The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1920. IRELAND AND AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 18834, 29 May 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1920. IRELAND AND AMERICA.

One of the characteristics of any discussion of the Irish question is that the spectacles thiough which vve read anything bcarj ing upon the problem seente to distort the | words and lead to all sorts of misconcepj lions and misunderstandings. We arc rej minded of this - fact by a letter signed ; “Iona” which appears in another column i this morning. "Iona” informs the SouthI land Times that in its remarks upon the i Irish question on Thursday it departed | "from the spirit of calm judicial com- | ment that he is accustomed to look for but I in spite of the delicacy of the compliment I tll.t he thu.' inferenlially pays us, we are | afraid we cannot admit that we wiotc with j any heat. The generation of heat over | the Irish question does not assist us and it cannot help the Irish lo reach a settlement of their troubles but it docs frequently learl to some en- • lively erroneous impressions being | gained which. when clothed in perj suasivc English, pass as good currency j among people who have no opportunities of sifting the facts for themselves. It is for this reason that we are prepared to devote a little time to the correction of some of the statements made by “Iona” upon tlie Irish question. Taking the first things first wr may remind our correspondent that in referring to the millions spent in the United States dining the war he has forgotten the fact, that the greater j part of it was used for the purpose of com- ; bating German propaganda, anil not Irish. It is t rtie (htit (here was and is a big Irish vote and it j is equally true that the Germans [ tried to make the most use possible of that j vote in their efforts to damage the Allied ] cause, but although some of the noted Irishmen, like Jiulgo CohnJcn, were involved in the doings of von I’apcn the British propaganda was devoted to a minor exI tent in correcting Irish stories. It is idle I to confuse war propaganda with the special j anti-British propaganda that is proceeding I in the States at the present moment, though j the Teutonic names that occur occasionally | in the reports of the pro-Irish meetings j might tempt ns to do so. The mission of I the North of Ireland delegates to America I dees not touch the point that wc raised. Thar delegation could speak only for the North of Ireland and it could not speak with any official voice. It may have been trying to identify the “cause of Ireland” with religious bigotry and if may not; but j nothing it could say could be regarded as i a counter to the attacks that are being made on the Imperial Government, which, I in spite of our correspondent’s l suggestion, j has actually acted very stupidly in not maki ing any organised effort until comparatively recent times to expose the hollowness of I the serious crimes that are being imputed ■ to British statesmen. As to the accuracy [ of our quotation of Mr de Valera’s remarks | “Iona” need have no misgivings. The 1 words were reported in three New York i newspapers of repute and they were cabled to the Loudon Times. The versions agree with each other, and there cun be no doubt about the intentions of the man who uttered them. He wanted his hearers to understand that the Imperial Cabinet deliberately butchered two Irish divisions in order to lessen the Irish population. It is on a par with the suggestion that the Imperial Government’s agents are in the habit of killing men who have abandoned the dinn Fein cause. Mr dc Valera is an extremely brilliant man. but. “Iona” will pardon us if we say that vve do not admire his political sagacity or his ideas of veracity when we read such remarks as those quoted on Thursday. The cause of the falling off in Irish recruiting was mentioned by Mr John Redmond in the House of Commons, hut recruiting had fallen off long before the two divisions representing Ireland outside of Ulster had ceased to exist. One of these divisions took part in the fighting in connection with the battle of Messines in 1917 and another was then in the Balkans. If we add to these the troops from the Ulster province anti compare them with the total Irish enlistments we come to the conclusion that the "dispersal” of these recruits could not have amounted to much. In any case there were these two divisions from Nationalist Ireland in existence as definite units in 1917, anti recruiting had fallen oft a considerable time before that. Wc must confess that the “success of Mr de Valera in raising £3,000,000’’ does not strike us at all as proof of his ability to tell the truth, when we read some of his speeches. Mr de Valera went lo the United States to raise money for loans, which were to be subscribed only when the Irish Republic received recognition. His project was more anjbitious than the mere £3,000000 mentioned by our correspondent as having been secured. If Mr de Valera has that sum in hand, and if he has raised it openly—as is clearly the case—the United States Government is in a rather peculiar position when it permits the gathering of money for the purpose of fomenting and carrying on a rebellious movement within the boundaries of a friendly nation. It is that point that we were concerned with when we mentioned that the government in Washington is keeping its eye upon (he Irish vote. Our correspondent very cleverly construes our reference to his demand that America should demand that Britain should pay the interest owing on her loans | into a suggestion (hat we think that the j Imperial Government may try to wriggle out of its obligations. “Iona” knows that he is here playing with words. Mr de Valera was trying to suggest that Britain j was trying to wriggle out of her ohliga- j lions, when as a matter of fact Britain is ’ determined to pay the interest owing and | unlike France has never suggested that it j should he remitted. We did not blame j the Irish “president” for using the argu- j ment, but condemn the inference that he i obviously hopes to draw from it. At last I we come to the question of “self-determina- | tion,” .a blessed word, but one which i wrecked the Labour party’s arguments in the House of Commons debate on the second reading of the Home Rule Bill recently. Mr Lloyd George shot their argu ments to pieces and left them without any alternative to the government’s scheme. He pointed out that self-determination must be as logical for Ulster as it was for the rest of Ireland. Ulster an entity and

| must be (rented as such. lie ah'o exposed i (he imprnctieability of the Labour Party's I plt-a for “self rlt'lmudniitioii'’ for Ireland when he (tinned them to the point that at the present moment it would mean an Independent Republic. “Self-determina-tion,” raid Mr Lloyd George, docs not mean ! that every part of the country, whi:h has j been acting together for hundreds of years, j . hall have th° right to say ‘Wc mean to | set up a separate republic.’ That is the very thing which was fought for in the Civil War of America.” After this the Labour Party admitted that if “self-de-termination’' meant an independent repub- | lie in Ireland they could not support “selfI determination.” That is the answer also to “lona.”