The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1916. IRELAND'S PART

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 31, 12 January 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1916. IRELAND'S PART

That the operations- of the British National Service Bill should be confined to G'reat Britain and that Ireland should be omitted must be regretted ' by true Imperialists in all parts of. King George's Dominions, and there' will be much sympathy with, these Irish leaders who contend that the exclusion of Hihernia is a slur on Ireland's patriotism and loyalty. Not long ago Mr John Redmond related a conversation he had with Lord Kitchener at the beginning of the war, in which Lord Kitchener said to Mr Redmond : "Can you guarantee me 0000 men from Ireland? If you guarantee 12,000 I will say I am deeply obliged." At the time there was groat tension in Ireland over the Home Rule question immediately prior to the war, and Lord Kitchener was justified in framing a very modest estimate of Ireland's probable fighting strength. But the time came when Mr Redmond was able to assure his Waterford audience, amidst ringing cheers: "It is not 5000 or 12,000, hut 100,000 that have been sent from Ireland—a perfectly ama/,-. ing performance when one considers the past history of the country and how it has been drained by emigration." When the war broke out 20,000 reservists from Ireland immediately joined the colors, and with those Sons of Erin who went to the fighting fronts from Canada. Australia and New Zealand, there are at least four hundred thousand Irishmen fighting valiantly for the British Empire to which they belong. "No longer." says the London Daily Chronicle, "is Ireland the Cinderella of the Empire, standing sullenly aloof. Her brigades will do for England what Sar'sfield's soldiers did in the war of the Spanish succession, and what l)e Lacy and his fellow Irishmen did lor France at Kontenoy." What the spirit is mashe gathered from Mr John Redmond's own" words, for lie tells us that "for the first time in history Ireland is eager to do her full duty to the Empire, which no longer stands, for oppression, but for the independence of

Belgium, Serbia, and the small nation of Europe, and for 1 ho,freedom of th world." And how haw the Irish so diers home themselves? Every return Je ed soldier tells how the Irish hav fought with pluck and gallantry. "Th gallantly of the London Irish at th battle of Loos,'' said a member of th English Parliament, "was the them y of every tongue. Every general ever le contnian'di.'ig officer spoke about it ''lrish—up and over!' was the signa for their advance. They were first iitti s the village and captured live gun; there. They made victory certain and they commenced the charge In bringing out a football and dribbling it along." "You have performed one of the finest actions of the war," was the message sent to them after the ' Battle of Loos. Mr Valentine Williams in his new book, "With Our Army in Flanders," writes: "The British soldier's indifference to danger, while it is one of his finest qualties, is often the despair of his officers. The Irish regiments are the worst. Their recklessness is proverbial." German schemers again badly .miscalculated when they thought to gain 'lreland's assistance against Britain.