Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 5 February 1920, Page 14

Current Topics

Atrocities Again ; Whatever of evil happens in Ireland is placarded by the hireling pressmen, whose task it is to blackguard a small nation, as due to Sinn Fein. They want no evidence; their mission is to lie, and they lie as boldly as their spiritual forefather, German Luther, ever lied. What, we wonder, would our editors think if whenever a child was murdered or a woman drowned we published the facts and headed them "Terrible Atrocities Committed by the Editors of the Dailies!" Yet on evidence no better than we should have for so ridiculous an assertion they make equally scandalous charges against the Irish people. The only time that Irishmen seem to be exempt from the calumnies of these "gentlemen" is when there is no denying that the murders and crimes occur in England. And dear old England is keeping up. her bad'record. Fifty murders in a week for England and Wales is the latest achievement in the land of justice and liberty. And there is not even the provocation of an organised effort to drive the people to desperation as there is in Ireland under French and Lloyd George. There is not even the excuse given recently in Ireland by a Hun officer who wanted to defend the housebreaking and the violence of his brave English soldiers, that the country is in a state of war. On the whole, the editors of our daily papers are as fine samples of British chivalry as England herself could produce. * Inner News Last mail brought us two letters from Irishmen who are directly in touch with the march of events in "the one bright spot." That fine old veteran, William O'Brien, tells us that the patriotism of the young people is splendid, and that, he has known nothing better in all the stormy days of his fighting for Ireland. He sums up the situation by saying: "Ireland cannot lose anything that she has won, and she will go on winning all the time." By the way, we have his permission to publish as a serial in the Tablef his great Irish novel, When We Were Boys, written while he was in gaol in the stirring days of the fight against the landlords. Later, we will have a word to say to our readers by way of introduction to this interesting and thoroughly Irish story of the Fenian days. Another friend of ours assures us that everything goes well. The blundering efforts of the Government are all forwarding the Sinn Fein cause, just as the lies of the press out here are disgusting all decent people. The efforts of Sinn Fein to revive the industries and to encourage foreign trade have met with fierce British opposition, which is one more proof that the object of Union with Ireland is, on the part of England, plunder of the weaker country. Now, however, that the Sinn Fein Fund has realised so much more than was expected by the most sanguine, the Dail Eireann will be in a better position to develop the resources of the Irish nation. A recent cable tells us that the total amount raised was £1,500,000 in Ireland, and £4,500,000 in the United -States. This is probably exaggerated, but if true it means that the response was several hundred per cent, more than Sinn Fein asked the friends of Ireland to contribute. On the whole, as our correspondent says, there is reason to hope that the day of salvation is nearer than we believed. We repeat what we have held from the beginning, that Sinn Fein cannot be •beaten unless the Irish race is exterminated. ' Sending them to Hell or to Connacht will not avail now. The Dunedin "Star" on Ireland Recently the Evening Star has been shedding some of its light on the "one bright spot" in the glorious Empire. The Star's excursions into Hibernian topics have not been particularly happy. In a note advocating Proportional Representation, it manifests a creditable amount of characteristic "Propaganda" ignorance of what it talks about, by lumping together

Nationalists and Unionists. No Irishman is ignorant of the fact that the one common bond between Sinn Fein and the : Nationalists now remaining is that: they all stand for self-determination—which is the very foundation of the Sinn Fein claim. And on no possible ground could Nationalists and Unionists be put in the same class. The real issue was self-determina-tion or not; and votes cast for Nationalists were cast for the essential .Sinn Fein principle. The Star has somewhat to say too about Irish - profiteers. It has nothing to say about the fact that the taxation on Ireland now is almost £lO per head, and that this enormously unjust tax has to be paid by the minority who are making good profits. Would the Star suggest that prices should be cut down while taxes go up—in Ireland ? The pages of the tender evening journal were almost wet with the tears shed by the pious editor over the fact that-in his view—the Catholic Church can have very little influence in Ireland now! Alas, and alack, but it has influence; and nobody knows it better than the British Government. We will give one instance of how that influence is exercised. We were told by our press recently that Archbishop Walsh subscribed £IOO to the Sinn Fein Fund, as a protest against, the misgovernment by the Huns. British justice and fair play did not allow that fact to be published in any paper in Ireland. The Archbishop therefore wrote to Cardinal O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston, informing him of the circumstances, and asking him to make it known widely that he had subscribed, because — saidthe fact that the Primate of Ireland supports Sinn Fein is more important than the value of the money. What the Star means is really that the Catholic Church in Ireland has, and exercises, no influence in favor of the Brithuns, but it is the one power which helps the marvellous Sinn Fein organisation in resisting every effort made by cowardly bullies like French, Lloyd George, and Muckpherson to drive the people to rebellion before they have a hope of success. For there is no mistake about the fact that the view of the Irish Churchmen is that given a hope of overthrowing the invaders the oppressed people have a right to rebel. p i The Russian Government After pouring armed hordes into the country in order to help the international plutocracy to abolish the Bolsheviki, after being guilty of treachery and of nameless atrocities, after a shameful campaign of lies and calumny, Lloyd George has once more turned his coat and come to plead for the recognition of the Russian Government. He did not do this until his efforts to crush Russia all failed, until his generals were beaten out of the country in most ignominious fashion by those very troops who— are told—were -clad savages. Now that the Russians have been victorious, for his own interest and for the sake of the purses of his German and Jewish masters, the Welshman condemns Mr. Churchill's schemes for further action against the Bolsheviki and wants England to make the best of the humiliating situation by acknowledging the Russian Government and—as in the case of Germanytrading with it. Russia has won out. The united forces of Plutocracy-—Germany and England shook hands like Pilate and Herod in order to kill Russia—have been defeated by the genius of the Bolshevist leaders who were backed by the masses of the people. Did it never strike the dupes of the "Day Lies" as extraordinary that the people all the time were behind the Bolsheviki ? We are told that the people are neither anti- or pro-Bolshevist, but whence did the armies springthe ragged, half-Clad, and starved armies of which we have read so much Whence came the millions of recruits who by sheer force of weight and pluck baffled and beat the armies of the allied plutocrats of England, France, and Germany The one explanation for it all is' that the masses were with the Government all the time. Now, too; it is beginning to leak out that life in the Russian cities is almost normal and that families are peaceful and contented as they were before Russia threw Europe

into war. . (Of course it is necessary.,, for Mr. Nosworthy's peace of mind to remind him that we are now. quoting Lord Loreburn as well as the late Bishop of Limerick.) We have never given much credence to the stories told of Bolshevist atrocities. We all know that there will always be atrocities in war. We may 'be sure that when a force of foreigners invade a country in the interests of capitalists atrocities are sure to ensure. And we know what skill England has in magnifying matters and making mountains out of mole-hills when by so doing she can discredit others. Would the people who lied to the world about Ireland tell the truth. about Russia ? Was there any more foundation for alleged Russian crimes than for alleged Sinn Fein outrages? Knowing what we all know of England's ways in Ireland could we believe one word that their hireling press told us of the Bolsheviki ? In the Catholic Times, November 22, we read that the Russian Church is with the Bolsheviki, and that Russian Catholics much prefer Bolshevist rule to that of the Romanoffs. That again is something very different from what the Lloyd George "propaganda" would have us believe as truth. The facts are that Lloyd George tried to beat the Bolsheviki and that they beat him. Now he has turned his coat, as he often did before, and as he will do again when it is brought home to him by fear that Sinn Fein has beaten himself and his Muckphersons and his Orangemen and German Jews. . Apart altogether from English duplicity in the matter, it is a good thing that Russia looks likely to get • a chance to develop and organise peacefully. That a great future is before that long-suffering and Czar-ridden people is certain. In time, no doubt, the excessive measures of the revolutionaries will disappear and normal conditions will be restored. The Russian millions are coming into the community of nations, for the first time, as a people: and students of Russian conditions tell us that their influence for good will be untold in the years to come. From the East there will come upon the jaded world the freshness of the renascent genius of a great people who have already in a few decades given the world in the masterpieces of their modern literature a foretaste of their power. One question occurs to us: Will they forget the cruel wrongs inflicted on them by Britain ? Will they stand aside— did Wilson and Clemenceau and the venal Italians—and allow the Tories of England to throw flare-bombs on women and children in Ireland, to mow down with machine-guns innocent people in India, and to remain as a scandal and a stumbling-brock in the pathway of civilisation and progress a scandal and a stumbling-block greed and duplicity and cruelty will always be?

Dublin Universities

A great pother was caused in bigoted circles recently by the appointment of Mr. Rahilly and Mr. Zulueta to chairs in Trinity College. The rage of the ranter was intensified when he learned that 0 Zulueta was a relation of Father Zulueta, S.J., and that he was also a cousin to Cardinal Merry del Val. About the same time, the elections for the Senate of the National University resulted in a complete victory for the Sinn Fein representatives. There was a time when the Trinity boys used with impunity come forth to paint the town red. On Imperial and Protestant holidays they celebrated as true Jingoes do everywhere—by an outward and visible exhibition of the beast within them.- On Armistice Day this year they thought it was incumbent on them to mark the satisfactfon of the Champion of Small Nations in a fitting Brithunnish manner Their contemplated "divarshun" was, however, rudely interrupted. We will permit a poet who writes in the New Leader to explain how

The Battle of Grafton Street. The jackeen came up, like a wolf on the fold And his cohort of brats was a sight to behold. Un Uarlsrort Terrace with menacing noise The jackeen advanced with his Trinity boys

Like the leave's- of the forest when young l is the year That legion of brats on the march did appear; Like the leaves of the forest when winter is nigh That host very soon did appear to the eye. Y-zsjc

For the National boys . felt - the challenging lash, And at the jackeens made a desperate dash, And soon like the chaff that the wind drives along, In direful retreat went the Trinity throng. -

Along Grafton Street ; in a panic they passed, With National boys on their heels very, fastj Who tanned and who tamed them, and drove them before, And sent them in flying through Trinity's door.

Alas for the times when our Trinity brats Might paint the town red with sticks, stones, and brickbats, When out they could go on the rowdiest track Without opposition to wallop them back.

When next on occasion they feel a bit hot No doubt they'll remember the licking they got, And cautiously keep from attempting a thing That Nationals boys on their collars might bring.

Mention of the New Leader reminds us that the stalwart old Leader was one of the papers suppressed by the Champion of Small Nations. It too was a university in its own way. We have always held that there was no more potent force in the regeneration of Ireland than that same Dublin Leader. We recall how it awoke many of us while we were still boys, and how it examined our consciences for us and taught us" to spurn the dross and the rameis that so long had passed for patriotism even in Ireland. The brave old paper went down with flags flying, and we are sure we will have Mr. Moran's approval when we tell the admirers of the suppressed weekly that they cannot do better than tell their friends to support the New Leader. Catholic Spirit We all recognise readily that the practice of Catholic principles and their application to every department of modern activity must be the basis of lasting reform. If society is permeated by greed and avarice, if materialism has eaten into the souls of men, if licence and lust have branded modern communities with the brand of shame, we all admit that only a restoration of the great Christian virtues of charity, justice, and purity can heal mankind. Preachers proclaim the remedy, Catholic newspapers open men's eyes to its necessity, from time to time the honest warning of some outspoken police magistrate emphasises it and sets the public thinking for a day or two but the trouble is that the public quickly stops thinking and goes on its way as before. Never was it truer that the land is desolate with desolation because men will not meditate in their hearts. • What we want is realisation on the part of the whole Catholic laity of the need of real work by the lay apostolate. Our intelligence tells us that unless we secure for our own children the priceless boon of a Christian education they will become poisoned by environment and demoralised by the lax atmosphere in which' they live. We know that it is only in youth that sound moral principles can be impressed on the plastic souls of the people. We have sad evidence as to the results of education in schools from which God has been banished by our place-hunters of to-day, who look on a human soul as valueless except in so far as it means a vote for them. And, nevertheless, there are many Catholics who will send their own children to the schools of the atheists in spite of the warnings of conscience and common sense. In a time not far remote, in certain dioceses, ordinary priests had no power to absolve parents who refused to give their children a Christian education in a Christian school when it was possible to do so. Discipline, in that regard, is easier now, but the sin and the scandal of such parents is the same still. That there are many such parents is one sign of the lack of union, of the lack of spirit and pride among us. Again, the corruption in social life comes from one source: the violation of the Ten Commandments of God. To enable man to keep the Commandments, grace is necessary. - The principal channels of grace are

the .'Sacraments. Yet you will find boys and girls, men and; women, so little heeding their salvation and so little anxious to set a good example in their own lives, that they neglect the Sacraments month after month, and. in rare cases year after year. Here again is need for union. Catholic men and women ought to join those confraternities which make frequent reception of the 'Sacraments a necessary condition of membership. At least they should become members of those Christian unions for mutual help which require the members to go to the Holy Table every quarter. It is true that men and women are kept from sin by Confession and Holy Communion it is true that sin and contempt for the moral law lead to social rottenness ; it is true that peace and happiness for the individual and prosperity for society are the consequences of carrying out the Law of God exactly. The reform of society must begin with the reform of individuals, and those unions and confraternities which encourage their members to individual righteousness are powerful aids to the common welfare. Hence, one effective manner of helping to reform society is to make the membership of such unions and confraternities as large as possible. A strong body like the Hibernians may with proper zeal become a most powerful factor for true nation-building on right lines. A good confraternity may be made the root of peace and happiness in many homes. Members of such unions may become true lay-apostles, capable of doing untold good not only among their own coreligionists, but even among non-Catholics.