THE IRISH PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 300, 7 September 1918, Page 8

THE IRISH PROBLEM

Sir,—The contributed article which appeared in The Dominion of September 3 regarding what the writer was pleased to call the fundamental issues at stake in granting freedom to Ireland is interesting, because it illustrates so fully the attitude of the old "die-hards" in England who are so resolutely fighting against the principles for which England professedly entered into the war. Over and over again the English Cabinet has declared that England was fighting for the right of the small nations to decide their own destiny, for their right of self-determination. They made no qualifying statements, hut they committed England without reserve to tlio causa of world freedom. Lord Hugh Cecil, a member of the War Cabinet, has declared more than once that no Government can succeed that is not founded upon the consent of the governed, that it cannot last if founded upon oppression. That consent England has never yet had from the Irish people, and is it to be said of England that those , statements and aims' are merely for the moral chastisement of the Central Powers, but are not to be applied in her own case when the test is made? The war by now must surely have shown people that there are jther questions at stake than expedijncy. Never before have moral issues been made so much of, and those moral issues should bo applied to Ireland as io Serbia, Belgium, and all other couniries under foreign dominion. In the article at issue, the writer juotes largely from the "Round Table" in regard to the Irish Convention and its findings. That Convention ,vas never representative of the Irish jeople. It was not .elected by them, aid the Ulsterites were given a definite issurance by Mr. Lloyd George's Govrnment that should they not agree with ;he general findings of the Convention ;hey should not bo coerced. . Truly an ionourable undertaking. And, of iourse, the Ulsterites took care not to igree, although they weremoro than lalf met by' the Nationalists taking >art. 'Hie Home Rule recommendations ,hat finally issued from the Conven.ion were in a most emasculated form, md, would never have been approved if by the Irish people generally. Eeent events have driven them novNto denand the. whole of what England and

America are promising dominated nations, and in asking for a republic she is asking no more than is her right, according to those ivorld-wide proclamations.' The writer of the article mentioned appeal's to think also that because Ireland unfortunately is dominated by England then she shonkl have no voice as. to whether- her ..manhood should be called upon to take up arms should England desire it. One can' imagine what Australia would say in such a case. Such a principle, however, is one that will not- he tolerated in the new world that is coming. Thfe writer also quotes Abraham Lincoln and the lessons he is supposed to have, taught. Has that writer not read this statement by Abraham Lincoln, that "The Almighty never created one nation good enough to rtilo another. He also went further. He repudiated all paternalism in Government. Consent only was its keystone, and he maintained that it was better a. people should be ill-governed by themselves than well govereued against their conMuch has been made of the-state-ment that the Irish coasts could be mado the bnse of attacks against international shipping. The, 'only, time in history that occurs of a project fffimed to profane Irish coasts by attacks upon international shipping was that for which Lord Falkland, an English Viceroy, was responsible, and the proofs are piled up under his own hand in British State papers. Had England given Ireland (to Home Rulo that had been placed on the Statute Book sho would have had

all Ireland fighting for her. Recruiting in the early days in Ireland under Mm Redmond was phenomenal until the machinery of the War Office was "malignautly" (to o.uote Lloyd George's own term when speaking of the matter in tho Honso'.of Commons)

used with only one ultimate purpose, to kill voluntary recruiting in order to make conscription inevitable, and so , guillotine Homo Rule. . ; England has found that Liberty has paid in South Africa, in Canada, and wherever el«i it has been given. It will pay in Ireland, and it is tho only policy consistent -with the great argument taken up by (England in the world's' affairs. It is the Only policy that will bring Ireland whole-heartedly into the war' for liberty, nnd, once given her, wo who know Ireland know that no more will bo heard of proGermanism, Sinn Fein, or any other propaganda. All she asks is to be pormitted to do her own housekeeping in her own way, which she can do better and more cheaply than can other people do it for her.—l am, etc., MAZIEEB BRADY.