The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1916. COURTING DISASTER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2760, 2 May 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1916. COURTING DISASTER

! j~$ — The ignominious collapse of the rebellion in Ireland, which is confidently anticipated, will put an end to one of the ugliest incidents connected with tlje war.- Though the. inexcusable remissness of the authorities enabled the rebels to make elaborate preparation for an extensive rising, the conspiracy was from the outset doomed to failure. For several months past the Sinn Feiners and their associates had been plotting and planning in the most open and. audacious manner. They had been circulating seditious literature throughout the land, and had been 1 doing their utmost to obstruct the recruiting campaign. The Goyernlnent appears to have looked on with contemptuous indifference, as though the spreading of sedition was a matter in which it had not the slightest interest. As the Government did not take action', the sedition-mongers not unnaturally concluded that it was afraid to act. Everyone in Ireland who paid_ any attention to the trend of political events has known for months past that trouble was brewing, and the only people who appear to have been taken by surprise were those whose special business it was to know what was going on, and to do all that was necessary to maintain law and-order. Nothing could be more astonishing than the astonishment of the Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. Bijuiell). He seems to have been dazecl and amazed when he heard of . the outbreak. We are told that he was "ashen-faced and stunned" when he announced the uprising in Parliament, and the compiler of the cable message adds the remark that Me. Birrell had always been an optimist as regards Irish affairs. This is a striking illustration of that blind and irrational form of optimism which courts disaster by refusing to face ■ unpleasant facts. The prevalence of this sort of optimism among those whose duty it is to steer the sh'ip of State in stormy weather is enough to make common-sense people pessimistic. Early in March last a correspondent of the London Times described some extraordinary Sinn Fein activities and the strange manoeuvres of the Irish Volunteers, who must not bo confused with the official or Redmondite volunteers. Though the importation of arms into Ireland is prohibited, the Irish Volunteers openly declared that they were getting all the arms they needed. In view of what has since happened, the following words written two months ago have quite a prophetic ring:

On tho night of Saturday, February 5, a largo body of City Volunteers decided to practise street lighting. They gathered with rides and bayonets at U o'clock in Blackball Place, an open space near the LiiVey, ami for a couple of hours tliey engaged in strenuous exorciseß. Some policemen watched them with professional! interest, but the residents in the place (though Dublin is used to queer lliimjs) were a little alarmed. Here is another stovy, which has not appeared in print, and is now given as true on excellent authority. Some weeEs ago a ntiini>or of armed men appeared about midnight oulside Dublin Castle. The officer in charge ppsted one body of troops at the Upper and another at the Lower Gate. A third body was sent round to hold tho exits at the rear. After tlioso dispositions had been made to the officer's satisfaction, he inspected and dismissed his troops. Dublin Castle had been taken—in theory. Such affairs may, uer. haps, be regarded as "play-acting"—a symptom of the impish tendencies of tho Celtic ehnracter. On the other hand, tliev may have a serious side.

The serious side has now been made obvious to the whole world. The Times correspondent remarked that a man with Mr. Birrell's keen sense of humour might bo clUpb?.ot3 to smilo at these "military expert-

rncnts," but they are no laughing matter. In the facc oi such plain warnings, Mr. Bikrell's complacent optimism is utterly incomprehensible. Fortunately • the mass of tho Irish people stood aloof from the rebels. The rebel forces were a conglomeration of extreme Sinn Feiners, anarchists, syndicalists, and other wild irreconcilables. It was, of course, impossible that these wreckers could achievc their objects, however much suffering and inconvenience they might occasion, and if the authorities in Ireland and England had been more active and less "optimistic" the trouble would probably have been nipped in tho bud without any serious loss of life or destruction of property. The feeling of indignation which the rebellion has aroused throughout the Empire has been robbed of some of its bitterness by the patriotic attitude of Sir Edward Carson and Mn. Redmond, and by the prompt and emphatic manner in which Irishmen in all parts of the overseas Dominions have repudiated the rebels and branded them as traitors to their own kith and kin. At the very time when' loyal Irish soldiers were being shot in Dublin by the accomplices of the Kaiser and the Prussian Junkers, an Irish Division was fighting heroically against the Germans at Loos. Nowhere lias the foul blow of the traitors been more hotly resented than among the Irish soldiers in the, trenches. The exultation of our enemies has been short-lived. They expected that the conspiracy would rend Ireland in twain and compel the diversion of a large force of troops from the fighting lines in France, whereas the result has proved that the Irish people as a whole have no intention of becoming the catspaw of Germany. The inglorious failure of this German-made plot has shattered Germany's last hope that the fighting power of the British Empire would be seriously weakened by internal dissensions. This brief and futilo ebullition of organised sedition, which has distracted for a moment the attention of tho Government from the great task of winning the war, shrivels into insignificance when compared with the. splendid services rendered to the Empire by the hundred thousand Irishmen who are fighting for King and country side by side with the English", Scottish, colonial, and Indian troops in the various theatres of war. Irishmen know that if Germany had her way Ireland would get ; no better treatment than Belgium or Poland A well-known Irish priest recently reminded his people that the Germans entered upon this war for the purpose of conquest, and if they can they mean "to exchange .the arid wastes of the Baltic and the sands of Brandenburg for the rich pastures of Ireland." While Germany has_ been passing legislation to prohibit Poles from purchasing land, the British Government has been labouring to reinstate and root the Irish people ia Irish soil. Irishmen know this also.