JINGOISM, NOT LOYALTY.

Shannon News, 11 November 1921, Page 3

JINGOISM, NOT LOYALTY.

(To the Editor.) . . Sir,—Our present Minister for Education evidently has not taken to heart the lessons of history, nor the wiser policy of older countries. He thinks that his ideas of loyalty can be forced upon the people, as the fanatics of the Dark Ages thought that their brand of religion, could be forced upon communities of those days. That a certain ceremony performed to order around the flag will conduce ( to the stability of the Throne is unreasonable. Perhaps a future legislator will present us with a populace grovelling upon their knees .'around it, with priests and clergy swinging censers and chanting prayers and hymns of praise to it. A man of nobler and wider views might do some small service to humanity by ordering the gathering in.of all flags, red, white, blue, green or mixed, and making a bonfire of them in front of the Post Office. If there ' were < no flags and no uniforms, how many wars do you suppose there would be? Then, as to the singing of the verses we compliment by terming our National Anthem, “God Save- the King.” How about all the good folk who are by no means convinced (especially since the Great War) that God troubles to interfere in human affairs, whether kings’ or cobblers’? And from what is he to be “saved”? From his enemies. Who. are they? In olden times it was the kings who made wars with other kings, draggihg their unfortunate peoples into their private quarrels. Now the natiQns (for trade reasons) drag their rulers 1 "into their hideous conflicts, regardless of the -blood-ties, or even of the devoted friendships that may exist between then, and who can' measure the unhappiness which must pervade royal courts A great writer truly represents a king as slave of the nation”—the only man in his vast dominions who* never, from his earliest years, is allowed tcf express his private opinions on any momentous subject, the" only man who* cannot (no matter how honest his convictions may be) choose his own religion, +he only man, down even to the lowest and most degraded, who may not choose his companion for life, and, worse still, is compelled by the nation, “for State reasons,” to take to his bosom a woman for whom he has no* affection, and who in many cases must regard him with repulsion. | And not only loveless marriages do ( we force upon our rulers, but. marI riages to the last degree objectionI able. But the nation demands heirs, J no matter at what cost to" these unI fortunate parents.' Believe me, ( friends, revolt- and revolution 'bite ' coming—not from the hovel, hut | from the palace.. Not always will j our princes be doped by the assurI ances of interested courtiers that it is their “duty” to bold a position which demands the renunciation of man’s noblest feelings and dearest liberties. A king has many flatterers—these j only are. his and seldom indeed can be find one true fid end. j Who ,if they but reflect on these can feel aught but deepest sympathy —I am, etc., SPECTATOR.