MR. REDMOND'S VISIT.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1011, 19 March 1883, Page 3

MR. REDMOND'S VISIT.

, ->♦ . ’ ■ <; T0 THE EDITOR. .§ir,—ln the leading article of your issue of the 16th’ instant you make some remarks on Irish Affairs, which, to say the least Of them, are one-sided statements. I think it adyisable>that the other side of the story should be placed before the Patea public^iiPerhapsi the besfci way! df&doing so is to give a few extracts from a speech delivered by Mr Redmond at the Academy of Music, Sydnej T . In referring to some remarks made by thd'ldeal press, he says : “If the interpretation which has been placed by a certain section of the colonial press upon the subject of my visit to Australia were a correct one and if I really hold the principles the press has attributed to mo I would require a considerable amount of audacity to stand upon the platform this evening. 0 0 Since my arrival I have been astonished beyond measure at the extraordinary ignorance of the-very first elements of the political situation in Ireland displayed by some of the leading papers of the colony, and if the statements made in the press against the League and the Irish people were not characterized by ignorance so palpable I would be inclined to stigmatise them as malicious representations and criminal falsehoods.” Again, referring to the charge of disloyalty brought against him, be says : “ Those who have charged me with such a crime should, at least, have inquired who I was, and what position I held, and what character I bear in my own country. For three generations my family have represented in the House of Commons the part of Ireland of which l am now the Parliamentary representative, and at the present time the head of my family serves Her Majesty as a general in the British army.” Sir, I think the public utterances of a man of the position and calibre of Mr Redmond are deserving of the respect and attention of all those who take the slightest interest in the welfare of the British Empire, and further, as he bears the reputation of being a graceful and a cultured speaker, is a not undistinguished visitor to the colonies ; in ■fact a stranger in a strange land, and also, as I do not believe in condemning a man unheard, I should have very great pleasure in listening to his lecture, if opportunity offered. This is what he says in reference to the Phoenix Park murders :—“ When the Land League was suppressed the Government played completely into the hands of secret associations, and the desperate minority to which all the men arrested in connection with the Phoenix Park assassinations belong, gained strength and poweif. Carey and his associates, far from ever being connected with the Land League, belonged to a. body of men who followed the League and; its leaders with unreletating enmity, and sought to destroy the national moyeinent,”. and, after reading the manifesto issued by the Land League a few hours after the murders were committed, he says : —“ The manifestos were posted all over Ireland, and large sums were raised by branches of the League as rewards forthe discovery of the murderers. Any man who would fix the crime upon the League or its representatives after this would be guilty of a criminal libel, and would merit the scorn of every honest man.” Apologising for trespassing so much upon your space. Yours, &c., H. E. Deane, , Patea, March 10.