The Press Tuesday, March 29, 1921. The Situation in Ireland.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17105, 29 March 1921, Page 6

The Press Tuesday, March 29, 1921. The Situation in Ireland.

One of the statements mada by Mr OJoyd George in the Irish debate last week calls for some notico. He had contradicted an assertion by Mr J. H Thomas regarding the Mallow shooting* —an assertion of no great importance—and he went on to complain that prob- > ably this assertion had been sent, ail oyer the world, while he did not know if any contradiction would ever appear. "All attacks," he added, "which discredit the military and the police are "circulated broadcast over the whole "•world. It is idle to talk of fair piny " for these people.V It is hardly necessary to say sat with regard, to Australasia Mr Lloyd George has no reason to complain. On tflie contrary, he has received privileged treatment so far as hi 3 Irish policy is Concerned. The crimes of the rebels bave been reported! at this end of the world fully ana in detail—beyond comparison more fully >' than the crimes of the Crown's auxiliary forces. It is well that the Dominion peoples should be afforded the means of sympathising with the Government's endeavours to crush the Irish rebels' cordpaign of terrorism and murder, but "we are not buto that in pursuing this end 1 the cable agencies have nob passed over too lightly the crimes that have stained the Government's activities. For many months past the English newspapers have printed accounts of these crimes side by side with the Sinn Fein assassinations and outrages, and it is'this fact that accounts for the Prime Minister's irritation. He is more sensitive than Sir Hamar Greenwood, who has no sensitiveness at all. This may be a virtue in an Irish Secretary at the present time, but it has its inconveniences, and leads sometimes to results that must embarrass even tbo stoutest advocates of relentless force. In an address to the Black-and-Taus in January, while the Government had in its pos- ■ session General Strickland's suppressed report on the Cork burnings, ho said these men could count on the Government to champion them and back them up. "You have newspapers," he said, " that insult you. The same newspapers " were against you during the war, and " were the champions of the conscien- ' "tious objectors and of every shirker "throughout the broad dominions of "this great Empire." For example, we suppose, "The Times," which on "January 29th was writing editorially in these terms: "Even though a large proportion of the accusations that hav'i "been brought against the Forces of "the Crown in Ireland be discounted, " and every fair allowance made for the "terrible strain to which these forces "have been exposed, deeds have unquestionably been done by them in " Ireland which have lastingly disgraced " the name of Britain in that country. " British processes of justice, which for . "centuries have commanded the admi- " ration of the world, have been sup- " planted by those of lynch law. There "have been indiscriminate burnings, " pillagings, and shootings. . . . Wa "do not profess to undcrntand the pro- " cesses of tthis Government's mind; but

" this we do know—that, how ever laud"able their ultimate aim, they havo " callously and deliberately sought it by " disgraceful .means, and now fear lest " the. public should learn the truth of "their misdeeds from any source which I " Ministerial rhetoric may be unable to " discredit. We know also that, even "in their wrath, the British people do "not wittingly suffer injustice to be' "done, and will inevitably exact a "penalty from those who have surrep"tibiously betrayed their honour and "their reputation." These are strong terms, and the criticism is based upon facts —upon the facts of Ireland and I upon the faots of English opinion. ] "The Times," in adopting this line, has been moved by the consideration that, as all well-informed people know, the present Government's Irish policy is a bar to Anglo-American amity and cooperation. How important is the establishment of that co-operation as a Teality is. known to most people wno have given attention to the international situation, particularly in the Far East. And it is important to no people more than to us Australasians. The Government's apologists have sought to establish the proposition that one must either support #he policy pursued in Ireland or avow oneself a friend of the Republican terrorists. This impudent suggestion has been rejected by loyal and upright Conservative Englishmen like the Cecils, whose example is ono that no one need fear to follow, in this Dominion or any other.