Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 9, 1 March 1923, Page 18

Current Topics

After Long Years In the beginning of the nineteenth century a corrupt Irish Parliament voted away its rights, which it had no constitutional warrant for doing. Grattan's fierce eloquence when his aged voice was lifted in protest still rings down the ages after four generations have passed away. Again there is an Irish Parliament, and it is remarkable that its first Act was moved by Grattan's great-grandson (Sir Thomas Esmonde), after 123 years of slavery. Commenting on this historic event, the Manchester Guardian says : AFTER 123 YEARS.

The new Ireland is setting up its milestones. On Monday the Parliament at Westminster gave its final sanction, and already a Governor General is in office; the English troops are gone, and now the Irish Parliament has passed its first Act— first Act of an Irish Parliament for 123 years. It is a quieter scene, and yet net less weighty in the scale of history than that historic session of 1800, when a corrupted Parliament voted away the liberties of Ireland. That was the session in which Grattan, worn and shattered by illness until he had the appearance, as an eye-witness reported, of a spectre, made a dramatic entry into the House and confounded his opponents in a series of powerful speeches ; in which the ‘‘dining clubs,” whose members spent night and day on the premises, were followed by Castlereagh’s “duelling club,” and Grattan fought and shot his man in Phoenix Park, but in which no eloquence availed against the votes corruptly secured by the Government, and the Irish Parliament passed away with the Speaker’s terse “As many as are of opinion that this Bill do pass, say aye,” and “The ayes have it.” That Parliament closed, as the new one opens, in an atmosphere of violence, but the passing of the first Act of the Irish Parliament (on the motion, by the way, of Grattan’s great-grandson, Sir Thomas Esmonde) is on© of those symbols which to most of the Irish people must announce that the day of violence is over and the day of peaceful regeneration come. There is this difference, that whereas Grattan’s last fight was made against bitter and unrelenting enemies in England, his successors can count upon the sympathy of almost all Englishmen to-day in the hard task laid upon them.

War on Children , Some time ago Sean McGarry declared that de Valera was among the* men who killed Michael Collins. Since then McGarry's house was burned down and his wife and her sister driven,forth, and threatened with murder by men armed with revolvers. These heroes did worse than murder the unarmed women. They deserted in the blazing house some little children. Mrs. McGarry told them the children were upstairs but they took no heed : murder of children was little to them. As the wretches set fire to the stairs the women had no hope of getting up to where the children were sleeping, and if they had a hope they were so badly stifled and burned themselves that they were physically unable. A brave policeman and a priest got in through the roof from a neighboring house and brought out a little crippled boy of seven who was very badly burned. Five days later, the crippled boy, Emmet McGarry, aged seven, died in hospital as a result of the injuries inflicted on him by the noble warriors. At the inquest Mr. Taylor said he did net think it had ever been his misfortune to have investigated a more callous or brutal murder. In view of the evidence they could only bring in a verdict of wilful murder. It was a terrible illustration of the depths of degradation to which the country had sunk when any body of men thought it necessary to make a burnt-offering'of little children for any political ideals. Mr. Corrigan said it was appalling to think that there were in Ireland now men low enough to set fire to a house in which little children

were sleeping. The Coroner said the evidence was perfectly clear and that the men must have known that the children were in the house. He did not think there could be any hesitation about bringing in a, verdict of wilful murder. Ireland is indeed in a sad condition when such crimes are possible. And still we have critics who blame the Bishops for condemning such tactics and the men who are responsible for them. De Valera has led Ireland a pretty dance since the day when he made one of his solemn assertions to the effect that he was not going to play the enemies' game or to use force against the people. Since then, Michael Collins and a score of his old friends have lost their lives because of his refusal to obey the will of the Irish people. Mrs. Griffith has told us that it was not England,.but de Valera— man whom he made— that broke her husband's heart. And from the misguided man there has never come a word of repudiation of even the murder of children, as there never came a word of condolence for the deaths of Griffith or Collins. At present the methods of his followers rival those of the Turk and most Irish people would as soon be ruled by the Turk as by persons who turn deaf ears to the voice of religion, to the appeals of their country,. and even to the dying cries of murdered children. A man with a spark of Christianity in him would rather see Ireland in chains for ever than freed by such crimes. And the worst of the crimes is the moral degradation of which thev are the fruit. We can build railways and houses but we cannot build up again the moral character of a nation once it has been destroyed. For Ireland One might have flattered oneself that the position of the Tablet in regard to the present situation in Ireland is clear; but a correspondent invites us to make it plain to him where we stand. We can only say again what we have said before. We stand for Ireland. Ireland is above men and parties. What the Irish people want we want : whether it is best or not is their concern not ours: there is no other principle for us to follow than that we must support the majority of the Irish people. So far so good. We may be asked how do we know what the majority of the Irish people want. Our answer is, we know by the only means at our disposal that is by sifting such evidence as we have access to. And we do not think we are wrong in saying that we have more evidence than most people in this country. But, to mention but one source, let us say that we have de Valera's own admission that the Irish people are against him. Now it is to us quite clear that he is right m that. The people are against his tactics. The people object to be ridden by terror, to be robbed, to be fired on when travelling in trains, to have their money stolen from banks, to have their children burned to death, to have their sons shot on the streets. But that the people are against a Republic is quite another matter. It is plain that they are against de Valera's lawless way of trying to have a Republic, but it is quite conceivable that had he taken the sane and constitutional way they would have been with him. However, he did not take it, and the fact remains that they are not with him on the way he goes. He admits it himself and he ought to know. We might also add that that eminent body of learned, thoughtful, and patriotic prelates the Irish Bishops, also tell us that the people are against de Valera as he stands to-day. And, with all due respect to sundry theologasters and amateur theologians of the stamp of Francis Gallagher, who tries to chop theology with the Archbishop of Dublin, whom in one line he calls "Your Grace" and in the next "Your Lordship," we assert that the Irish Bishops are better judges than any other body of men on earth, that they are better theologians than any other body of Bishops we know of, and that they have the welfare of Ireland —not of parties, but of Ireland— at heart than you or I or do Valera or Cosgrave. Only recently we met with, a critic of the Bishops who knew so much about the facts on which he pronounced dogmatically that he asserted that Irishmen had now to take an oath of allegiance to the King, and that this was what do Valera objected to! One cannot argue with a man

who does not know the first thing about the subject; and there are many such. For better or worse the Dail ratified the Treaty which Griffith and Collins signed as a pledge to recommed it. What the Dail ratified, we believe the people almost unanimously stand for now. And believing that we cannot have and never had any hesitation about our duty in the matter. It is, as we said before, to support the Irish people. But, somebody will say, they were not free! Our opinion is also the opinion of the best and staunchest Republican we know. Until the English were beaten out of Ireland, threat or no threat, war had to be faced; and the threat did not matter two pins as far as the Dail was concerned, for Mulcahy and Collins knew, and they knew best, that to beat out the English was precisely the task that they had failed to accomplish. But, it may be said again, the English would have yielded. Do you know better than Arthur Griffith and Collins knew ? And would you be ready, if you were in their shoes, to sacrifice Ireland for the possibility that your guess might prove right? They were not ready to do it, and the reason was that they loved Ireland and her people too much to take such risks with them. Perhaps they were wrong, but there is no doubt that they did right in taking no risks that might mean the end of the Irish nation. Even de Valera (who had not one word of condolence for their friends when they lay dead) said they did a brave thing when they signed. As far as our reason goes we add that they also l did a wise one. Eastern Clouds Lausanne revealed the fact that Russia was not only alive but also conscious of its vitality. The Turk, whom the war was supposed to have prostrated, has proved that he is practically master in Europe today and has thrown to the other States a gauntlet which they were either too weak or too cowardly to take up. There is danger from the Turk in the East but there is also danger from Russia; and the combination of both does not afford to European politicians a very pleasing prospect for the future. It is worth remembering also that with Russia's growing power there is a deep-rooted and not unreasonable hatred of England and the whole British Empire. The reason of this hatred is not far to seek. What England did to her former ally when the latter had collapsed is not nice reading nowadays. Regarding the Russian menace Mr. Frank Simonds says: "It is not a repetition of Turkish conquest which Europe has now to fear, but rather the onset of the Russian. Slowly but still visibly a reintegration is taking place within the vast Slav empire. With all its troubles Russia can still look to a more promising future than any other Continental State and it has the smallest reasons to cherish friendly feelings for any. "Ten years from now, if Europe continues to disintegrate and the vast Russian State is able 'to get to its feet, what will prevent it from imposing its will on a disorganised and shattered Europe? . . . "The Russian and the Turk saw that we would

submit to the massacre and expulsion of those who were in every real sense our wards, that we would abandon territory and surrender lives while we argued solemnly over principles and insisted passionately on abstractions. That is the fact that, is now being proclaimed in every bazaar from one end of Asia to the other. That is what Russians are being told from. Odessa to Archangel. That is the fact of Lausanne contrasted with pleasant diplomatic fiction ! “And this, as I see it, is the largest fact in the situation at the turn of the year. ." . While at the frontiers of Europe, both among the Russians and the Mohammedans, reintegration is taking place, chaos and anarchy are expanding in the great countries which represent the western civilisation. .' . “And unless every sign fails the new year is to be critical in the extreme. If 'the' process of decay is not arrested, if disintegration, political anarchy and economic paralysis continue to extend, no man can safely foretell the future. The situation is, of course,

far from hopeless, yet we have at last reached a point whence it is possible to see close at hand possibilities which at least seem fatal." Germany The strained relations between Germany and France are being watched by all who dread another European war in the near future. In spite of the fact that the terms of the Versailles Treaty are acknowledged to be the violation of the solemn pledges made to Germany, and in spite of the explosion of the old lie that Germany was the sole cause of the war, France insists on treating Germany as if no pledges were given and as if Germany alone were guilty. Reason suggests that Germany has too much pride to stand this treatment if she is able to resent it, and the problem becomes whether or no she is able. . The London Daily Mail publishes a memorandum "by a person in close touch with the best informed German circles in Berlin and Munich," according to which the Germans are said to be planning actively for a war of revenge, mainly against France, and for this purpose they are said to have concluded a secret military agreement with Russia. The Daily Mail maintains that the information of the memorandum is supported by corroborative information secured by the paper in Germany, London, and Paris. As summarised in the press, the Daily Mail's memorandum makes specific statements on—- " Alleged arrangements to enable Germany to utilise Russia's resources, including internal reorganisation, which will make Russia capable of supporting both herself and Germany, so that Germany may ignore any sea blockade.

“It says that German armament firms will establish factories in Russia, whose armies will be equipped thereby, and submarines and mine-layers will be built in Russia under German guidance and manned by Russian crews under German officers.

“Poland is to be crushed and annexed by Russia to give Russia and Germany a common frontier. “It claims that its inquiries regarding the memorandum have elicited the fact that 500 German officers are in Moscow carrying out the conditions of the agreement; that many engineers from Krupps have begun the reorganisation of Russian munition works, while German engineers are reconditioning the Russian railroads to the Polish front.

“Proof, says the Daily Mail, has been obtained by the Allies that the Germans are delivering airplanes to Russia, one firm dispatching commercial airplanes to Smolensk, where they are converted into military machines.

“Further statements deal with alleged constant and surreptitious military training of German youths.” London writers also say that the peace of the Near East is hanging in the balance, and that Russian support of Turkey is the pivot of that balance. In the end of last November a New York Herald correspondent at Moscow wrote that in Eastern Europe the position was regarded as very unstable and liable to end in war. According to his information the Poles, realising that they stand in the way of a common Russian and German frontier, are fearing that they may bear the brunt of the first onslaught. It is therefore more than a possibility that a war may break out in which Turkey, Germany, and Russia may be arrayed against the rest of Europe. But little imagination is needed to draw a picture of what that would mean to the world, and what possibilities it contains. From the consideration of all these imminent dangers the one lesson to be learned is that of the futility of governments by secret dimplomatists and by the pimps of Capitalists. The last war was brought on the various peoples by such persons. The present chaos is a result of their unprincipled scheming at Versailles and else- .. where. ' And there will be danger to the world as long , as. the people are satisfied to be governed as slaves by- the men whom they return to Parliament. The people who pay in blood do not want wars. People who profit by wars want them. The remedy rests with the people. ■ -