Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 50, 17 December 1924, Page 47

Irish News

VSHANG| T n^frf D J HE FREE STA ™-WHAT IRELAND DID IN THE WARJ CHANGED TIMES: NEW ENGLISH ATTITUDE TOWARDS IRELAND-FORD'S CORK WORKS-THE SHANNON SCHEME.

What many people are commenting on is that while the Belfast politicians are raising abroad the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic cry" wo have here in the Free State an asset in the propaganda, way of which nothing has | been made. . There are nearly as many Pro\testants in the Free State as there are in the Six-County area. If fresh troubles arise these have as much to lose as their Catholic neighbors. Yet all these thousands have been dumb or nearly so while the Northern bigots are rattling revolting religious rancor m the hope of winning sympathy from the Protestant majority in Britain. The Protestants of the Free State if they were blessed with a large vision could at this juncture do an immense amount of good for themselves and their country. But the fact is that a good many of them, though having 'thrown in their lot with the Free Stated ihave not been yet able to shed the prejudices fin which they were born and reared. * * * • It is amazing to see the industry with which Unionist newspapers and writers keep broadcasting the lie that Ireland did nothing to defend the Empire in the Great War. In connection with the Ulster Boundary dispute it is a übiquitous taunt that while "loyal Ulster" sent her scores of thousands to fight for Britain the remainder of Ireland stood sulkily aloof and contributed nothing to the British fighting forces. In the Manchester Guardian the other day a letter \igned Chas. Prescott contained this assertion : "Ulster sacrificed 75,000 men in the 1 Great War, the Free State not a man." On • that monstrous falsehood, Unionist argu- : ment is based and will be based throughout • the impending election. The actual facts of the matter were concisely set forth in the - columns of Irish Truth (September 27, page 158). Basing its figures on the number of ' discharged and demobilised British ex-sol-'diers proved to be in Ireland in the year .1920, Irish Truth states: The survivors in Ireland in 1920 amounted to 200,000 figure accepted by the. British military authorities for the purpose 'of allocating public funds. Of these, some f 62,000 were resident in the Six Counties of iNorthern Ireland, and some 138,000 in the :Ireland of the Free State. In addition, there were all the men then serving in the Irish regiments which have been since disbanded —and the Irishmen still serving in 1920 in the British army, navy and air force. As the dispersal centres, on demobilisation, were all, or virtually all, on the other side of the Channel, the figures of those resident in Ireland in 1920 is naturally less rather more than the true figure of the survivors. The Irish total for the war must have been about 300,000 a figure which was justly claimed to represent, on the basis of a purely voluntary recruitment, a marvellous national effort in the war.

In face of the fact that the Irish recruits who fought in the war were so numerous as to constitute the Irish Division (the 16th), and of the fact that this Division maintained a cordial comradeship with the 36th (Ulster) Division, when they fraternised in billets for months together before the Messines' Ridge in 1917, it is amazing to find Unionist writers, having the hardihood to declare that "Ulster contributed 75,000 men in the Great War, the Free State not a man." * * * Scarcely less dramatic than the events which brought the Labor Government to an end was the complete collapse of the DieHard opposition to the Boundary Bill in the House of Lords. Lord Carson had announced in the debate on the second reading that he would move an amendment demanding that the Boundary Bill should not become operative until it obtained the consent of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, but Lord Salisbury, the leader of the English Die-Hards, had announced that he could not see his way to support any amendment unless the Lords were prepared to reject the Bill rather than accept the rejection of their amendments by the Commons. Lord Carson insisted on moving his amendment on the Committee stage of the Bill, even though it was known that the Royal Commission to give the King's Assent to the Bill was fixed for 6 o'clock, so that the Bill would have to pass its remaining stages in the Lords and be returned to them by the Commons within less than two hours. The debate was a. complete farce. After Lord Carson had made a characteristic speech, Lord Mayo rose to move the rejection of what he described as a phantom amendment. His opposition roused the Ulster Unionists to fury, and Lord Londonderry denounced Lord Mayo for having /become a Sinn Feiner, and in an amazingly personal speech accused him of desiring to qualify for a seat in the next Labor Government. Having expressed their feelings in this way fhe Orangemen could do nothing but withdraw their amendment in face of its certain defeat. These debates in the Lords, even more than the debates in the Commons, have been a revelation of the complete change of feeling in England towards Ireland. Lord Dunraven, in his speech on the previous day (when he refused to give way to Lord Carson and insisted upon speaking as a Free State 'Senator before the former Orange leader could be heard), demanded why should all the talk of honorable pledges come from "Northern" Ireland, and why should not the pledges to the Irish Free State be equally honored ? Lord Mayo, in the speech referred to, and also in his speech on the first day, put the same view with admirable force. The debates are of historic interest, not only because the House of Lords decided without a division to support the claims of the Free

State against those of the Orangemen, hut as the first occasion on which the Irish representative peers, who in former days we : always ranged among the opponents of Iri? % •self-government, came forward as the staunch upholders of the national claims of their own country. Mr". Lindsay Crawford, Irish Trade Agent in New York, writing to the New York Evening Post, in reply to the following statement by its London correspondent: "Ford's original intention was to build his factory at Cork. He made the experiment, but was driven out by lawlessness and corrupt politics," says: "Ford's factory has been in operation at Cork for several years, and is at present employing about two thousand workers. "In a recent interview given by Mr. Ford he spoke in the highest terms of his Irish workers and referred with gratification to the development that had taken place. In reply to a telegram quoting the above words of your London correspondent, I have received from Mr. Ford's secretary at Detroit the following message :—' Whatever lawlessness and corruption exists in Ireland, .if any, does not in any way interfere with our industry in Cork.—(Signed) E. G. Liebeld.' "The Ford works, so far from having been 'driven out by lawlessness and corrupt politics,' are in full operation to the great satisfaction of all concerned in Cork. While the Free State is not immune from problems that are common to Great Britain and other European countries, by no stretch of imagination is it possible truthfully to single out Ireland as in the grip of ' lawlessness and corrupt politics.' " * * r The four Continental experts employed by the Free State Government to examine the scheme for the harnessing of the Shannon put forward by Messrs. Siemens have, it is stated on reliable authority, approved the scheme. The Executive Council are considering the experts' reports, and are said to be deeply impressed with the tone of these documents. An early statement in the Dail on the subject is expected. To put the scheme into operation will require legislation, and must involve big financial undertakings, and the question before the Government at the moment is whetb money shall lie provided from public or private sources, or from both. Whatever the ultimate decision on this point may be, an Irish Independent representative was informed the Government will retain a controlling interest in the undertaking whenever it may come to fruition ■ <X>

There would be fewer misfits in life if men gave more thought to the choice of a vocation. As it is, many drift into some place m life without testing their qualifications. Unfortunately, a misfit in life is not only a burden to himself but a plague for everybody else. Much happiness is missed through thoughtless and wrong choosing.