Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1920, Page 14

Current Topics

An Unkindest Cut 6.1 vtiiudorl ,nl Under the guidance of a new bishop, who has already won for himself the admiration of ■ many ; who are not of his own Church, the Anglican ; Synod has been sitting in Dunedin for some days past. An interesting • little incident l is : reported' in Monday morning’s paper. Some crank, unnamed, brought up the racing problem. Then the band began to play. First of all Rev. H. Parata protested against the motion and argued that the Church should not interfere in such a matter. Mr. Anderson agreed emphatically with Rev. H. Parata, and referred to the amount of “rot” talked about’racing and the harm it did : , “The Synod should not touch the business at all. If they wanted to make the Church unpopular let them attack the sports of the people.” Rev. W. H. Roberts scored a bull’s eye in fine style when he said; “It was the kind of thing they did in the Council of Churches arid brought themselves into disrepute.” Contributing his views. Archdeacon Fitchett recalled that he had once backed a horse called “Piety,” which won. Yes, indeed; the Reverend and lay gentlemen of the Synod were quite right. Such tomfoolery is good enough for the people who represent the Churches that had such a poor record for voluntary recruiting during the war, and at the same time, went round accusing others who had done their duty fully of being shirkers. However, perhaps it is unkind to recall these facts, considering that first-class, athletic, able-bodied men are not so numerous as old women 'of both sexes in these august assemblies which produce so many reversals to the noble type of Nosey Parker. The Manslaughter of the Mayor of Cork The other day, with reference to the inhuman treatment of Mr. MacSuibhne, a French journalist said: “Premier Lloyd George by his cold and heartless , blunder will remain the image of English Tm])erialism —an assassin and a coward.” The “assassin and coward” has had his way. Terence MacSuibhne has died for Ireland in an English gaol. His crime was that he was an Irish patriot who loved his country. No trial was allowed him. It may be said that he was tried by court-martial ; but no man who knows anything about English justice in Ireland can imagine that that is a trial. It is, as the London Nation , August 21, says, “a synonym for judicial iniquity all the world over.” No apology for Lloyd George avails in the least. An innocent man was thrown into prison and allowed to die because he was not going to acquiesce in his unjust sentence ; there are the plain facts. The Lord Mayor of Cork was killed by The British Government, just as surely as his predecessor was murdered by the British police. Thus, in the year 1920, does England keep her pledges to the men whom she called to die, or forced to die, for the right of selfdetermination for small nations. Do we weep with pity for Terence MacSuibhne? Far be it from us. On the contrary, we hail him as the last and one of the greatest of our Irish martyrs; for his long, agony and his lingering death were ten times more heroic than a swift end before the roaring guns on the battlefield. From his own nearest and dearest friends we can best learn how to look upon his death. Here is. what his young wife says of her dead martyr: “It is better to die than yield to your country’s enemies. The doctors tell me that Terence is dying, but I know that ,he will die with an unbroken spirit. I told him that his decision was my decision. Irish women are no less brave than Irish men.” And when Welsh George tried to misrepresent a telegram Miss MacSuibhne sent him, here is what the hero’s sisters said: “I made no appeal to you for exceptional treatment for my brother. I warned you of your responsibility in the event of his death. : He and his com-

rades demand their freedom as a right. If my brother or any I of his comrades ..must die to win that freedom they do so willingly, and we are proud of them, but tiheir death' lies upon ' you and your ' Government'.” Can you read those brave words without feeling your Heart leap with’ pride for the women of our race? Are riot these two women of our own day worthy to rank with Anne Devlin and Mary Dwyerwith the mothers of Sparta—-with the heroines of any race on earth? Can the nation that breeds such women, and the sons that such women bear, be beaten by brutal despotism Thank God in Heaven it cannot ! , v ‘’ When the police murdered poor Thomas McCurtain his wife gave birth to still-bom twins, thus making a triple murder. Now, another Mayor of Cork has gone to join his old friend and predecessor in office,- and the guilt of another crime falls _on the Lloyd George Government. The other night in New York, Dr. McCartan said speaking of the Cork murder, before a large gathering of Americans: “We do not any longer protest at what England does in Ireland. We are here to-night, not to protest against the treatment meted out to the Lord Mayor of Cork, but to congratulate the Lord Mayor of Cork on being selected as the one man to typify the spirit that prevails in Ireland at the present time. When the policy of assassination was first agreed upon in Dublin Castle or in the Viceregal Lodge last September by Lord French, Lord Birkenhead and others, the Lord Mayor of Cork was the man selected for asassination. Now when Britain wishes to test her 88th Coercion Act for Ireland, the successor of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain is selected. Cork has a right to be proud, and Ireland is proud of Cork.” Judge from these words what effect the Lloyd George atrocities will have on Irishmen. MacSuibhne’s death is but another step towards victory. “A race of nobles may die out, A royal line may leave no heir; Wise nature sets no guard about Her pewter plates and wooden ware. ( But they fail not, the kinglier breed. Who starry diadems attain ; To dungeon, axe, and stake succeed Heirs of the old Heroic strain.” Terence MacSuibhne’s death will be in the hearts of the Irish race all over the world a toxen to cry “shame upon the idle and the vile, and keep the heart of Man for ever up to the heroic level of old time.” his last British blunder has done more than anything we know of to drive deeper into every Irish heart the determination that now there must be no compromise with the nation that drains the life-blood of Ireland and plunders her wealth. Once more that proud word of Sean Mac Dermot is flung to the foes: Concessions -be . damned ! We wan our country ! To prove how sincere was his appeal on behalf of oppressed small nations Lloyd George’s thugs have killed 63 men and boys, tried to kill 53 more, sacked 60 towns and villages, arrested without trial 8,385 men and women, and children, deported without trial 2,413, and perpetrated in all 26,062 raids on private homes! Think of that, all you soldiers who left New Zealand to fight for small nations. Think of how you were deceived, especially you who were forced by militarism and by Junkerdom to fight against your better judgment. Nor is that all; the latest phase of British chivalry is the wanton destruction of Irish factories and Irish industries. Imagine if you can, a British army burning and sacking, and looting butter factories at Kaupokanui, at Patea, at Riversdale; or woollen factories at Mosgiel, at Roslyn, at Kaiapoi. What would you think of it ? How would bear it? Do you wonder, then,, that Irishmen, in spite of all the splendid restraint of Sinn Fein, often retaliate? They tell you the lie that the British retaliations are due to Sinn Fein, crimes. .'.lt is. a lie. Had there been no coercionand no wanton raids ; and no arrests of innocent people

and no kidnapping of young boys, to '‘ mad den' the people who loved r a small nation, there had-, been no Sinn - Fein violence. A lie! , Who wonders ? Ciirzon Lloyd-, George, and the rest of them, what are they all but brazen liars? y V.' ‘' 'V.T.j-'. Oh, it goes on, and it will go on for some time yet, this agony of a , small nation. But do not think that Ireland is afraid or disheartened. Do not think that men of the breed of MacSuibhne can be beaten by brutes, or that women like his wife and . sister will fail—aye, if every man in Ireland is murdered —to carry on the fight for justice to the bitter end. MacSuibhne’s death is , not a f ailure ; it is a glorious promise of victory; it is something to be proud -of. And, please God, in every parish, or' in every Irish parish, over the world we will lift pur hearts and souls to the God of justice in prayer for. the dead martyr and for the dear land for which he : : died. England, England herself, is slowly and surely building the Irish Republic. The blood of martyrs is watering it. Already it is elevated into view of the whole world ; it is acclaimed even, in English papers. It has the allegiance of the people of Ireland, and of the Irish County Councils. It lives and rules and grows stronger day by day. For this Pearse, MacDonough, Connolly, Mac Curtain, and MacSuibhne died. And not in vain. May they rest in peace. “Here’s their memory, may it be For us a guiding light, To cheer our strife for liberty. And teach us to unite.”

British Barbarity There can be no just government without consent of the governed; a people must have the right to choose its own form of government; that right must be vindicated no matter whose selfish interests are crossed. There are the sound principles of justice to which England pledged herself when in terror of Germany she was on her knees to America. On the strength of that pledge America sent her men and her guns to Europe and turned the scales of victory in favor of the Allies. The Irish in America, who could have kept America out of the war, flocked to the standard of battle in hundreds of thousands on the supposition that they were now going to help a nation that was never allowed to choose her own form of government, whose people never had any voice in the management of their own affairs, whose resources were dishonestly exploited for the benefit of her oppressors. IrishAmericans may not have believed in the truth of English pledges— only fools would. But they did believe that Wilson meant what he said ; they did not realise, as we did not, that he was the hypocrite the Peace Conference later showed him to be. So, America saved England; and, once safe, in characteristic British fashion England broke her pledges and tore up her scraps of paper, and once again in her history vindicated to herself , the right to be known of all men as perfidious Albion. She refuses to give Ireland freedom; she refuses to give her even the status of a Dominion; she continues to martyr a brave people in deference to a gang of international profiteers ‘and to a secret society whose filth once drove the Irish people to rebellion. We have said; more than once that the. worst records of Czardom, the atrocities of Abdul the Damned, the slaughters of the 'Coliseum have been outdone by England in her efforts to kill the Irish race. Proof go leor is found in Irish History, in the past. If we want proof to-day we need but look at the last Coercion Act brought -in by Welsh George and Freemason Greenwood. Burke long ago said of the Penal Laws enacted by England that no more diabolical scheme was ever framed by ’ human ingenuity. Of the Welsher-Fueemason scheme the same might be said without exaggeration- And remember it is designed to destroy a nation whose only crime is

that she askfcGEh£lahdß to ..... pigged word, a that she asks England l .- to keep her pledged word, a thing which it is clear England is incapable of doing. The main purpose of the new enactment is to legalise frightfulness in Ireland; to sanction’ by English law the scrimes ,q that England . alleged . against :j the enemy a /. in.'o Belgium j ; and j; over 0 which v our lachrymose a parsons ■ and / politicians and pressmen wailed for . five years ..with magnificent hypocrisy. !{A;/ ■: o iLet us see briefly the. nature of the/Bedlam legislation recently framed , by the chivalrous champions , of small nations. Regulation 3 (1-5) ordains that for any misdemeanor whatever, Irish citizens may be tried by court-martial. As the Manchester , Guardian .- says: “Prisoners and judges Wall meet as enemies, representatives of two. nations at war with each other.” There is a splendid sample of British justice! . V; Regulations 2-3 ordain that any Irish subject may be arrested and tried by court-martial, for an act done at any time in the past which act was not at the time it was done an illegal act, but which is now made illegal by these regulations. ... Abdul the Damped never perpetrated a crime like that piece of British justice! . . , ' Regulation 3 (6) ordains that any Irish subject arrested, for trial by court-martial may, on an order made by any competent naval or military authority, be detained in any of his Majesty’s prisons. . . until thence delivered, hy order of the competent naval or military authority. . ... If the Welsher were possessed by all the devils that drove the Gadarene swine To their destruction he could not have surpassed that! Regulation 4 (5) ordains that any Irish subject can be sentenced to death for political offences by these courts-martial, it being further enacted that for a trial punishable by death a person of legal experience nominated by the Lord Lieutenant shall be a member of the court. Knowing all we do know about French, we see what a farce such an apparent safeguard is ! This makes it clear that persons of no legal experience are to judge in #ll other cases. Regulation 8 (1) empowers any person authorised to summon witnesses before a court-martial to arrest and bring before the court any person whom he suspects of not being likely to attend. . . No inmate of Bedlam could beat that piece of British legislation ! Regulation 12 permits court-martials to try secretly Irish subjects. One more outrage on the rights and liberties of Irish patriots! Regulation 14 (1) says: “Any person who does an act with a view to promoting or calculated to promote the objects of an unlawful association shall be guilty of an offence against these regulations.”. Under this splendid and .up-to-date British regulation it becomes an offence to promote the revival of the Irish language and to. advocate ’the study of Irish History.' '.q "V Regulation 14.(2) ordains that the possession of a document relating to the Bail Eireann, the Unman na mßan, the Gaelic League, Sinn Fein, or the Volunteers' shall be guilty of an offence. Of course it does not apply to Carson’s Volunteers who are permitted to carry arms as a reward for buying them from the Kaiser 1 All that an . enemy has to do now is to post a .forged, document to the house of any person and to send the police hot foot "after it. And this has been done. The worst of the Czars will turn in their graves with envy at the super-malignity of freedom-loving England. ■' ’ ‘ ' Regulation L 5 (1-2) ordains that the competent naval or military authority may make orders regulating, restricting or prohibiting the transport of articles if it seems necessary. Foodstuffs are comprehended by the word “articles.” . . Therefore, it is now. in the power of any drunken or mad, English officer, like Colthurst or Crowther, to starve any Irish community over which the benign and compassionate champions of small nations have made them, “the competent military authority.”.. .Will Dyer be sent to Ireland? Arthur Griffith’s comment on this fresh effort of English devilry is “To these lengths the British Gov-

ernment in Ireland- has gone in its effort to force on the Irish people an admission of British < authority <in Ireland. Into " the custody of hostile army chiefs the liberty and life of every man, woman, and child in Ireland have been placed. Military terrorism, death and starvation are to be the lot in future of Irish citizens who believe in, and strive for, their Nation's independence." These things, let us repeat it once again, are not done by the Kaiser. They are not the outrageous and devilish enactments of the despotic Czars. They are not the emanations of the besotted mind of Abdul the Damned. They are the measures framed in England by David Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Hamar Greenwood, and other Brithuns, for the extermination of Irish patriots whose* only crime is that, after a war alleged to be for the freedom of small nations, they demand freedom for the oldest small nation in Europe. Is it any wonder that the unbought -press of England, the papers controlled by no Jews or Tories, are violent in denunciation of this hellish Code ? Is-it any wonder that Lord Robert Cecil and Viscount Grev accuse flip. Marconi schemer of being behind the murders and the burnings and the outrages in Ireland ? Is not the whole.legislation an attempt to sanction the deeds of a Colbhurst and a Crowther and a Sergeant Sheridan ? No wonder, indeed, that influential Englishmen predict the litter ruin of their Emoire through the crimes of Lloyd P-onvrro nil H ]-ij<. fellow ronsnirators. One of these days Englishmen w'll eagerlv change their names for German name?; for verv sham" "for their country.