr. Asquith replied: "I ought to say that it is not true." Of course, "he ought to say" that it was not true. No doubt the -"ought" satisfied his conscience! There can, however, bo no doubt that it was true, for there is other evidence besides these Russian revelations.

One of Lord French's articles (dated April 29, 1919) in the Daily Telegraph —-they have now appeared in volume formcontains the following passage with reference to military preparedness at the outbreak of war: "The British and French General Staffs had for some years been in close secret consultation with one another on this subject. The area of .concentration for the British forces had been fixed on the left flank of the French, and. the actual detraining stations of the various units were all laid down in terrain lying between Maubeuge and Le Cateau. The headquarters of the army were fixed at the latter place." In July, 1914, the Russian mobilisation produced extreme tension. On the 30th of that month Isvolski telegraphed from Paris: — "Margerit told me that the French Government in no way wishes to interfere in our (Russia's) military preparations, but considers it desirable, in view of the protracted negotiations for the preservation of peace, that these preparations should have as secret and unprovocative a character as possible. The Minister of War enlarged on the same idea, and said we could declare, in the highest interests of peace, that we were prepared temporarily to slacken our measures of mibilisation. That, however, would not hinder us from continuing our military preparations or even from intensifying them, as long as we refrain, as far as possible, from moving large bodies of troops." Finally, on August 2, 1914, Isvolsky telegraphed to Sazonoff : —"To-day the news arrived that German troops are on Luxemburgian territory and have violated the neutrality of the Duchy. . . . This circumstance is considered very advantageous for France, for

it will unavoidably call % forth'. . . . [word illegible in the original] on the part of England and give that country cause ;: ; for more energetic ■ action. \ It is also reported that ■ German ; troops are . moving . in the direction of ArlqmgV; which would indicate their intention of violating Belgian .neutrality also. 0. That would be a still more tangible circumstance for England." -