Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1920. IRELAND’S PLIGHT.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1920. IRELAND’S PLIGHT.

It is the fashion- to attribute the distressful state of Ireland to the failure of British statesmanship, but the fault is by no means only on one side. Quite possibly, as the Sydney Morning Herald lec-ently pointed out, if the Home Rule Act had not been suspended on the outbreak of war in 1914, by the same Liberal Government that had passed it, tunny of the existing difficulties would have been avoided. Disappointment at the withdrawal of the long-sought prize, when it was actually within their grasp, drove many constitutional Nationalists into the camp of the extremists; Home Rule in the old sense of the term has become a dead issue; no one in Ireland wants it now. But it is somewhat unprofitable to search for a scapegoat in the past. 'Hie past can not be undone; it is* the present that has to be .faced. To-day there has come tho suggestion of a truce; but Britain is confronted with the problem of an Ireland in which a not inconsiderable , section of the population desires the maintenance of the status quo another section desires some form of local autonomy within the British commonwealth of nations, and a third is content with nothing short of complete independence. Britain’s task is to reconcile these conflicting aims; she has to find some arrangement which will be acceptable to all three groups, and in her attempt to do so she has received little help from the Irish themselves. Britain would gladly adopt any scheme to which the various interests in Ireland would agree, but every proposal has proved abortive, simply because one faction or another will not even consider it. The bill now before the House is acknowledged to be a sincere endeavour to discover a- way out of the impasse. Hie principle it embodies is the sole survivor of several ideas which have been discarded because Irish opinion condemned them from the outset. Temporary partition though unsatisfactory from many points of view, was the one expedient which seemed to have any prospect of success. Ulster has given a somewhat grudging assent; neutral Ireland credits the Government with good intentions, hut is not hopeful. Sinn Fein will have nothing whatever to do with the bill. If it becomes law the Sinn Fein has declared that it will have nothing whatever to do with the bill. Will the Sinn Feiners boycott the system set up and continue to agitate according to their characteristic methods? They refuse even to civc the experiment a trial; they are resolved to make it a failure. It is as objectionable to them as is the suggestion of dominion home rule for Ireland. In this uncompromising attitude lies their moral weakness. They claim for themselves privileges which they will not concede to their fellow countrymen. They talk largely about the right of self-determination for the smaller nationalities in the British Empire. But while they insist that they are entitled to secede from the Empire they will not allow that Ulster has a voice in her own destiny, and is entitled hv seceding from the south to remain within the Empire. Hiey cannot, or will not, understand that their tactics constitute the strongest argument against their own cause. When they show such scanty consideration for the rights of minorities, Britain cannot hhnd over those who oppose Sinn Fein to its tender mercies. But now, perhaps. Ire-J land will show a. better spirit and give Sinn Fein a lead towards peaee. I