A LONDONER ON LLOYD GEORGE

New Zealand Tablet, 30 December 1920, Page 24

A LONDONER ON LLOYD GEORGE

- ' ; '' H^ —rr—: —■—:..:■; — ~~~„ .';*' ' »>•■■ Most. observers saw a Georgian ;touch "the policy of reprisals, but no one expected such an ; apostolic blessing of them as the Carnarvon - speech (says the London Nation for October 16). Yet there was "no reason to be surprised. Mr. George lacks breeding because he wants true or deep human feeling. Humanity appears to him as so much raw substance to be moulded to his will; and all that has happened to it in the past is little or nothing to him. for he has neither knowledge of its habits, nor sympathy with its soul. Everyone who knows c Ireland, , and deplores these later horrors, also knows her to bo a glorious piece of work, fit to shine by herself or to adorn any political system of which she is a part, but immensely difficult for us to deal with because of our bad conduct to her, and her acutely sensitive, memory-of it. But it is merelv unskilled workmanship in politics to treat her to the brutal words of the Carnarvon speech, and the brutal action it adopts and defends. "Mr. Asquith may have made mistakes about Ireland. But he behaves to her like a gentleman. And that is precisely what Mr. George cannot do. Mr. George's, 'speech makes the question of origins more important than ever. "" How and" where did the policy of reprisals take its rise? The : Irish account is that it came before.the, Cabinet, .andtthat the claim of the military then was. to be given a free hand, without interference from the civilians,. and L that, this, after debate, was conceded. it is a pretty stiff proposition. Is it credible that the politicals gave up Ireland to be : sacked? And yet if such a consent was withheld, how could the thing ever have happened ?-.,. How account for the organisation of the auxiliaries, the mobilisations of the Black-and-Tans, the attacks by plan and signal, the choice of the creameries, the character, of the whole "plan" of campaign? Besides -Carnarvon is a confession.. It gives the clue to tlnSSSft T* SBfrflW and Greenwood's halting In?! K™ ! / lme Mimster,; at W si h was w, "th the Black-ancl-lans. And one -knows enough of this Government to divine that that ended the matter with Mr. George's "Liberals'' no less ;( than with Tories. But there has been opposition some ; of it merely .perfunctory; but another part genuinely horrified and disposed : . to supply iat least a damn mg atmosphere to the policy of terror £< ■( v- l> a: % f" P " +l, .V S • f ? r^ the l Br , sh ; government of Ireland, it is < over • SSSBtfei^^ : - 98^ d wrth too SSS^^Sf 3 -f er U 6 give it . a .chance to put on a ■tay3|L^r. ing :, T Outside the Orange. pale,;the raids have ■^Hp|v|>f^^Mfe/' Nor ' more English, rule,;

the substance and '■ wealth" f of Southern Unionism. Therefore it is now a question of devising the way of the exodus. It is absurd to suppose that v there is no settling withs Ireland. "I have repeatedly • said," declared Mr. Arthur Griffith; the other- day, ': "that once England recognises our right, as a nation' to independence, Ireland is ready to meet her and. discuss with her, as a friend, any ; military, international, or : financial .points' upon wbich she : may be uneasy, and to enter into treaties, which will, secure our mutual "interests and 'protect' hers." The task of statesmen ,is to discover an opening to such a negotiation. The Prince . of Wales might be taken as its sponsor,"if he came to Ireland armed .with power to proclaim,amnesty, and disarmament, clap a"muzzle- 'on -Dublin 1 - Castle, and summon a Constitutional Conference.. Mr. Asquith, I understand, would summon, at once a meeting of Dail Eireariri, that ll is to say, of the Irish Members "of -Parliament, collecting its members from their Irish and English prisons, arid, I imagine, giving them a charge- to draw up an' 1 Irish Constitution arid submit it to our statesmen " How many of "these"" so-called ['J reprisals" are ,'reprisals in intent or even in name? 1 If a quarter of what I hear from Ireland is true, the .policy of terrorism was set about, not by impulse, but by plan. ~'.The desperadoes have, been let alonein fact, not one of them has been captured. But some of the quieter, and therefore -the weaker, centres of Irish Nationalism have been methodically and repeatedly shot up and outraged.' The crops have been attacked, and hundreds of haystacks destroyed. Isolated houses, situate in remote villages, where nothing had happened, have been burned to the ground. In the county I have in mind; and from which I have received two independent reports, the statement is that districts were mapped out among the police, and visited one after the other. They often looted right and left, returning nothing of what they stole. Here, is a story. It was told me by an Irish merchant of substance and ability,- as his address and conversation seemed to show. He stated that' his office, stores, and house had been bombed and gutted, and that he had lost £IO,OOO. He showed mo a photograph of his office, with the safe ripped up and torn to fragments; and the furniture scattered in utter disorder. Notes; silver, cigarettets, fishing tackle, boxes of scent, everything that these public guardians could lay their hands on had, he said, been, stolen. After the sack had been complete, a policeman m uniform came round and handed the following note to the doorkeeper. He showed me the original envelope and epistle:— c 'To Mr. B ■ "Advocate of Assassination (sic). "You are warned to make no claim to compensation in a British Court. Leave C by first train. ■Lire is sweet. You are well watched." He added an account of what happened to two of his neighbors, well-to-do citizens. One was forced into the sea and made to stand there till the water reached his neck, when lie was shot at until he was on the point of drowning He was then taken out and made to stand in front of his house in his dripping clothes, shot at again, and released. Ihe second man was dragged out of his bed', half naked, made to crawl round his garden, on hands and knees till i l tr. •" "n? S sc r a P ed off them, and to cry "God bless the U.I.U I hen he was shot at and allowed to go. This is the story. I hardly suppose it is an invention. But if not, what have the Government to say to' it?