Ireland

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 71, 20 October 1916, Page 5

Ireland

HOME RULE QUESTION. THE COUNTRY’S ASPIRATIONS. MR REDMOND IN DEFENCE. BLAME on THE government. press Association —Copyright, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. London, October IS. In the House of Commons, Mr Redmond moved that the present system of the government of Ireland is inconsistent with the principle for which the Allies' are fighting, and that it was mainly responsible for the rebellion. He said his object was to call attention to the unsatisfactory situation in Ireland, which was full of menace. The aspirations of Ireland. and a good understanding between Britain and Ireland, were also in the biggest interests of the Em-

pi re. Mr Redmond assorted that undeniably the situation in Ireland had been full of menace and danger, Erom the day the Coalition Government was formed recruiting in Ireland had declined repidly. Sir E. Carson s inclusion in the Cabinet had persuaded thousands of Irishmen that they would be betrayed. At the outbreak of war Ireland was on the side of the Allies, and there was genuine enthusiasm with the Allies’ cause. With a little sympathy on the Government’s part it would have been possible to create practically a united country. Instead, all the Nationalists’ efforts bad been thwarted, ignored, and snubbed, and the final blow was the creation of the coalition. Then the revolutionary Sinn Fein army rapidly increased, and distrust and suspicion spread throughout the country., If the rising in Ireland had been dealt with in the same manner as General Bqtha dea:u with the rising in South Africa the whole situation would have been saved. Instead, the Government behaved with panicky violence. Ireland should have been trusted and given her freedom. It was even possible to trust Ireland now. Mr Redmond asked if the Government seriously proposed to maintain the present system of perpetual martial law. He urged the withdrawal of martial law, the release of prisoners, and the putting of the Home Rule Act into operation.

the recruiting problem. Mr Redmond went on to deal with the recruiting problem. Ho contended that conscription in Ireland would he an aggravation of the situation and not a remedy; Throughout, the efforts of the Nationalists had been thwarted and ignored, and their suggestions derided. They had asked for the creation of an Irish Army Corps,' but everything calculated to arouse national pride and enthusiasm in connection with the war had been rigorously suppressed. Nothing did more harm than the suppression of all official mention of the Dublin and Munster Fusiliers’ landing at Gallipoli. When the 16th Division went to the front there was not a Catholic officer in the battalion, except two or three subalterns. He further complained that the recovered wounded Irishmen were redrafted into English battalions. It was a mockery to complain that the Irish Division was not kept up to its strength. Gallantly the Irish troops had won Ireland a new place in the councils of the Empire, and it was to the interest of the Empire to enable her to maintain that place by removing at once all the fog, bad faith, and bad management. While the present Government existed, an irritated national feeling would remain in Ireland. Ho saw England fighting for the rights of small nations, yet maintaining a Unionist Government in Ireland against the will of the people by moans of martial law.

Mr Redmond concluded by demanding a now Commander-m-t/hief in Ireland; that the Defence of the Realm Act should be administered by

menus of machinery similar to that in England; that convicted rebels should he treated as political prisoners, and, above all, that the Government should take their courage in both hands and put Home Hole into

opera turn