IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 30 October 1919, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

GENERAL. • v In the .English House of Commons, Mr. Forester in-, formed Commander Kenworthy that the cost per month of the British army in Ireland was approximately . £900,000. This statement is obviously an under-estimate. |f ".... ~ ..", "-.'. Many Irish-Americans continue to : visit Ireland. One day in August as many as 800 j arrived at the North Wall (Dublin) from England. The visitors are thus enabled to study the Irish situation on the spot. - : y. ■..,_ : -. : . ; .. ,_■.,,; *. ; • "Why should the present conditions of Ireland," asks the Independent, "be a bar to self-government? .What would you think of a physician who, when called in to prescribe for a sick man, said, 'I shall do; nothing for you now, but if, and when, you recover from your malady, I shall give you a remedy.' -. : The addresses of the Irish Judges to the various Grand Juries show that Ireland is comparatively free from ordinary crime. They nearly all advert, however, to the prevalence of "seditious feeling and seditious crime." A Dublin 'newspaper inquires if it would not bo well for the Judges to ask, as thinking people are asking everywhere, how it happens that a country so free from offences against the moral law, and very much more "orderly" than England or Scotland, has to be lectured for political unrest, sedition, and terrorism. Having asked the question, would any Judge, the paper asks, bo frank enough to give an answer ? "International law may be quoted against me, a law made by thieves to regulate the conduct of thieves. That so-called law is almost everywhere a glorification of brute force and is contrary to the dictates of every justly-bal-anced conscience," said Mr. de Valera at the great meeting in Madison Square Gardens, New York. Mr. Thomas Sinclair, of Lisburn, formerly a strong supporter of Sir Edward Carson, writes to the London Times: —"The fatal Haw in Sir E. Carson's position is that he assumes the law of force, abrogated elsewhere, will be maintained in Ireland for the benefit of himself and his followers, in defiance of the claims of the mass of the Irish people and of the acceptance by Great Britain of the constitution of the League of Nations.". Mr. Sinclair assumes that in the long run Ulster must make terms with the rest of the Irish nation, for Carsonism is doomed. Rev. T. A. Rahilly, Superior-General of the Irish Presentation Order, in an interview published in the Cork Examiner, says, speaking of his recent visit to America and Canada:—"No one in America now, even those who are not of Irish descent, will speak of anything less than complete independence for Ireland. • Even the most advanced Sinn Eeiners here are actually left behind in their enthusiasm for" an Irish Republic, in comparison with the feeling that exists in America." He adds: —"De Valera asked me to tell the people at home to take no notice of the reports that they heard, and said things were going on in America entirely better than he had anticipated." .•, "OLD GLORY" SALUTES. When a party of about 300 Gaels going from Cork to Crosshaven by the Cork and Passage Railway Company's Greenback steamer, carrying two large Sinn Fein flags, were passing Blackrock Castle, the flags were dipped and answered by the tricolor over the castle. On passing tho American steamer Ashburn, the steamer which recently arrived flying the Sinn Fein colors as well as the Stars and Stripes, the tricolors were again dipped and answered by the dipping of the United States flag by the officers of the American ship. This was repeated on the homeward journey. During the ship's cruise the tricolor had many salutes from various types of craft. On the return journey the Ashburn again returned the salute amidst the enthusiasm of many thousands of onlookers. When the ship was passing the dockyards the men ceased work for the moment and cheered loudly and shouted "Long live the Irish Republic!" It is noticeable that great . and small steamers navigating Cork Harbor of late take great pleasure in displaying the tricolor. Things are moving rapidly in the "Rebel City" INTEGRITY OF SINN FEIN. Nothing is more striking than the way in which the religious cleavage is obliterated within Sinn Fein (writes Mr. Richard Roberta, in the Daily News). I saw four , men, two of them Catholics and two of them Protestants; and. in the course of a conversation lasting several hours

the religious jproblem was not so much as mentioned. - It is Ireland that these men care for, deeply, passionately, and Sinn Fein would go very far; out-of'its-way; to win over Ulster. They would, I think, give Ulster any guarantees that she might : ask but they ! want to give them themselves, and not at the dictation of "the usurping Government of England." Among all the people whom I met outside the Sinn Fein movement,. I met none who ; questioned the, bona fides of ? the Sinn Fein leaders. I heard an Irishman of international fame describe Mr. de Valera as ; a "moderate" man; and the sacrifices which the two Protestant Sinn Feiners whom I met had made for the sake of a free and independent Ireland are a guarantee of .their utter integrity. And moderate Irish opinion is steadily: swinging into profound and practical sympathy with these men. I found no one with a good word to say for The Times' scheme, except in so far as it showed a movement of opinion in England towards a' reasonable settlement of the Irish question. The plan itself was generally regarded as futile. r SUPPRESSION OF IRISH NEWSPAPERS. According to the cables, Lord French seems to be running amok in the newspaper world in Ireland. Newspapers all along have had a bad time, especially the country papers, which were suppressed wholesale, but now higher game is being aimed at. A recent cable tells of the suppression of the Cork Examiner, the most important Irish newspaper, in point of circulation, outside Dublin. One would think a paper that has always lagged behind the main body of Nationalist 'opinion in Ireland would be spared. Then follows the suppression of Arthur Griffith's Irish Nationality, the successor of Sinn Fein; New Ireland; Darrell Figgis's The Republic, one of the ablest journals supporting the advanced party; The Voice of Labor; and the Limerick Leader, which is the leading newspaper in North-west Minister. The reason given for the suppression of the Cork Examiner is that it published the prospectus of the Sinn Fein Loan, but the cables say nothing of the cause of the other suppressions; probably it. is the same. In this connection it may be interesting to point out that the Sinn Fein Loan was declared by the English Law Officers in the House of Commons not to be illegal, as the Sinn Fein Party had not been declared the "King's enemies." Military law, which, according to jurists, is the abrogation of all law, seems to be responsible for the suppression of the journals mentioned. CONTINGENT TREASON: POSITION OF SIR EDWARD CARSON. Lord Justice O'Connor, addressing the Grand Jury at the Cork City Assizes on July 25, and referring to an explosion in the city and the subsequent discovery of bombs, etc., declared, quoting tho Treason Felony Act of 1848 as his authority, that no definite act of war or open rebellion was necessary to constitute an offence under that Act. The offence was complete, he stated, even only if preparations were made to resist the will of Parliament by force of arms, and threats to that effect came under the same category. The plea that statements involving threats of war were contingent on certain circumstancesif things happened, or did not happen, at the will of the person making the threat — useless, and- if such person had tinder his control men, arms, or munitions to resist Parliament, he would be liable;, penal servitude for life being the penalty. - In view of Sir E. Carson's -speech on the Twelfth, and the attitude of the Government towards it (following the Attorney-General's report that the Law Officers of the Crown had no grounds for proceeding), the remarkable statement of Lord Justice O'Connor is of peculiar interest and significance. The Irish Independent says: —"The treason of Sir Edward Carson has again and again been brought to the notice of the Government. Masters of shameless evasion like Mr. Bonar Law have in reply spoken ad nauseam of "hypothetical" rebellion and "contingent treason," while at the very same moment they were lending all the weight of their authority to the prosecution of refined Irish boys and girls for merely taking part in demonstrations organised by the Gaelic League."