THE TASK OF PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Tablet, 21 April 1921, Page 9

THE TASK OF PARLIAMENT

(By G. K. Chesterton, in the New Witness for February 4.) When Parliament meets next Monday week there will bo many questions before the House, but only two urgent problems, and the more important problem will get but scant attention. It is more imporant to do justice to Ireland than to feed the unemployed, as it was more , important during the war to beat the Germans than to hang the profiteer. It is better that men should starve in English streets than that the hirelings of the English Government should murder men and women in Irish lanes ' We cannot solve the problem of the unemployed until we have changed our system of industry, our conception of property and our national and individual ideals. And we cannot do all that with a gesture. But we can do Cw V ? Wlth a gesture - Stran S e t 0 sa y» it is the gesture or. a drowning man crying for help whieWli th6 i I l risl i P roblem is , ™ n S US - not °" r bodies, on f ? if' but T S ° Uls 1 ' the soul of En «land, the souls of Englishmen Continually are infamies perpetrated n Ireland to-day which, when the like were done by Germans in .Belgium, excited our horror. Now we rub our hands and cry, -'That's the stuff to give them!" or -Shooting men for carrying arms! Good! Now you just hear them squeal!" Oh, yes they squeal; and Te Squeal Ts a cry to. heaven for God's vengeance on murder. ,vl,n Men who spoke once and fought once for freedom who understood once the meaning of patriotism are blinded tnnt on V Wer Wltl the terrible spiritual blindness that comes before the death of the soul. They watch calmly the murder of » nt ion which goes on e 0 slowly fiS? (with .their naked bodies and a few machine and hglit _ (with .their naked bodies, and a few machine suns against Juggernaut!), and detailed massacre, thoS briskly proceeded with, takes a long time " nf , ™ "Black-and-Tans," mad with drink and the lust ■of killing, go round shooting indiscriminately, yet the bag no aLZ g lfTi F r u - latest edict ' ich mean? no quarter to the Irish, works in a piecemeal way. Yet " the murder, of the Irish nation goes on. And England watches it callously, as the Germans watched the murder of Belgium until we drove them back to the Rhine'' We drove them back? Nay, the public opinion of the world t^£%Zs£$ surely thp " the ™ e * f ®WI d'o m b of 1 S d V-W 1 that ? ice haS o ered he (loom of England We are what they always said we were often with injustice, but now how,truly! We are mere hypocrites talking fervently 0 f the blessings of freedom and the rights of small nations, and practising the blackest tyranny over a small nation at our very door on We.promise Ireland Home Rule; nay, "we grant it her vUTllip T "' e glVe ] -T ? Home Rule ™*™™ "inch is a he. We scream with indignation at the asassinations practised by rebels, and authority Lei has S 8 y? in J in Ireland and runs amok throng the length and breadth of it. Authority itself has turned into < an anarchist which is .the final .horror, and a promise of know 0 of the night. r Th things the nations and know and the name of England is abhorred for whom 1° Y -n En S la * d > who are English to the marrow, for whom her hills and fields have the power of invocation' have cause to be ashamed. * -' ; >V r -invocation, meeto ha it^l l Sl P r blein i P f liament ;should^ face'wM it f ll •'■ oP-, i 0 ™ 1 ? demand ' for one thing, the publication ■. of the Strickland report, though,the.wi&oldLHieaS'-' as significantly as its publication could have ?poken It ' ; should demand a thorough, impartial . public!en?un^i ri S

v the question of reprisals in Ireland. And .it should demand ' '"tT : know what the Government " intends doing if Ireland ~ refuses to accept the latest Home Rule- Act, and remains constant to .its. 6wn .Parliament., Will it go on shooting ~ i Irishmen until no Irishmen are left? ' •' ' • ' [ . We call the attention? of 'our readers to some, significant admissions made by Sir Edward Carson recently in a speech at Torquay to the valetudinarian Unionists recruiting at ; that health resort. • • He began by saying that when he read some Irish newspapers he was ashamed to stand before a civilised audience. This is interesting as fixing the character of his audience, and revealing the fact that he does read some Irish newspapers. Then he went on to pour scorn on the . suggestion, made by some hypothetical Englishman, that we should "withdraw'the troops and police from Ireland." Let them murder whom they like, but give them what they want! But in that case whom would they murder? • It is well known that districts neglected by the ' military, police, and irregulars have been quite free from crime. , He assured his hearers that frankly ho did not believe v in any policy of what is called Home Rule.for Ireland. But seeing that the Government in its great" wisdom had given Ireland a parliament, he would do his best to make that Parliament a success. Which, apparently, is the reason why he has resigned the headship of the Ulster Unionist Party. i Finally, after having proclaimed, amidst much applause, that the Ulsterman of a Unionist persuasion, "did not want to associate with a gang of murderers" (unless they wear black-and-tan ) "called Sinn Fein (ah!, that makes it clear!) with their sham Parliament," he appealed eloquently for the holding out of a friendly hand. These were his words: "There is no one in the world who would be more pleased to see an absolute unity in Ireland than I would, and it "could be purchased to-morrow, at what does not seem to me to be a very big price. If the South and West of Ireland came forward to-morrow to Ulster and said: Look here, we have to run our old island, and we have to run her together, and we will give up all of this everlasting hatred of England, and we will shake hands . with you, and you and we together within the Empire doing our best for ourselves and the United Kingdom and for all his Majesty's Dominions will join together.' I will undertake that Ulster would accept the handshake for the sake of this country and our own, and the whole Empire." 'ii Does this mean that Ulster is prepared to co-operate ; . with Ireland generally to make a reality of the sham Home ; Rule Parliament? Or. is she merely ready to shake hands with the few Irishmen outside Ulster who are not Sinn Feiners? ,'-•'• '< It seems to us that the fire and fury is no more than fire and fury; and that Unionist Ulster is anxious to have some say in the affairs of Ireland. Possibly even Unionist Irishmen from Ulster do not relish the prospect of the ; massacre of their fellow-countrymen going on indefinitely. Possibly they may wonder what will happen to Ireland when the last Sinn Feiner is dead. Certainly they doubt the ability of Unionist Ulster, even under the absurd : measure which is now law, to boss the Irish —espe- ■ cially if, as is bound to be the case —Sinn Fein stands aloof, and going on governing. However loth Sir Edward : and his gang of Unionists may be to meet Sinn Feiners, : there is _ no doubt that they are eager to find a formula which will, bring Sinn Feiners and Unionist Ulstermen in ; line : together. Somebody suggests complete fiscal. • ton- ; omy. But it will need a wider formula , than that. Sinn , Feiner and Unionist will not shake hands An the presence of an English garrison. • There is reason to believe that the life of the present : Parliament may now be a short one, for on the Govern-ment-side, preparations are .being made for a general,, election, and a cave of young Unionists is being formed to provide a "safe" alternative to the unpopular Coalition, i But, since the leader with the cave is Lord Robert Cecil I Ireland has little to hope, and therefore England has little to hope from the alternative. Lord Robert's enthusiasm for self-determination becomes' strangely cold when it ap- \ proaches the shores of Ireland. v ' The Labor Party need not be considered. If it came • into power it might be compelled to grant freedom to Ire- ; land. But it will not come into power at the x next General Election, and in opposition it will probably do no I more to force the hand of the Government than it has | done, which is nothing. The leaders of Labor have no real sympathy with Ireland. . They hate her religion, and they hate the cause of Nationalism. They use the ' Irish problem merely as a stick to beat,the Government with. And they use that stick with great discretion- v ' ;,% , Nothing,,then, is to be hoped from Parliament. Only a miracle could put life into those dry bones. ; J ' But indeed a miracle is needed if England is to be saved at all. The ear. of the public is glued to the mega-

1 phone of a servile press how shall we let. the public know the truth?—We cannot believe-that if the English people knew the truth they would tolerate the doings of 'the creatures who misgovern them. We blame them for submitting so tamely to the imposition. Such cowardice, such wilful blindness amounts almost to criminal folly. Unless they are stirred from their stupor they will be lost for ever. But we are convinced that even yet they might be stirred from it, and that once aroused they would give short shrift to the Lloyd George gang. How can it be done? We seem helpless. We cry aloud, but in a wilderness, where our voice is lost. And yet, God helping us, the miracle may happen. <■/:■:•.