The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1916 IRELAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 145, 22 June 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1916 IRELAND.

lWith which is incorporated The Tal bape Post and "Wairaarino News.)

Many articles ciave been written ! on the cause and failure of the rebellion in Ireland, several of the best of which have been spoiled , rendered less convincing and interesting, by an ever indulgence in the political element. Even the best of them picture te instigator as a gnome of more than ordinary understood hideousness and bloodthirstiness which the Government could have laid merely by the lifting cf a finger. However, that is the impression the extremists in poli-tics-mongering certainly do convey. There can be no doubt that there has been a laxity in Irish government, which has been contributed to by the in the British Parliament, but it is readily understood that there was there an overpowering desire to ,do nothing in that long suffering country that could be construed as persecution while thousands of her sons were filling our trenches in France, and, by their glorious exploits assisting materially to empty those of our enemies. It i s indeed a question whether military ventures in Ireland would not have created more trouble than the rebellion has done. Still, even such a thought should not have prevented iany legitimate course being followed to close the door to rebellious spirits, these remnants of the old days of Fenianism that have never ceased to smouder and grow since the days of the Phoenix Park murders. Mr Lovatt Fraser gives a pertinent reminder of the French revolution, he says: "Revolutions have always been started in the first instance by handfuls of men. The hcrror s of the Reign of Terror in France still shock the world after an interval of more than a cen--1 tury. Does anyone suppose that the Terrorists represented the bulk of ' France? The Terror was imposed because a gang of savage miscreants seized control of France and kept

their place by constant massacre. It was estimated <at the time that the Terror never had in Paris more ,than 3,000 adherents, and the true .voice of France spoke again on the day that Robespierre was beheaded. The Government never made a worse mistake than when they thought the Sinn Feiners did not matter because they did not represent all Ireland. The same desire to minimise realities has run through the whole business, both on the part of the Government and their supporters in the Press. We were told at first that this was "not a revolt but more of a riot.*' It was said that the insurgents derived their chief strength from the Larkinites, which is not the case. The Larkinites, are ?. comparatively small auxiliary of Sinn Fein. We were told that the Germans Avere silly fools, and that Sir Roger Casement was mad. There is nothing conspicuously foolish about this well-organised German plot, which so very nearly succeeded in 'gravely embarrassing us. For almost incredible foolishness we must turn our eyes towards the Government which blandly permitted the Sinn Feiners to rehearse rebellion in ;Dublin. There is no trace of madness in Sir Roger Casement's share in the conspiracy. Yet, astonishing though it may sound, an English weekly review actually described him recently as "a noble figure" and as "just of the stuff of which saints and their legends are made." Not in Ireland alone, it seems, are traitors glorified. The real note of the Irish insurrection is its inexpressible sadness and folly. Ireland is now, as ever, the most unhappy country in the world, Neither Belgium nor Serbia -have histories half so mournful. Lecky and Frcude are both accused of bias, but one cannot read without a shudder the tragic recital of facts in their great works on Irish history. The immediate cause of the Irish revolt is that a treasonable and revolutionary organisation was allowed to form itself into battalions, to bear arms, and openly and impudently to practise street fighting in the very streets of the capital while the Empire was at death-grips with Germany. The responsibility rests with the Government which tolerated these extraordinary proceedings and permitted the outbreak of a civil war which need never have been begun. While one part of the British Empire is split and suffering in an untenable degree from irreconcilable factions therei s sure to grow therefrom those extremes that are calculated to prolong the trouble. In Ireland these extremes are found in the Larkinites and Sinn Feiners on the one hand, and the gunbearers of bitter ultra uionism on the other. The masses of the Irish people are peaceloving, or they would not have continued from long before the days of Dan O'Connell,'their endeavours to acquire the liberty to govern themselves in their own way by lawful and legislative means. Ireland is the shuttlecock of extremists, and while the British people—Unionists perhaps being more culpable than others — permit such bitter factions to obtain and actually urge them into virility, this blot on Britain's rule will never be wiped out. Mr Fraser tells us the revolution should never have been permitted, but is it not a fact that while Mr Fraser, a s a supporter of the extreme Unionists, is asking Britain to pour soldiers into Ireland to repress the spirit that rebels against injustice, he is contributing to the growth of that very faction from which the cause of rebellion springs? Ireland, if men in high places are seriously in earnest, is capable of beingmade, admittedly, one of the brightest jewels in cur Empire. Then let no time be lost in doing everything to break up factions and reconcile all differing units and sections of the Irish ppcole, for only so shall we end rebellion. Repressive measures have marked the failure of centuries.