IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 18 March 1920, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

PROTESTANT-MINISTERS PLEAD CAUSE OF \ IRELAND. The Inter-Church League for Irish Freedom, an organisation formed among non-Catholic clergymen in several States of the Union, has sent broadcast a letter calling on their fellow-ministers to rally to the support of the Irish Republic in the interests of fair play (says the New York Truth). The league has headquarters at 2126 Woolworth Building, New York City. The letter follows: “Reverend and Dear Brother,The religions aspect of the question of Irish independence concerns you vitally. Stripped of its camouflage of political propaganda, the religious issue in Ireland comes to this: The world is asked to believe that to maintain its supremacy in Ireland the Protestant religion is desirous of keeping a nation in political bondage, and to attain this unholy end is willing to use machine-guns, bomb-dropping aeroplanes, the dungeon, and tho sword. “This is a slander against our religion that Protestants tho world over resent. Protestants have never fought to enslave any people, no matter what their creed might be. Protestants gladly fought for the freedom of Catholic Cuba, Catholic France, Catholic Belgium, and Catholic Poland. Protestantism is more hurt by the charge that it is selfishly opposed to the freedom of the Irish nation than is the cause of Irish freedom. “President Eanion do Valera is the accredited representative of four-fifths of the Irish people, duly elected to speak for them in a. regular election ordered ami held in Ireland under British supervision. He is in our conntry to put the ease of his people before tho bar of American public opinion. While be .is in your city be will be glad to meet you and to answer any questions you may see (it to ask.\ "Me are not asking you to change your opinions, but we feel we have the right to ask before you give utterance to them that yon assure yourself for the sake of moral probity as well as intellectual honesty, that your opinions are based upon a fair study of tin' case from both sides. Thus only can an honest conviction be arrived at. “The Inter-Church League invites you to hear President de Valera—to accord him the same courtesy that the Irish people accorded to Benjamin Franklin when he advocated the cause of the American colonies in Ireland. “The committee on arrangements in your city will be glad to see that you have a private interview with Mr. do Valera if you so desire. We ask that yon avail yourself of this opportunity for the sake of justice and fair play.—We are, fraternally yours— Norman Thomas. East Twenty-eighth Street, New York, Minister of the Presbyterian Church; Owen Lovejoy, Charities Building, New York, Minister of the Congregational Church; William Benjamin Spofford, St. George’s Church, Chicago. Minister of the Episcopal Church; G. S. Lachland, Grace M. E. Church, Denver, Colo., Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church.” Following are the names that appear on the letterhead of the Inter-Church League:President, the Hon. John Milholland, New York; Vice-President, Lindsay Crawford, President Independent Orange Lodges, editor The Statesman , Toronto; Secretary, the Rev. Norman Thomas, editor The World To-Morrow, New York"; Treasurer, the Hon. William Harmon Black, Woolworth Building, New York; Executive Committee, the Rev. Owen Lovejoy, President National Conference of Social Work, New York; Mrs. William John Brown, Walhrook, Aid. • Miss Garcia Goller, New York; Mrs. Nathaniel G. Sexton, jun., Baltimore; Professor Herbert E. Cory, University of Calfornia ; Professor Arthur Upham Pope, New York : the Rev. G. A. Lackland, Ph.D., Denver; the Rio-ht Rev Frederick Lloyd, Chicago; the Rev. William B. Spofford. Chicago; Daniel 0. O’Flaherty, Richmond, Va. CATHOLIC TOLERANCE IN IRELAND. English Protestants are beginning to sec that they have been hoodwinked concerning the relations between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland (says Are. Maria) Harold Begbie, in The Lady Next Door, did much to open their eyes to the realities of the case and another nonCatholic author, Mane Harrison, adds this testimony; I have been amazed to discover in Ireland not so much but so little bitterness, not so many but so few religious quarrels. Catholics and Protestants live together to-day in great harmony, and discordant notes are invariably those sounded by politicians and meddlesome men to whom

party politics are the greatest joy in life. . . The religious quarrels of Ireland have been painted in such lurid colors that one would imagine that the whole country was seeth.with religious hatred. In actual fact, Ireland lives to-day in great peace and quietness in all religious matters. It is well that the true state of the case as regards the relations between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants is being made clear. The truth will facilitate the final settlement of the whole question of Irish government. On the same subject America comments :—Sir Horace Plunkett himself says: “As I have stated publicly more than once, I have never observed that being a Protestant is a disadvantage to a man in Irish public life.” Jud-m Rentoul, of the Central Criminal and City of London Courts, declares; “English audiences never believe these religious arguments. My very large number of relatives in Ireland are all Protestants. Religious persecution is the very last thing they fear.” i The Right Honorable Pirrie, Chairman of Harland and Wolff, Ltd., shipbuilders, Belfast, ex-Lord Mayor of Belfast, ex-High Sheriff of Co. Antrim and Co. Down, declares: “The records of Irish Catholics show the greatest genciosity towards Protestants who are accorded positions of honor and emolument far beyond tho ratio to which they are entitled upon any populative basis. I confess with shame that even now the spirit of religions intolerance, • although in ever lessening degree, still prevails amongst a portion of the population of Ulster.” General Sir Alfred E. Turner, on tho staff of Lord Spencer, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, private secretary to Lord Aberdeen and Commissioner of Police, Counties of Cork, Kerry, Clare, and Limerick, says: — “l never came across a case of religious intolerance, ’ far less of persecution, mi the part of Catholics towards Protestants though I heard of several, which upon investigation proved groundless. There is far more religions animosity on the part of Protestants towards Catholics, and this is the result of the old leaven of Protestant ascendancy which, like all hereditary and inherent consciousness of ‘imagined super'ority dies very hard. The bogey of religious persecution of Ireland is displayed to alarm Protestants, though there is about as much reality in the cry as there is in the mirage of the desert.” Mu' Right Honorable Thomas Sliillington, linen manufacturer of Belfast and member of the Privy Council, avers:—“So far from conducing to the disadvantage of Protestants I am convinced that by granting self-govern-ment to Ireland, the Protestant population will be placed in an altogether better and desirable relation toward tbe.r fellow-countrymen. It is a great misfortune that religion should lie dragged into the service of a political nartv and bo used by it for political purposes. Ireland has been degraded by those who have sought to stimulate and foster to the utmost of their ability among Protestants an aversion towards and a distrust of their Catholic nei-di-bor.‘.. ■