THE IRISH QUESTION.

Taihape Daily Times, 16 May 1918, Page 3

THE IRISH QUESTION.

"A NATIONAL MISCONCEPTION. ’' I read m a paper the other day that in some approaching election in America the Irish question would be rampant, and I suppose that in the United States there exists a very strong feeling about our treatment of Ireland (says Robert Blatchford in the Sunday Chronicle). "England” is supposed to be treating Ireland very badly. Now, I am not going to argue about the conduct of England to Ireland. But I say without hesitation that" the English are absolutely blameless in the matter. What the English people think and feel about Ireland is that the Irish ought to be treated fairly, and that we are "fed up,” with the Irish question. There is a bitter anti-Eng-lish feeling in Ireland, but there is no anti-Irish feeling in England.

I have been a Home Ruler for more than thirty years. I don’t want Ireland to be annoyed or ill-used, and I won’t want to be "bothered" about Ireland. If the American people understand the Irish trouble, and think they can settle it, I should be delighted, to let them try. If an American Commission could visit Ireland and draw up a scheme of Homo Rule, I would vote for it with both hands. I think the bulk of our people would do the same. But the American commission would find it a much stiffor proposition than they may expect. TALKS IN A TUBE. I was in a tube train a while before Ghridtmds ’whor. a y-mng, Irishman very excited, and somewhat alcoholic entered the carriage and began to address the crowded passengers about the wrongs of Ireland. He said: "Ireland wanted her place in the sun against the German Kings of England, and that every Celt across the Channel was ready to drive the Saxons out, so that Ireland might take her place amongst the nations." I was hanging on to a strap and I looked round the carriage. No one took the slightest notice of the impassioned' address. The passengers were Londoners, mostly tired and mostly bored. There were a few young girls going home from work, a few mechanics, one or two soldiers, and some business men.

Right opposite to the Irish orator sat a stout, pale woman with a baby on her knee. The woman looked worried, but she was not worried about Ireland. She had never done Ireland any wrong. She had probably just come out of a queue, and was wondering what she could dc without moat or margarine. __

As for the talk about Celts and Saxons, what did it mean for anyone in the ear? It meant something to the Irishman, and it meant something to me. The Irishmna laboured under the delusion that the Irish arc Celts and the English Saxons, and that poor old London, worried about foot?, sad about the war, was anxious to keep Ireland out of the sun. I knew that the English people arc no more Saxons than the Irish are Celts, and that the antiEnglish feeling of Irishmen rests upon a national misconception. The modern English are a mixed race an amalgam. They are also a new race, and do not in their sentiments and ideals bear much resemblance to their grandparents. Nobody desired to hurt or treat unfairly any othen people. Nobody .wanted to stand in Germany’s w r ay. Nobody wanted to stand in Ireland’s way. Nobody wanted to be “bothered.” As for the “war aims” of our people, they can be put into a few w r ords j Our people want peace. If they could be assured tomorrow of a peace last a century, nothing the Government could say or do would prolong the w r ar for a week.

I think I know our people fairly well. They are not aggressive. They aro not quarrelsome. They are not vain-glorious. They are home-loving good-natured, intellectually lazy, generous and more than just, and very insular. They like to “'gang their ain gait.” They like to keep themselves to themselves. They arc reserved and shy. Half a dozen Englishmen will ride together for half a day and never speak a -word. It is not that they distrust or despise each other They don't know each other, and that means a lot in England.