Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 17 June 1920, Page 14

Current Topics

The Children Whom We Starved • We : starved the women and children of Central Europe by the most inhuman blockade in history. We had what might be called a Hunnish excuse for doing so in violation of international law during the war, but we had no excuse except the promptings of Brithun devilry for keeping up the massacre, of the innocents when the war was over. We have sinned and sinned greviously against the women and children, whose sufferings and deaths are the best reply to all our pitiful, hypocritical whining about right and justice and humanity during the war— if we cared one straw for right or justice, whether in Europe or in Ireland. We are pleased to know that some effort is now being made to raise funds for the relief of the victims of the chivalrous British blockade. The Catholics are responding nobly. Up to the moment of writing over £7OO has been subscribed in Auckland alone. We are pleased to see that the oppressed people in Ireland are also remembered in Auckland..

Roman Cablegrams A short time ago we were regaled and refreshed by a fablegram that told the enlightened and cultured readers of our press that the Pope was to consecrate the: Sinn Fein movement by canonising Count Plunket, the prominent Sinn Feiner. Needless, to say there were galoots go leor who believed the rot and accepted it as truth. Doubtless the same dear people will also accept with gratitude on the authority of the unimpeachable Sunday Times that the Pope has condemned the tactics of Sinn Fein and approved of the oppression of Ireland by the gang of plunderers who made with Italy a scandalous compact that they would prolong the war and continue the slaughter rather than allow the Roman Pope to make any terms of peace. One of these days we will hear that Mr Massey has been made a Cardinal and that Limavadday is a place of pious pilgrimage instead of a centre of Orange damnations for Popes and papists. While the Day Lies tell us such stories, we beg to submit that we have it on the authority of an Irish bishop that the Dublin Castle Government is at present organising the murders of prominent Sinn Feiners, such as the late Lord Mayor of Cork. Indeed, Arthur Griffiths openly stated at a public meeting in London that the police had received orders to shoot certain leaders of the movement for self-determination. Most Englishmen now seem to have forgotten that a war was fought for the right of self-determination only a few years ago. They seem to think that it is quite right for them to hold by the principle that might is right, and of course the fact that they condemned Germany for the same thing ought not to be remembered against them at all. Their frank argument is that Ireland is useful to England, and that such questions as right and justice are all moonshine. That is thoroughly English, and ten times more in keeping with the cruel traditions of a nation built up by the pirate Drake and the murderer Cromwell that the recent hypocritical whining about ‘atrocities and crimes in Belgium which Colthurst and Muckpherson were surpassing in Ireland. Imagine the gullability and stupidity of a press that prints Vatican news derived from the Sunday Times ! One might as well expect to get the truth regarding Rome in Knox Church about the Twelfth of July. Ireland We mentioned that a bishop told us that the murders were the work of the foreign government in Ireland. He also told us another thing; that although iiie ana property are not safe from the Brithuns, and though children and women are not spared by the English heroes the heart of - the . Irish people* is as firm as the heart of a lion and there is no thought at all of surrendering to the tyrants. He says that all

things—even the confusion and turmoil—are " working out well for ultimate victory for the Irish cause. Apropos of the strike of the Irish railwaymen, who refused to carry guns to shoot down their brothers, we note once more the hypocritical and cowardly tactics of English Labor. English Labor betrayed Russia and Ireland during the war, and now wants to play into the hands of the Brithuns. "Go on working and let us consider what is best," says''Mr Thomas. In other words when you have done the harm and carried the guns and the bullets, perhaps we will say you were wrong, but we will say nothing until the job has been done for our friend Lloyd George. Mr Thomas also weeps crocodile tears for the police, but he has nothing to say about the tears of Mrs McCurtain, or of Mrs. Skeffington, or of Mrs. Clarke. Oh no! English Labor does not see its way to help Ireland by embarrassing Mr. George, and the Irishman who ex-. pected it would is a fool. Sinn Fein is the motto for Ireland. Self-reliance alone can win the victory, and by adhering to that principle Ireland is winning. If we had no other proof of it, the contradictory and silly cables that fill the press nowadays, in clear proof of the panic among the Brithun champions of small nations, are proof enough. Ireland is asking for what England said she fought for in the war. The whole world knows that England only pretended to be concerned about right and justice and now the whole world sees Ireland proving what a liar and a hypocrite John Cow is. John cannot hold out. He is a beggarr man and a bankrupt, and as Ginger Mick would say his name is mud among the nations. Ireland has nothing to lose and can hold out as long as the women and children are not killed as well as the men. And Ireland will hold out and will win, no matter how many more Lord Mayors are killed.

The Recent Canonisations The English killed Joan of Arc and Oliver Plunket who are now declared saints of the universal Church. Joan of Arc was burned with incredible brutality at Rheims and Oliver Plunket was martyred bn a gibbet at Tyburn. In these days, after a war that revived the Christian faith among the masses of the French people, the tidings of the great honor paid to the Maid of Orleans, who was their inspiration during the weary years when only the indomitable spirit of Catholic France saved Western Europe, will bring comfort , and joy to the men and women whose forefathers, in the far-off years, Joan led to victory against their English foes. Joan was not only burned to death, but, as is England's way with Catholics even now, she was calumniated and blackened with a lack of chivalry and honor not yet altogether forgotten in France. But Joan has triumphed. Her cause triumphed long ago when the last of the English were driven from the soil of her'native land, and now her fair name and her honor are vindicated in the grandest and most striking manner possible. Joan saved France in bygone years, and may she in our time save her people from the more terrible spiritual foes that surround them. As Joan was the victim of English cruelty and treachery so too was the great Archbishop of Armagh whom bigoted, persecuting) Protestant England killed and calumniated. To the Irish Catholics, now crushed under the armed heel of that same bigoted, persecuting, Protestant England, not many joys come at present. They have apart from their religion but little to support and comfort them ; but the religion they clung to in spite of fire and sword when England tamely turned her coat at the behest of a Henry or an Elizabeth is a source of comfort and strength such as they alone know. Therefore. the news of the canonisation of Oliver Plunket will be an inspiration and a joy for them in the present dark days, as it will also be a promise that even as Oliver triumphed over his tyrants so too will longsuffering Erin. To students of the Irish College at Rome the canonisation of an old alumnus of the common alma mater will be a source of legitimate pride, and all over the world, wherever they are scat-

teredo their thoughts will go back with deep gratitude to the old halls where . they were encouraged to walk in the footsteps of • the martyred patriot prelate who brings such glory to the Irish College now. We are happy to know that the present superiors of our old college are just the men to train young Irish levites on the lines on which Oliver Plunket was trained in bygone days. It will not be their fault if the clergy who go forth from those historic walls will not be Irishmen as well as priests. . «

Christian Womanhood The French atheists aimed at undermining the foundation of religion and morality in France. They captured the schools and they banished God from them, with the result that even professed secularists confessed that the nation was on the road to destruction and that only a religious training for the young could save it. That the atheists and the immoralists did not utterly corrupt France was due to the fact that they were not able to corrupt the women of the country. In spite of bad schools, bad laws, bad literature, and bad example, the women of France were true to the old traditions of the land that gave us Blanche and Jeanne; and because they were true France found a Foch and’ a Castelnau to save her when the rotten reed of Freemasonry broke under the stress of the war. As long as the women remain pure and good and true a nation cannot be lost : but if once womanhood loses its virtue the end is decay and ruin, as sure and as swift as was the corruption of old Rome and old Greece. To put the matter in another way : the morals of men are what women make them. Men will respect pure women, and a modest, retiring girl needs no other defence in her walk through life. Forward, unmaidenly girls lead men into temptation, and if men fall, more often than not the first step is due to the woman. Therefore, the best defence of a nation is the purity of its women, and its greatest bane is laxity of moral fibre and, loss of modesty among its daughters. In a country like ours, where moral depravity is so widespread and where vice is so naked and unashamed, only two safeguards against ruin are left. Religious education that will teach the young people to fear and love God is the first essential, and next to it comes the influence of a good home, with its Christian atmosphere and the watchful eye of a conscientious mother. Both must work together. Even the best school will not save girls whose parents will allow them to go with whom they will and to keep late hours and come and go as they please. And on the other hand home influence will not avail much unless deep in the young heart are formed Christian principles that will raise a rampart against sin and be a bulwark against temptation in the hour of danger, which will come for all. Therefore, while we are doing our best to provide good schools, and while our devoted teachers are spending themselves day by day in the cause of Christian education, we have a right to expect that fathers and mothers will do their part at home to complete what is begun in the school. The father . and mother who neglect to watch over their children will have a terrible reckoning one day, for they will go before a Judge who will demand of them not only an account of their own souls, but also an account of the souls of the children to whom they were stumbling-blocks instead of guardians and protectors Over young girls especially parents are bound to watch. What the girls are now the future mothers will be, and it is their hands that will have the mouldmg of the destinies of the people in after years. A modest, pure, retiring girlhood in the country will mean a healthy promise for the future ; and a forward, tennefs 689 ’ CrrUpt S irlhood will mean a harvest of rot-

The Murder in Cork - Britain SiT*?* sai A d that his Valet Was bribed by Britain to kill him. Arthur Griffith told the people

of London that the . Government had instructed its tools to shoot prominent Sinn Feiners. Irish juries have found policemen and soldiers guilty of wilful murder and in no instance :were the murderers punished. Even against French and Lloyd George verdicts of murder have been brought in and even English papers throw on them all ; the guilt for all the blood that is spilled in Ireland. It is not the way of the British Government to punish its hired criminals : even after exposure the notorious Sheridan was let go scott free. Rather is it the way of British chivalry and fair play to try to throw upon others the guilt which is all its own. Thus the unspeakable brute who is Lord Lieutenant of Ireland—like a lordly liar— some newspaper person that the Lord Mayor of Cork was killed by Sinn Feiners. It was a lie, and French knew it was a lie. But nobody expects anything honest, as nobody expects anything decent from French. Thomas McCurtain was killed by policemen. Mr. McVeagh had the courage to assert this in the English Parliament, and there is abundant evidence that he was right. At the inquiry into the murder, the counsel for the next-of-kin marshalled the following facts before the public, leaving no doubt in the public mind as to who were the murderers (1) The murder was committed by about 20 men, six of whom entered the house, the others being stationed outside. (2) The men were tall men who wore civilian overcoats and caps and carried rifles with straps, such as those served out to the police; (3) A short time after the murder was committed several civilians saw tall men in civilian dress pass through some of the back streets from the direction of the Lord Mayor’s residence carrying rifles with straps. The men were followed and seen to enter the King Street Barracks. (4) A little later policemen in uniform but wearing civilian overcoats and caps came from the same direction and also entered King Street Barracks. They also carried rifles. (5) The Lord Mayor’s house is only forty yards from the Blackpool Barracks, a principal police barracks. Rifles fired outside and revolvers inside the house could not fail to attract the attention of the police in the barracks. (6) The attention of the police was not attracted. They rendered no assistance and did not visit the house until eight hours afterward. (7) Military raided the house an hour after the murder and asked no questions as to how the Lord Mayor was killed or expressed no surprise at seeing him dead. _ (8) With the military were police from the neighboring Blackpool Barracks. These did not enter the house. But if it were not already known to them that the Lord Mayor had been murdered, the information must have been communicated to them by the military with whom they withdrew after the raid at 2 am. Yet no police visited the house until 9 a.m. (9) The men who murdered the Lord Mayor knew the interior of the house perfectly. (10 j Police had raided the house over twenty times in four years and several times within the last two months. ('ll) On the morning after the crime bullets were found outside the Lord Mayor’s residence which were of the latest police pattern. (12) Immediately outside the door of the murdered Lord Mayor’s residence was found a policeman’s button.