Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 22 December 1921, Page 14

Current Topics

Christmas Greetings ' To all our readers, to our friends far and near, to the Dunedin sportsmen who have remembered us, and to those outside who have not, to all our enemies who helped to make life more exciting for us in the past, we wish a Happy Christmas and a prosperous and peaceful New Year. Irish History Competitions Last week we published a letter from Father James O'Neill, conveying to our young readers the welcome news that Irish History prizes were good and / many this year. May this encourage them to devote even more time and attention to the subject during the coming year, and mav the study make them, one and all, more worthy of the great traditions of the Irish race. We are hardly saying too much in asserting that the Feiseanna. had much to do with the victory of Sinn Fein that marks the close of the year 1921 ; for they inspired the ideals and formed the spirit that enabled the men and women of Ireland to stand fast under the terrible ordeal of the last five years. We see that a Feis has already been held in Adelaide, and we hope it will not be long before we shall be holding one in New Zealand. If it did no more than make known to the public the beautiful and modest Gaelic dances, an annual Feis would be well worth holding. Anybody who has seen the South Dunedin children dancing the four and the three-handed reel could not help wishing that such dances were taught in all our schools. Massey and his Friends One jarring note was sounded when the news of the agreement between the Irish and English representatives reached New Zealand, and that was struck by our Prime Minister, who a few years ago denounced de Valera as a traitor and lauded to the skies the Kaiser's friend, Carson. We certainly are not surprised at Mr. Massey's incapability to do or say a graceful thing; and of course we must remember the fact that he is an Orangeman, and make due allowance for his present soreness over the defeat of the Belfast murder gang. But when the man talks of people disturbing the Empire he is throwing a boomerang that hits his own head. All his nonsense and all his bluff cannot conceal the fact that, from the Black Pamphlet down to the P.P.A. filth, from the attacks on our schools to the jobbery with the bigots, he and his friends have done as much as a number of stupid men could do to break up the British Empire and to cause internal strife even in war time. What did he say to the Masons in Auckland shortly after his return, we wonder! By the way, it was rather unkind of Mr. Wilford to pull the Prime Ministerial leg by suggesting (apropos of Lord Birkenhead's saying that he would like to have a Colonial judge for the work) that Sir Robert Stout might be offered as arbitrator between Ireland and England. Mr. Wilford has a reputation as a joker, but surely he does not think that it was "Colonial goose" that Lord Birkenhead inquired for. Considering that Sir Robert recently attacked our schools when speaking to a mob of atheists in England, and that he added a new bar to his decoration for unreliability and inaccuracy, we do not imagine that Ireland has any position that he could fill decently unless it might be that of official jester at the Court of King Craig. But possibly Mr. Massey has his eye on that for some other of his friends. Ah, well, we wish the poor things a happier Christmas than they deserve. Professar Dickie ~~ That dour wee mon, Professor John Dickie, is at it again. Once he made Knox Church ring with, his No-Popery shrieks, and we are told there were folk present who took none too kindly to Johnnie's notion of how to behave in kirk. He has let off steam in the

press at regular intervals. He even lowered Knox' College by writing— a professor ! —to the unsavory' Orange Nation. Just now we read that his last "Romish" brainstorm had its repercussion in the National Review, in which wee Johnnie accuses us puir 'Catholic bodies of being daft and dangerous chiels in the community. To quote the Otago Daily Times, the Professor declares "that the Roman Catholic Church (surely Johnnie said " Romish !") in New Zealand, through its official organ (that's the poor Tablet, of course!) and its bishops and priests, has been for the last five or six years actively engaged *in anti-British propaganda of the most virulent and malignant type." We do not know what chair or chairs the Professor occupies at Knox College, nor are we aware how his lectures are received, but if we are to judge from his public utterances he can have little or nothing to do with the exact sciences, for the man is particularly unhappy in his statements. It would be rather unkind if we were to tell our professor that his statements concerning the Catholic Hierarchy are a gross and most untheological violation of one of the Ten Commandments but if we did say as much we should not be conveying any fresh information to a number of people. He has a great deal to learn yet, and as a help towards his education we freely bestow on him the news that no paper published in New Zealand is rightly described as the official organ of the bishops. Evidently accuracy is by no" means the professor's long suit, but he may console himself by. reflecting that his past record is such that the public will not be disappointed, however wild and weird his assertions. People who did not know anything about the periodical before will now have a useful idea of the tone and value of the National Review which extends to the Knox professor the hospitality of its columns. Abyss Calls to Abyss We have had something to say already concerning Mr. Massey's ill-tempered outburst when he heard the news of the Sinn Fein victory. The Limavaddy growl had its echo in Carson's wild tirade against the British Government, and in his frank confession that Sinn Fein had beaten the Cabinet to its knees, Mr. Massey ' once held up as a high-souled patriot the man who imported German guns and had dealings with "a powerful Continental Monarch" with a view to overthrowing the British Government; so that we cannot wonder now that two such kindred spirits are suffering from the same sort of soreheadedness. It is worth noting that Sir James Craig recently made a pathetic appeal to Bonar Law, and that the latter has openly declared that instead of supporting Carsonia he is going to back the people who are putting the Orangemen in the corner.- Carsonia once . more becomes seditious, and we are told that Orangemen are objecting to sing'"God Save the King." Now, as Mr. Massey is an Orangeman this is becoming a serious matter. Surely it is ridiculous for Mr. Parr to ask other people to take oaths of allegiance and to flap flags while our Prime Minister adheres to a sect that is flaunting its disloyalty. It may become necessary for the x public security that Mr. Massey be led about the country and compelled to sing "God Save the King" in all the public halls, drillhalls, school-rooms, and possibly on the trains and ferry boats. Incidentally he could take up a collection in order to add to his public exchequer. If Carson goes on with any more of his seditious utterances Mr. Massey will need watching very closely. We notice that the McGregor is advocating that persons qualified to witness marriages should be forced to take the oath of allegiance. If the tiresome old gentleman really wants to do something useful he ought to concentrate on Mr. Massey for the present. Shares in the Orange drum are not booming just now. Ireland Pending the result of the Bail Eireann's deliberations, we are in the dark as to the fate of the agreement - signed by the, Irish and English representatives, and > . all our surmises are liable to be proved wrong by future . events. One thing we can do with confidence, that is, i , warn our readers against accepting the statements they

find in their morning papers.>Nearly all such statements are mere conjecture, and are by no means imv partial. We are not inclined to believe the stories told about Michael Collins's losing his temper, nor do we think it at all likely that anybody would be such a fool as to call him a traitor. As an indication of the true value of our press reports, we recommend our readers - to consider just one feature of them. . One day they , told us that de Valera could not get more than twenty . out of the Dail members to support him, and that Collins was pretty sure of having a hundred followers. Very little later, Collins was only sure of eighty, and -another day left him more or less uncertain whether he could even have sixty-four .out of one hundred and twenty ! From first to last it has been pure guessing on the part of the British pressmen, and as news it is absolutely valueless. The one thing we can be certain about is that de Valera is not satisfied with the agreement. It has been said more than once in the press that the difficulty is over the oath of allegiance. We do not believe that this is the case. As the oath was framed there ought not be any great difficulty in accepting it., As we pointed out before, Carsonia is probably the crucial question. Readers will remember that Cardinal Logue at once put his finger on the weak spot when he was asked for an early opinion concerning the agreement. "It is a fair settlement, but I would like to see Ireland united." At their October meeting the body of the Irish Bishops strongly protested against partition and condemned it as the root of future evils. That is already one strong reason why de Valera should not agree. Again, the Ulster Catholics and Nationalist Protestants have fought a hard fight from the beginning. They have stood by their southern friends in the bearna baoghail and never failed them. Does it seem a very chivalrous thing for the rest of Ireland to leave them at the mercy of the Orange murder gang ? Does it seem like de Valera to consent to such a step? Honestly, the judgment of the heart must go with him in his refusal. But there is even a more powerful motive. For the sake of Ireland he is doing the right thing. The maintenance of an artificial boundary in spite of the will of the vast majority of the Irish people • is denial of the right of self-determination.- The break- . ing-up of a united Ireland by outside and hostile force is against the best interests of the Irish people. The support of a hostile garrison within Ireland is the active root of future trouble, and a lever that might be moved by England to-set in motion passions that might cause such strife that England could build on it a pretext for stepping in and making a scrap of paper of the treaty. As we said • previously, England" has a bad record where treaties are concerned, and it does not pay to forget that fact. All things considered, we think it is likely that the question of partition is the vital issue in the present session of Dail Eireann. Of course to-morrow or the next day may prove that we are wrong, but as far as we can see now, writing on the morning of the 19th December, partition is the real crux. Whatever occurs we must go on trusting the leaders. They have led Ireland to a position that seemed impossible during the past five years, and they did that while croakers were predicting disaster for .them and while but few of us were ready to trust them and to stand by them through thick and thin. Trust them, therefore; they have been right all along the line. Learn of your mistakes in the past to respect their judgment rather than your own, and be per- , suaded that even if you have a lot of brains you have not half as many as the men who have guided Ireland so wisely and so nobly since 1916. Is Carsonia Fit to Govern Itself? Carsonia claimed the right of self-determination on the plea that it was a district in which Protestants or Unionists were -in a very large majority. It proudly asserted its capability of looking after "itself • and it • was taken at its word by the British Government. Since .that happened the constant assassinations and burnings in Belfast are attributed to the Nationalists by the Orangemen. Now- the Orangemen were specially armed and,they protested that they were in a large majority

What ,is the inference ? - If they are not arrant '■ liars they are not fit to govern themselves, for a large armed majority that admits its inferiority in a fight to a small and carefully disarmed minority stands condemned as hopeless, and futile. The effort to throw the blame for their own crimes on Sinn Fein has come back like a boomerang on the Carsonites; and their friends all over the world are turning their backs on them in disgust, contemptuous of such wretched braggarts. The famous Ulster game is up. Murder will out in the end, and if we were inclined' to imitate the rabid Jingo pressmen we should be clamoring for the hanging of the Carsonia murderers, just as our patriots once clamored for the hanging of the Kaiser. If you want the plain naked truth about the whole disgraceful plot here it is in a nutshell for you : Commandant O'Duffy, T.D., speaking at an aeridheacht at Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan, on Sunday, referring to the position in Ulster, said : —"I do not like talking about this Ulster bogey, but, as I have been very much misrepresented. I wish. to make my position clear. If there is an Ulster question at all, it is an invention of England. It is constituted by the British Government on the one part and the Orange mobs on the other, with a few business men thrown in. "Unfortunately the Protestants of the North do not all fully realise yet how they are being made tools of by England, or if thev do see it, they have not the courage to express what is in their minds. "I never advocated the coercion of Ulster, and in my public or private dealings with these people I defy contradiction when I say that I never made any difference with any man or section of men because of their religious or political beliefs. I said something at Armagh about using lead, but when a statement is removed from its context it often has a different meaning. MOB BEUTALITIES. "The stand I take to-day is the stand I took at Armagh," said Mr. Duffy, "and it is this : If the Orange mobs continue to murder our defenceless people in cold blood, to use not only the lead on them but butchers' knives and sledges as they did in Belfast; if they drag unarmed young men from their beds in the middle of the night and, before shooting them, take out their eyes and their tongues and break their bones as they did in Dromore ; if our young men have to leave their homes, even during the truce and, while they are away the aged parents are dragged from their beds and forced to walk through rivers, miles from their homes, as happened in Cookstown; and if when such outrages are reported by me, as Liaison Officer, to the British Police and ,Military.Authorites, and my reports are ignored, then, I say, that it is time we should take steps to protect ourselves. "While I am even now prepared to extend the hand .of friendship to these people I will not stand aside and see Irishmen and women murdered because they are Catholics.' "In the neighborhood of Cookstown, Catholics cannot travel the roads after dark without being held up by these Specials at the point of the bayonet, searched, and maltreated. Many are suffering from being beaten with rifle butts, and one lies in a precarious condition in the Mater Hospital, Belfast, suffering from an explosive bullet wound. It is inconceivable that the British authorities cannot lay hands upon these terrorists who parade all roads, all nights, all hours, armed to the teeth. A list of names of the leaders has been furnished to the British authorities, but no action was taken. How different where Catholics are concerned. Of the many Catholics apprehended in this area since the truce there was only one case in which were the arms found. The man was arrested and now lies in Derry Prison awaiting trial. If this man is to be retained in prison then every Orangeman in Ulster should be arrested, for each and everyone of them trample British law under their feet."

The only time fault-finding is justifiable is when you find fault with your own faults so as to self-correc them. >. . - ‘

The Little Sisters of the Poor (writes our Auckland correspondent) came to Auckland in June, 1888, over 32 years ago. They were most cordially received by the late Bishop Luck; and Rev. Mother Ignatius of the Convent of Mercy was most kind to them. The community only five at first set up in Hepburn Street, where they cared for 20 old people, and there they remained for nine months. Afterwards they purchased the present site with a dwelling therein, to which they added a large wooden building for the old people. The first wing of the present stately, concrete structure was ■ erected 18 years ago, and

the fine chapel five years later. In 1916 the wooden building was removed to its present ’position and the second wing was erected, thus completing the whole block as it now stands in its convenient and picturesque site. For some years there have been 14 Sisters in charge of the Home, and the inmates under them at present number 105 56 men and 49 women. There is accommodation for more. From the inception of the Home up to present date 438 deaths have occurred and of these 235 were men and 203 women. The good and devoted Sisters are full, of gratitude to the merciful providence of Almighty God, and to their generous patrons— and non-Catholic.