A MAD POLICY.

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1920, Page 35

A MAD POLICY.

Under the above heading the Manchester Guardian of September 3, writes, in part, as follows:—"It pleases the Government to treat the Lord Mayor of Cork as a criminal. . . What kind of a Victoria Cross will he receive? What will be his place.in the hearts and the memories of his fellow-countrymen ? From his death and his example what sort of crop will grow ? We say nothing of reprisals. Unhappily, they are likely enough, but the Lord Mayor of Cork was not "an outrage-monger. He fought openly, but cleanly, and, so far as is known, he had no part or lot in the crimes of the murder gang. To give that sort of answer to his sacrifice would be to degrade it. It would be not to glorify his memory, but to sully it. "But there is another kind of answer, more worthy and infinitely more effectualthe answer which the spirit can always give to violence, the quickening of resolve, the raising of effort to a higher the acceptance of every sacrifice. That is the answer which the Government will receive, and against it they will find that every weapon of coercion will break in their hands. They will be defeated by a power stronger than any which they can wield. - Meanwhile, force begets force, and outrage, outrage all over Ireland. The moderating elements which still exist, and which even now have sought to make themselves felt, will abandon their task in despair, and North and South, on whose agreement de-

pends the .only-possible ultimate settlement of—the country, will be driven further and further apart, while the evil spirits of sectarian hate and partisan violence will receive enormous reinforcement. We have no desire to ! paint. the picture blacker than it is, but ". if the Government had set to work deliberately to make a peaceful and statesmanlike settlement' impossible, could they have done better? Is there any remedyleft, but to get rid of them and let other men take up a task . for which they have shown themselves so tragically incompetent