The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, MAY 21, 1917. IRELAND AND EMPIRE FEDERATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 21 May 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, MAY 21, 1917. IRELAND AND EMPIRE FEDERATION.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News),

The Irish people now appear to be on the point of gaining the greatest advance towards complete emancipaton since the days of Dan O’Connell. Read where one will it is impossible to avoid being impressed with the fact that all great living statesmen and empire builders are more or less uniformly convinced that Irishmen should be given that extent of freedom in their own affairs that is rarely questioned as an inherent right in ether parts of the Empire, near or far. It is. and has been unfortunate for Ireland that some people of very nearly ail nationalities, especially our own people, in all parts of the world will persist in telling Ireland what is best for her, and without any intimate knowedge that would enable them to diagnose Ireland’s case, will persist in sending along their nostrums. It is beyond question that the most utter rubbish is printed from fanatical writers, with many of whom it is nothing less than a form of madness. Why cannot the Irish question he discussed as dis'v..-sionately as the Ho nth African qcc-'.i was Tlio ar>ur,».'.ats i'di-ul upon for refusing self-

mron! to Ireland nearly twenty ,-enrs ago have had their utter falsity • rov d by subset;nont happenings. What nil Tain pi re fw.feroncc to-day has decided upon as f.=<• only saving way for the Umpire, a similar conference a tow years ago discarded as being the Umpire’s greatest danger. It was said that to go from a unitary to a federal constitution was a weakening of the central government and of the Statenot a man will, -support that doctrine

now. Renan said: “No nation will dismember itself.'’ But was such a statement relevant to the Home Rule question? Did Britain dismember itself by permitting self-government in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and ranch more recently to the Boers in South Africa? It was said of the Boers as it is said of Irishmen, that they would rise against the Empire and never rest until they had attained complete sever-

ance. After the work and utterances of Both and Smutz, the fallaceousnoss of such prognostications stands fully revealed and the Empire is ashamed that they were ever made. It was seriously stated for many years that among the chief difficulties of Home Rule were those in connection with trusts. We would regard similar statements to-day as subterfuge, dishonest and beside the question. Twenty years ago Mr. Redmond made it plain that Ireland wished to control such measures as did not concern England. The British Parliament admits that position to-day. Last year while irresponsible and ill-inform-ed people were clamouring for conscription in Ireland Mr. Redmond again deemed it his duty to speak to the world on the subject, and his words went deep into the heart of every man with a conscience who heard or read them. He said: “I have long felt that

if conscription in any form were passed in Great Britain, and if Ireland were excluded, Ireland’s whole attitude towards this war was likely to suffer cruel and unjust misrepresentation. As I understand the situation, conscription in Ireland would be impracticable, unworkable, and impossible,’ ’ and who is better able to express an opinion? So many people in this country have the idea that Ireland should not have Home Rule because it hak not taken its place in the trenches against the Empire’s enemies,,- The Chief Secretary for Ireland, however, gave the truth about this at the beginning of last year. In testifying to the valour of the Irish he referred to the Irish Guards at Mons, the Irish Fusiliers at Ypres, the Dublins and Munsters at V. Beach, who, although they were never mentioned in the official despatch, performed that which brought from General E. Hunter Weston a testimonial that will stand

im'history to the valour* : and loyalty .of r Irishmen. He said: Your’deeds are

without parallel in the history of feats

of arms.G Then there -were• the ’re* cords of the’ Dublins and Munsters at Suvla, the Dublins-and Inniskillings at Salonika, whore the authorities are agreed that they saved the British and French armies-fr’om destruction. There are the unsurpassed records of Leinsters, Royal Fusiliers and Royal Rifles.- Kitchener wrote to the vice-regal conference regarding recruiting: ’“'lreland 's .performance has been

magnificent..V To-day there are under

the colours oyer two hundred thousand Irishmen from, -little, much maligned Ireland. Ila ve y» - e done any better in New Zealand?.Mr- Redmond wrote with the utmost .deliberation that it was a contemptible:Auinority amongst the Nationalists .of(iroland,.who were unsuccessfully trying to prevent recruiting, and he continued by saying: “It is,true that the overwhelming sentiment of the Irish people is with the Empire, in this world. war for ,the, first time, and the value of that fact, has been felt in every corner of the Empire.”; It might be added that it has increasingly been felt in the highest places of authority and it has resulted in proposals that may give to the Irish people the rights for which they have for. centuries been contending. Acknowledging congratulations from Mr. Redmond on securing self-government for the Boers, General Botha cabled: “I entirely endorse your view that this victory is the fruit of the policy of liberty, and the recognition of national rights in this part >f the Empire.” "Why is not such a policy extended to Ireland? That there are ways and means to such an end this great war has compelled the enemies of Ireland to see, and to realise further that it is in the Empire’s essential interests that liberty and extension of national rights should be extended to Ireland. The Grand Council notv proposed is not a

new idea, almost precisely similar lines

for Empire Federation, including Ireland, were drawn nearly twenty years

•ago, and students of history will remember the controversy thereover in the London Times. The fact is that individual interests now have to be sacrificed to save the Empire. Britain is taunted with being the champion of the freedom of nations, while it takes no steps to free Ireland. World affairs are at such a pass now that Ireland must bo given her freedom, and the resurrected idea of a Grand Council is likely to safely bridge the difficulty. A convention of till Irish peoples is being organised, and at last the views of the Irish leaders and of the British Government are converging on common ground. It seems apparent that no federation of Empire is possible that does not include the freedom of every part, and that will come when til] admit what should be obvious, that Irish domestic interests and conditions are not precisely identical with those of all other parts of the Empire any more than are those of New Zealand.