ANOTHER SESSION OF MISRULE

New Zealand Tablet, 28 April 1921, Page 17

ANOTHER SESSION OF MISRULE

(By :J G. K. Chesterton, in the New Witness.) • • / m •**« b 3 fccgw* * a? r* *•£ ** w a*. ? 8 t* The King’s Speech is a last dying speech of the King’s Ministers. They are clinging to . life, but they have little hope of escape from death, and plans for the future they have . none. , A Ministry which > expected to endure would not insult the country with such a mild dope for unemployment, and the promises of a Liquor Control Bill, a Bill to prevent dumping, and so forth, are made without interest in their fulfilment. Plans for creating new offices are outlined more elaborately, but perhaps the Government hopes that its successor will do nothing to retard the growth of bureaucracy. The scant reference to Ireland falls into another category. There is no lack of interest, no faltering in determination to crush the spirit of Irish patriotism. Something more lasting, more fundamental than a Government must die before the murder of the Irish will be stopped. It is stated that Mr. de Valera has sent a letter to each member -of the Coalition, giving an account of recent events in Ireland, and concluding with the affirmation that “it is you, and not your troops are responsible.” But we fear that members of the Government carry their responsibilities very lightly, and that private Members of Parliament 4 do not feel themselves to be responsible at all. These last long ago gave up their freedom of action for the sake of “unity.” They will support worse massacres in Ireland than have yet taken place there for the sake of “unity.” They will support continued inroads upon our personal liberties for the sake of “unity.” They will agree to the shelving of the problem of unemployment for the sake of “unity.” Or, if there is, as we expect there will be, a break with Lloyd George, they will take service under another party leader, who will exact a no less blind obedience from his followers. Parliament refuses to be told what is happening in Ireland. Judge Bodkin’s protests are suppressed, the Strickland report is pigeon-holed, and Sir John Simon’s and Lord Buckmaster’s damning statements are ignored. If an angel from heaven declared the truth to them they would not believe it. Even an honest man like Lord Hugh Cecil, who regards the policy of reprisals with abhorrence, pointedly ignores Lord Buckmaster’s plain statement of fact. We cannot conceive how Lord Hugh finds it possible to assert that only criminals or men believed to be criminals are murdered, when it is notorious that a wholesale murder of hostages, collected haphazard or in geographical units, is going on. And yet we are convinced that Lord Hugh is an honest man. What response then can Mr. de Valera hope from Coalition members, who, since they have surrendered their freedom of action, and still call themselves representatives of the people, are dishonest men. It is plain now that the Government intends that the Strickland report shall never be published. We shall not discuss whether or no publication was ever definitely promised, since we know that the Government fostered the hope that it might take place,' and intended that it never should. And we know why. The reasons given by Mr. George are at once idiotic and desperately logical. It is absurd to say that if this report is repeated openly all other reports on official outrages must be repeated openly. But it is desperately true that if what they did in Cork is admitted, , what they have ; done elsewhere in Ireland cannot .be denied. This monstrous secret is an endless chain. Seize it at one point, and all the links will rattle. We are of opinion that our one present hope of the public discovery of the conspiracy against Ireland depends upon the attitude of English trade unionists outside the House. In the debate on the King’s Speech, the Labor Party played a better part than they did last year in Par* liament, and Mr. .. J. H. Thomas made a strong protest against reprisals. But that protest was an echo of Mr. Bromley’s threat of a railway strike. i It may seem that we are here ( implying approval of “direct action.” 5 But such is not the case if by “direct action” is meant the use of the strike or the threat of a strike for political ends. Mr. Bromley does not threaten action because' the Government will not grant political

freedom to Ireland, but because two Irish railwaymen have been; murdered and are unavenged ■''Now very."many; of the victims of the “Black-and-Tans” : and the • military •, are trade unionists, * and if their fellow unionists in England take this quite legitimate means of bringing their murderers to justice the Government conspiracy in Ireland will: soon break down. , '• . - / ' <• The National Union of Journalists, by the way, might take note of the fact that some English newspaper- photographers were searched and robbed by a “Black-and-Tan” gang in the streets of Cork. Details of this outrage were put before Sir Hamar Greenwood, and he informed the victims that they . were laboring under a delusion. But whether by this union or that, by this body of citizens or the other, it is only action outside Parliament that is now of the slightest use. When this Government dies it will be replaced by another; perhaps led by Lord Robert Cecil (who favors a more vigorous policy in Ireland than does his brother); perhaps led by another Unionist but it will be anyhow a Unionist Party, with strong prejudices against granting freedom to Ireland, or giving weight to the evidence, in support of , Sinn Fein. From such a party nothing need be hoped. • ' We have laid emphasis on the Irish question because that question must dominate the present session of Parliament,. however seldom it may be discussed within the House, and it is upon its treatment of that question that this Government and any Government which may succeed it will judged. Before the end of the present session, Parliament will have found out just how much the Home -Rule Act is worth. It will then, if the temper of the Government is to be relied upon, witness the hated measure forced upon the unhappy people of Ireland by the Government’s licensed brigands and murderers. What worse things can happen in Ireland than are happening now it is difficult to conceive. Nor is it easy to conceive how the situation can be altered materially either for the better or the worse while the English soldiery and irregulars remain in possession. Suppose that a new Government comes into power! Suppose that its policy is to “conciliate Ireland” by discountenancing reprisals! Will all the English officials in Ireland who have sanctioned reprisals be recalled? Suppose that the “Black-and-Tans” are disbanded! Will all the actual privy and general murderers be brought to justice? Finally, will the military occupation cease ? The bloody excesses of - the irregulars have been the unhappy inspiration of the present Government, but Irish misrule did not begin with Lloyd George; and it will not end with him unless we clear out and leave the Sinn Fein Government to wipe up the mess. In August, 1914, when the Irish people, through Redmond, offered its sword to the Great Alliance, another sort of settlement was possible. But much blood has flown under the bridges since then, and now we cannot expect the Irish to negotiate with us while there remains on Irish soil one English official or one English soldier to symbolise the bloody tyranny of the past few- years. We are hot demanding complete separation. That has happened, and we hope with all our hearts that it will not endure. Precisely therefore do we ask for the immediate evacuation of Ireland by the armed forces of the Crown and the removal of English ■ Government officials with all practicable speed. Without that sign of penitence from the English Government, to expect the Irish to negotiate with the murderers of their kindred is worse than folly. Nothing must ; be hoped of any Government which accepts the inheritance of Irish misrule and murder. There must be a clean break. What sort of figure will a Government cut which comes in full of good intentions, but saddled with Dublin Castle? We and our representatives are finally responsible for the horrors which, as we write these words, are still being perpetrated in Ireland, and of late . Dublin Castle has been known to protest against some of. the worst excesses of disciplined brigandage. But the Dublin Castle system has made those horrors possible, and when the nightmare of the “Black-and-Tan dragonnades passes Dublin Castle will remain as a symbol of alien oppression. f ~ 1 i 3 Both the English official and the English soldier must come home when the “Black-and-Tans” are scattered. Then there will be peace in Ireland. We know that this will be

80 because there 1 has been peace in! those parts of Ireland where the Sinn Fein Government has, for a season, held undisputed rule. There will be peace, and the Governments of England and Ireland may then meet to discuss the terms a . of settlement. ' We believe that the terms offered : by ' the : Irish - will not"« be- j severe. : They are, as they have often . shown,, and '*never more plainly than in 1914, a generous people; They are also a sensible one. They realise‘ the manifold advantages of an alliance with Great Britain, the manifold disadvantages of isolation. " We have lost Ireland as a vassal; she is now a, thorn in our side; and she will be a danger, in time of war. If we would : prove our sense no less than our generosity, we must come to terms.