Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 1 April 1920, Page 14

Current Topics

Sinn Fein Outrages Again ••••-• Recently a deputation of English Laborites went over to Ireland in order. to see for themselves how the beneficent and kindly rule of Muck the moralist was exercised/ One day they went to Thurles, and there, says the Manchester Guardian, they had a good’ view of English rule. British fair play in all its glory, Saxon chivalry, John Bull’s love for small nations were revealed to them, naked and unabashed. They saw a gang of soldiers and policemen running riot through the town, smashing windows, breaking heads, and sparing neither age nor sex in their laudable efforts to uphold the glorious traditions of the British army. Doubtless if they had not seen, and had not told what they saw, the whole story would have been cabled out here as another Sinn Fein outrage; just like the rest of them ! A few days ago we had a letter from a well-known Irish priest. He told us that the outrages were the work of a gang of returned soldiers, many of whom had an English accent. In his opinion they were even encouraged by the moralist Muck. Now, if that statement of an Irish priest came alone, it would be discounted by many people who will never believe anything wrong of John Bull until he smashes their own heads. But it does not, fortunately, stand alone. It is corroborated by the testimony of a judge. In the New Leader, January 24, we read that when Judge Wakely was discharging the grand jury at Sligo he said : “I want it to be known all over Sligo County that where a man has served and has been discharged it does not follow that he can do what he likes on his return, on the assumption that if he is taken to court for a crime committed he will be leniently dealt with. As you will see by the press, a great deal of crime is being committed all over the country, and I am sorry to say that a. hip number of the men committing those crimes are ex-soldiers.” Thus are upheld the glorious traditions of the British army. Thus too are Sinn Fein crimes manufactured for the fools that read Granny D.T.’s and similar hirelings. The Spirit in Ireland Life and property are not safe from the soldiers and police in Ireland at present. Boys of tender years have been kidnapped, others sent to gaol for singing a song, policemen charge innocent men playing skittles, if a motor tire bursts every soldier who hears it. will probably fire off his rifle and kill a : comrade—■ an event that will be duly cabled to us later as a Sinn Fein outrage. Every prominent man who encouraged the Kaiser to come and kick the King’s crown into the Boyne has been promoted to a Government billet, while every prominent leader of the people who are asking for the fulfilment of British war pledges is sent to gaol. British justice is a mockery. British chivalry a thing to make the devils laugh. To be Irish and Catholic is almost criminal, to be Orange and Hunnish is almost as sure, to lead .to promotion from Muckpherson or Welsh George. Bishops’ letters are opened and their contents stolen by British officials. Bishops may not publish letters in the press. It is still permitted to go to Mass and to bury the dead, but a gathering for almost any other cause is sure to lead to a baton charge and to brutal murders by the police and soldiers. Thus it goes on in the one white nation under the heel of a tyrant to-day And the wonderful thing is that the people keep smiling all the time. The boys and the girls are not one whit afraid of anything that can happen them, they are ready for gaol, or ready for death, satisfied so long as it is all for Ireland. French and Muck issue orders suppressing everything, but nothing is suppressed. Sinn Fein holds meetings, conducts courts

of justice, organises and directs and controls the people, and beats the Huns at every step. ; - and all , the rank and file seem to enjoy x it. Does anybody* think that nation can be beaten now ? ± The Huns Asta There was panic and confusion in- the home. The poor, heart-broken mother -too stricken with' grief to move from the bedside, r . The little children had cried 'themselves sick. ; The dead man, ‘murdered . brutally, lay on his bed. They had killed him as cowards' always do, so suddenly that he had not even time to send for his priest. Up and down stairs* through the rooms, tearing blinds and hangings, ripping pictures from their frames, smashing windows and furniture, the Hun soldiers went to and fro, cursing and blaspheming as is their way. They had no respect for the dead no compassion for the tears of the widow, or for the grief of the fatherless little children. They were Huns; and what to them were widows and children. Imagine,’ if you can, the sordid brutality of the proceeding! Picture to yourself the baseness of a government of which the troops descend to such practices. Can you recall anything to outdo it, even from the annals of the reign of Henry VIII. or even from the annals of Nero’s reign? In the Reichstag, Herr von Schweinhund, who was the Minister supposed to be responsible for the conduct of the troops in question, was asked for an explanation. They went to the house,” he said, “in order to investigate the murder. For if they had not gone, the people would blame them for the murder.” Herr von Schweinhund clearly expected that common sense would fasten on his men as the murderers. Why, we wonder. ; ' Now a deputy arose and said to Herr von Schweinhund : “What you say to excuse your men is not true; for it appears now that before they went into that house, which they sacked and rifled, they did not know of the murder. Therefore, you have told an untruth, and you have given as a statement of fact what was only an invention of your own.” To this Herr von Schweinhund replied: “I tried to defend my men. I gave an inferential explanation.’ What would you have? I was in a corner and I had to say something.” And behold, there was great indignation, among the few honest men who are to be found in that assembly, for they knew that von Schweinhund was a prevaricator and that the truth was not in him. And to many it did appear that his lying defence only made it appear more probable that the murder was done by some of his people; That view’was supported later by the fact that portions of the uniform of his men— or of a man of his—were found in the house where the murder was done. But those who : knew von Schweinhund marvelled not at all. This incident naturally aroused great and intense feeling among those just men : and women who plucked geese to find white feathers to send to men who were slow about going forth ; to fight the Huns. “What? Are these things still happening, after all we have done ? Did we not win a war that freed small nations from their tyrants ? Did we not restore the reign of righteousness and justice on earth? Yet here is Hunnishness bioken out-once more—and as bad as ever Perhaps the brutes did not kill a defenceless • man; but at any rate they : terrified his widow and her-little 01 phans, and they acted in a way that no barbarians would have acted. It is sad to think that these things happen even now that we have won the war.” In this ; way, would some of our Imperial patriots and patriotesses speak if they . heard that such things were done m Belgium, by the Prussians. What have they to say when they know that these things were done in Cork, and that von Schweinhund was Jock Muckpherson ? r- : 'V,

“The Gloomy Dean”i “' - ~ -n{v .j _ ; '••■ t,* v O* 1 i.>. *•: . Dean Inge, known -to . the , world better as “the gloomy Dean,” has written a book of essays which according to the London Times is one of the books of the period. The Dean’s thesis is that what . may be termed short-term progress is an illusion. He is as gloomy as .usual in his r views, - and he has little, joy in the present or v hope -in the future. “The . English populace,” he says, “are at present neither 'Protestant nor Catholic; they are, if >we count heads, mainly heathen.” He. finds the , England of our day a benighted place, and ,ithe towns the worst of it:, ‘.‘The modern town-dweller, has .no God and no Devil ; he lives without awe, without admiration, without fear.” And, bad as the present is, he thinks the coming years will 'be worse. He foresees a new invasion-“a new barbarian invasion—proceeding this time not from the rude nations of the north, but from the crowded alleys of our great cities-which threatens to plunge us into a new Dark Age.” His only hope is that when humanity has tried every wrong path it may perchance strike the right one some day. The book has stimulated much criticism and called forth a great variety of opinions. The one that has attracted most attention is naturally Bernard Shaw’s. The wild Irishman writes in Everyman —• '

“These essays, dazzling as they are, have done much to confirm me in a conviction which has deepened in me for years, that what we call secondary education as practised in our public schools and universities is destructive to any but the strongest minds, and even to them is disastrously confusing. I find in the minds of all able and original men and women who have been so educated, a puzzling want of homogeneity. They are full of chunks of unassimilated foreign bodies which are more troublesome and dangerous than vacancies I find in the minds of those who have not been educated at all. .

“I prefer a cavity to a cancer or a calcalus: it is capable of being filled with healthy tissue and it is not malignant. In the mind of the Dean, which is quite unmistakably a splendid mind, I find the most ridiculous substances, as if, after the operation of educating him, the surgeon pedagogue had forgotten to remove his sponges and instruments and sewn them up inside.” ,

G.B.S. is certainly hard on the poor Dean, but his criticism of modern,education is sound to the core. Just as his prefaces, often matter more than his plays, it is probable that his criticism of the Dean’s book is better than, the book itself, even though the infallible Times gives its Imprimatur to the opus -magnum. The real trouble about modern education is that instead of its being left to men who are qualified and capable it is the . plaything of . every Tom, Dick, and Harry. A Minister of Education is chosen at- random and given almost a free hand to undo the traditions built upon the thought of centuries. A local butcher’s opinion may 'be preferred to a . philosopher’s; an anonymous writer in a paper like the Star will pronounce ex cathedra with lightning rapidity and unblushing cheek on a.subject that taxes the-best, thought of men of high education and careful training. And so, the result is exactly what G.B.S. says: it is. Boys and girls have their minds smothered by chunks of unassimilated and unassimilable stuff, just as a child’s stomach is, about'Christmas time, filled with a medley of things ranging from plum pudding to celery. And while the whole land is laid desolate because there is no one who thinks in his heart, our teachers take very good care to make it impossible for the young generation to think here' or hereafter. New Zealand suffers most of all countries in this way. You have only to listen to the number of infallible people you meet in a .day to be sure of it. True learning begets humility ; and when you have everybody infallible it is a sign that there is no education in the country.

The Catechism “1“ ' j: The penny catechism,.,is, all things weighed, the most important book for ordinary Christians. It is a little book, so simple that 1 a child is able 1 to learn it, but it contains in it the whole fabric of. doctrine on which salvation hereafter and social order here depend. It contains deeper wisdom than was known to . the greatest thinkers of antiquity, the answers to the riddles that baffle statesmen, the solution of problems that agitate men of learning, and the only true explanation of the mysteries of life and death. - The Church has always insisted on the ■ necessity of teaching the catechism to the young, and she imposes on all pastors a solemn obligation of instructing personally the children under their care. Nobody, can teach the catechism as well as the priest : his studies during his years in the seminary were all a development of the elementary truths found in the catechism, and the better thologian he is the better he will be qualified to make clear to young minds the meaning of those short sentences in which such great truths are condensed. The priest cannot do all he might like to do, and he has invaluable helpers in the devoted nuns and Brothers who, under God, have done so much to spread the faith and to keep its sacred torch burning throughout Christendom. Besides the nuns and Brothers, pious lay people are always found ready to assist in this apostolic work, and the priest is always glad to have their aid. To remind all such how great and how important is their work, we her© repeat a few thoughts' of Monsignor Dupanloup, the learned French prelate whose name is forever associated with the apostolate of the catechism. “ Children are the men of the future. There is a very simple sentence, but it expresses an incontestable fact on which we can never ponder enough if we would stir up our zeal and enter thoroughly into the work of catechising, like true servants of Christ and serious workers of the Gospel. We grieve for the sad state of the poor people of our villages and towns whom , a century and a-half of impiety brought to such misery. We say that all the work for souls has to be begun again ; that the labors of the Apostles and of the first preachers, of the faith in our country must be undertaken anew; that a task of regeneration is before us, and that it is almost like a resurrection from the dead. It is true. Nothing less than that must be done. If anybody does not think so, it is because he has not an elementary grasp of the facts and not a right idea of the work to which God calls us.

“But what are we to conclude from the situation ? “The most infallible means for the prompt regeneration of our parishes is, without a doubt, the work of catechising. Yes, if this work is well organised, well done, conducted with zeal and perseverance, however great the evil may be, we may have confidence that we will yet make all safe. “Let us then look to the children who are at hand, whom Providence causes to be born and to grow up under our eyes; let us turn towards those dear young souls, so easy to win ; let us train them up under the eyes of the Lord; let us make them good Christians, and we will have effected a radical change in „the present and saved the future.

“For the children will become men soon, and they will be the future Christian people. “The Holy Spirit has said, A young man according to his way, and even when he is old he will not depart from it. It is very difficult for a man to be good in his old age if he has not learned how to be good in his youth. “Therefore, when you are asked to undertake the work of catechising with zeal, there is no question of a work of supererogation: no, it is a question of life or death for souls. Heaven or Hell for ever, there is what it means, neither more nor less, for millions of souls, even for the whole Church. So much is at stake when it is a question of teaching catechism well or badly.”