Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 21, 25 May 1922, Page 14

Current Topics

Why England Gave in In two paragraphs in the English Review, that acute observer, Austin Harrison, tells us for how much self-interest and the instinct for self-preservation counted in the Irish settlement: . “With Ireland humbled and humiliated we could not get on; we had come to a standstill, we were checkmating ourselves. The world could not believe in oui protestations, in the rights of our Empire, in our justice. It struck us across the face everywhere. It is the actual stumbling-block to any real League or Tribunal of the nations. But to-day we have made good. . . The road to recovery is clear, and any • day now Mr. Lloyd George can set out for America with a clear conscience.” “Irish peace is Britain’s opportunity, just as Irish freedom spells British consolidation. A new worldsynthesis of civilisation will be born extending into all the ramifications of the New World, awakening deep echoes in the Old World. The British Commonwealth, the federation of free peoples linked to a common standard and culture arises like a new dawn.” Ulster Bluster We read in the cables appearing in our daily papers on May 12 that Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, and a gentleman named Percival Gwynne of whom we are completely and happily ignorant, are perturbed about the Free State. It hurts them that it is unable to govern and that there are some disorders there. Apparently it does not cause Sir Henry any loss of sleep to think that his Carsonian friends are daily murdering Catholic women and children and that his friend Sir James Craig is head of a Government that is a disgrace to civilisation. This same gallant hero, Sir Henry, has fallen out with Lloyd George because he shook hands with the “murder gang” —not the Carsonian murderers (it is reserved for Sir Henry to embrace them). He refers to the men who won freedom for a small nation. We recommend to people of Sir Henry’s type another passage from the English Review : ( “The jibe of the hour is the taunt, ‘ shaking hands with murderers.’ It is a rank witticism after a war in which 12,000,000 young men were killed; but are not the men who would let 10,000,000 women and children die in cold and hunger murderers of the most deliberate kind ? A few years ago organised slaughter was the height of patriotism. Is organised callousness to another people’s holocaust to be the height of political wisdom If so better.we had lost the war and at least gone down with honor. . . Shaking hands with murderers is one of war’s propagandist cries as false and loathsome a§ the famous lie about the German Kadaver-Anstalt, which assuredly will pass, greatly to our discredit, into history.” It will; and so will the fact that Specials, paid by the British Government, are murdering women and children in Belfast. The pitiful attempts of persons like Sir Henry and many British editors to cloak the Belfast atrocities prove how little honor means to many Imperialists to-day. A Case for the Council of Churches If their interference in affairs that' in no way concern them leaves the parsons of the C.o.C. any time for practical patriotism we desire to invite their attention to a speech that seems, according to their views, to be subversive of good order and true loyalty not only in New Zealand but throughout the Empire. Speaking in the English House of Parliament about a rebellion against the Crown, a Lord said: “If I were an American as I am an Englishman, While a foreign troop remained in my country I would never lay down my arms, never, never, NEVER.” Note that the noble lord refers to British troops engaged in putting down a rebellion as “ foreign <( troops,” and that he supports the action of the rebels.

As the speaker is dead, surely the publishers of school books containing that seditious speech ought to be brought to justice by the Council of Churches. Think of it: teaching the children to praise rebels and to call British soldiers “foreign troops.” It may be alleged that the noble lord only referred to the hired savages and to the German mercenaries employed by England, but if that is so we must say that he is blameworthy for using language which might cause resentment and stir v]) hitter feelings, and the C.o.C. ought to pass a resolution animadverting on such imprudence. Consistent people like them are sure to do so. We have no doubt that as we have brought the matter under their notice they will have the publishers of the speech dealt with by the Crown Law authorities. The Black Precentor and the Yellow Pup The entire chromatic scale of Orangemen was represented in the yowl of No Popery that rang through the Dominion after St. Patrick’s Day. A Mr. Gunson from Auckland led the chorus. The Black Precentor from —whatever that may be—was heard also. The Council of Churches contributed a vigorous item. “Prominent Cawtholics” wrote, to the and the Press itself beat the noise of the Orange drums to a frazzle by the discord the editors made. It did not matter that the report was only a summary taken by a man who did not write shorthand. The performers did not think it necessary to be sure of their ground. Here was a chance of showing what they could do in the way of a real, true-blue No Popery stunt and at it they went ventre-d-terre, pitching common sense, charity, justice, and similar considerations to the winds. We all saw what it all meant and why it was done we all saw how it would end, as we saw how stupidly it was staged. The neatest thing about the preliminary skirmish was Dr. Liston’s snub to the .man Gunson, and through him, in an indirect manner, to the parsons, patriots, and pressmen. One curt note to the boisterous Mayor of Auckland met the case beautifully. Here it is: “I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of Saturday. I notice your Worship issued your ‘ pro- • test ’ before I could possibly have received your letter. Seeing that your Worship had not the courtesy, not to say sense of fair play, to await my reply to your question before handing your condemnation of me to the Press of New Zealand, it seems to me quite unnecessary that you should have written to me at all, and it is certainly unnecessary that I should answer your question.” The Bishop, in a postscript, says: “As your Worship has made this matter public I am handing this letter to the Press.” Sedition and Perjury Lord Carson, “Galloper Smith,” James Craig, Bonar Law, several Protestant bishops and clergymen, by word , and writing openly defied the British Government. They threatened to hakig Cabinet Ministers on London lamp-posts. They Were in communication with the Kaiser and they boasted that a “powerful European monarch” was willing to help them to fight England. They said that they did not care two straws whether they were rebels or not. Some of their friends boasted that they would kick the King’s Crown into the Boyne under certain circumstances. They imported German rifles and German drill-sergeants, and they promoted mutiny in the English Army. Now most of these people had taken oaths of allegiance or oaths to support the Crown, and every one l of them who did was clearly guilty of breaking such oaths. "They were not prosecuted for their treason, but on the contrary were almost invariably promoted to high posts in the Government. Treason was rewarded, perjury was set in high places, and from the . sayings of the Orange leaders a complete grammar for' rebels and anarchists was compiled. Nay, Mr. Massey publicly praised the rebel Carson who had plotted with the Kaiser. He held* up as a true patriot the man who 4 defied the Crown and was false to his oath. Hence Mr.. Massey was guilty of the sort of sedition so hateful to the Council of Churches and the Mayor of Auck-

land—praising a rebel against England. But nobody prosecuted Mr. Massey. The Mayor of Auckland did not worry about the treason and the pro-German plotting of Ulster. The Council of Churches and Mr. North did not denounce treason in their friends, when it was real treason and real rebellion. All this shows the utter hypocrisy of such people, who are just as contemptible as our daily papers.

Mr. Massey’s Seditious Friends "We reproduce here a few facts which will give our readers a clear idea of the devotion of Orange Ulster to the Empire. When the question of Home Rule was brought forward seven years ago leading Ulster patriots made such professions of friendship for the German Government that it is said with reason that their attitude was one of the, determining factors in bringing on the war. Captain Craig, M.P., said, in an interview published in the Morning Post, January 9, 1913: “There is a spirit spreading abroad which I can testify to from my own personal knowledge that Germany and the German Emperor would be* preferred to the rule of John Redmond, Patrick Ford, and the Molly Maguires.” Major Crawford, who took an active part in the German gun-running, said: “If they were put out of the Union he would infinitely prefer to change his allegiance right over to the Emperor of Germany.” The Irish Churchman, November 14, 1913; “It may not be known to the rank and file of Unionists that we have the offer of aid from a powerful continental monarch who, if Home Rule is forced on the Protestants of Ireland, is prepared to send an armysufficient to release England of any further trouble in Ireland by attaching it to his dominion. . . And should our King sign the Home Rule Bill the Protestants of Ireland will welcome this continental deliverer as their forefathers under similar circumstances did once before.” Thus a strong pro-German spirit was abroad in the Orange quarter of Ulster when Sir Edward Carson paid his historic visit to the Kaiser, and to complete the chain of evidence German Mausers were landed in Ulster. Spies came and went, giving glowing accounts of the progress of the rebel movement in the province, and German drill instructors oversaw the evolutions of the loyal heroes. In addition to this we read a host of pro-German pronouncements from ■Unionist papers and parsons of which the following are a sample : “If Home Rule is passed I care not whether the British Empire went to smash or not.” (Rev. Chancellor Hobson.) “Can King George sign the Home Rule Bill? Let him do so, and his Empire shall perish as true as God is in Heaven. . . Therefore let King George sign the Home Rule Billhe is no longer my King.” (The Coleraine Constitution.') “They had nothing to thank England for, . . They would take the field if necessary against any foe that would force Home Rule on them.” (Major Crawford.) “When the Home Rule Bill . . . becomes an Act three-fourths of the peonle of Ulster must become either traitors to the Covenant which they have signed or rebels to the Crown.” (The Northern Whig.) Hold fast that which thy father stole is the maxim of the Orangeman. His loyalty to England endures only so long as England keeps him in possession. The only Empire he is capable of loyalty to is self. Such was the sedition preached by the followers of the perjured traitor, Carson, whom Mr. Massey praised as a patriot. One Law for All It is almost pitiful to read the editorials appearing these days in the papers that followed Mr. Gunson in his foolishness. They cannot see that the Bishop’s letter to him was a snub ' to them as well as to the worshipful Mayor of Auckland. They cannot see that contemptuous silence was the proper treatment for people who had acted as they did, with no regard for common sense or for sense of decency. And now they fall back on the jury’s rider and ride it to death. Dr. Liston was to blame, they say. Tie was the cause of the excitement ; he was guilty of -saying things that stirred up strife. And the truth' is - that it was' the Mayor of Auckland, and the wild parsons, and the

headlong editors, from Auckland to the Bluff, who left no stone unturned to cause bitterness and ill-feeling, who did not make such inquiries as ordinary prudence would suggest, who acted in the matter from first to last like a group of Bedlamites. With amusing and stupid ignorance of facts the editors are telling us what a good thing it was to show a Bishop that there is one law for all in New Zealand, and that a person’s position will not save him if he is guilty of “sedition.” Now, it appears that “sedition” in New Zealand includes stirring up ill-feeling between classes. If so, it was more so during the war. Why, therefore, was no action taken by the Government, or by the parsons, or by the Mayor of Auckland, against a P.P.A. movement which depended for existence on the promotion of bitter sectarian feelings? Was not Mr. Massey himself guilty of sedition in that he gave persons engaged in this seditious policy police-protection to enable them to do their evil work safely? Why was a P.P.A. paper permitted to assert at a time when unitv was said to be essential, that Catholic soldiers might stab their comrades in the back ? Did the Council of Churches the Government, the Mayor of Auckland, and the editors do any drum-beating about that ? Did not Mr. Massey cause bitter feelings when he put in the Cabinet the professed bigot, Mr. -Nosworthy? What about Mr. Massey’s public praise of Sir Edward Carson, who armed forces’ against the British Government and was plotting with the Kaiser ? If there is one law for all, Mr. Massey ought to have been prosecuted long ago, the P.P.A. movement ought to have been put down, and at least one daily paper ought to have been suppressed for its almost weekly attacks on Catholics and Irishmen—attacks that are so bitter that even fdrgery has been used as a weapon against us. One law for all. The humbled and exposed editors whose beating of the Orange drum after St. Patrick’s Day was all in vain are hard put to it when they must say silly things like that in order to hide their shame and confusion now. The No Popery campaign failed this time as it failed so many times in the past. But be assured that we shall have more of it between this and the date of the next elections. “Sinn Feiners and Bolsheviks,” as they love to call the people who still retain the use of reason in.ibhis country, will hear from the Orange Lodges and from the editorial dens again. From now to November there is ample time for singing “Dolly’s Brae,” “Boyne Water,” “Hail Glorious Saint Carson”; for trying to split Labor; and for praying for the welfare of the Pope,

One thing is certain (let us make it rhyme): You can’t fool all the people all the time.

Ireland If we can rely on the cables published on May 22 (the date of writing), the Sinn Fein soldiers are taking a hand in Belfast matters. It is a pity that anything like civil war should occur but considering that Specials, paid by the British Government and therefore under its control, have been freely accused of the murder of Catholics, it is hardly wonderful that Sinn Fein intervened when neither the British Government or the Carsonia Government took effective measures to’ protect a minority from the outrages which, according to some writers, seem to be the result of a conspiracy to drive out the Catholics by murder, burning and hunger. It remains to be seen whether the British Government will be as indifferent to attacks on an Orange majority as it has been for years to the terrible persecution of the Catholics. Better news' is the announcement that Messrs. Collins and de Valera have come to.an agreement. After Mr. Griffith had moved that the date for the polling be June 16 and declared firmly that if any attempt were made to prevent by force of arms the Irish people from voting, the disturbers would be met on that issue, , the Lord Mayor of Dublin pointed cut that the differences between the parties. to the Peace Committee were small, and it was urged that Mr. de Valera and. Mr. Collins should lay their points , of agreement before the Bail Eireann. After some discussion the Bail adjourned- to the following day

(presumably Saturday last). When the Teachtai again (Hiet the Speaker announced that Messrs. Collins and de Valera had agreed to form a coalition, arriving at an agreement on the following terms: (1) That a national coalition panel, representing both parties in the Dail Eireann and Sinn Fein organisations, be sent forward on the ground that the national position requires the entrustment of the Government of the country into the joint hands of those who have been the strength of the national situation during the last few years, without prejudice to their respective positions. (2) That a panel be sent forward as from the Sinn Fein organisation, the number from each party to be according to present strength of each in the Dail Eireann. (3) That candidates be nominated by the existing party executives. (4) That every and any interest be free to contest the elections with the national Sinn Fein panel. (5) That constituencies where there is no contest continue with the present representation., (6) That after the election the executive consist of the President-elect as formerly, a Minister of Defence, and nine other Ministers, five from the majority and four from the minority party, each, party choosing its own nominees, and the President allocating the portfolios. (7) That in the event of the coalition finding dissolution necessary, a general election be held as early as possible (adult suffrage). The agreement was greeted with applause. Mr.' Griffith proposed that the elections be held in June, subject to the above agreement. Mr. de Valera seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously.

.• The Dail Eireann adjourned till May 31. So far as it goes that is the best news we have had from Ireland for many a day. Let us hope that the leaders will stop squabbling now and get on with the work. There is no doubt that the people want something more than recriminations and bickerings from them, and it might be that the elections will result in the choice of many new 1 men who can be trusted to pay more attention to the real work of reconstruction than to shadow-fighting. At the Ard Feis, three months ago, the delegates from all Ireland firmly intimated to the leaders that there must be a settlement between them and that the people would not stand for anything else. The common sense of the vast majority of the population could not approve incitement to civil war. Cathal Brugha and similar firebrands may continue to make trouble, but as long as de Valera and Collins work together all will be well.