The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1920. IRELAND AND INTERNATIONALISM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3529, 16 July 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1920. IRELAND AND INTERNATIONALISM.

H..-” _____,,, With which is incorporated “The Taihape Posl‘. and \Vaimal-ino News.”

‘_ The growth and spread of Sinn Feinism in Ireland has resulted in narrowing down the Home Rule problem to one simple issue, that is from the Sinn Fein viewpoint. It is to be complete secession from Britain; an independent Irish republic or nothing. It is said that what Irishmen want is {the right to self-(let-el'miniatioir, ':but that does not appear ‘to be exactly the case. For Ireland to succeed in I acquiring self-governinent it seems that all efforts in that direction must proceed on unquestionably just lines. whilst. Irishmen are murdering each V other and practising frightfulncss with ‘ an internicine viciousness not surpass‘ed by that practised during the war by Germans against the Allies it is diflicult for Britain to do other than endeavour to efiectually police the country, save it from civil war and self-destruction. It is not helpful to say that had Britain given what. is termed Dominion Home Rule to Ireland prior to the war, that unhappy country might by now have evolved an understanding with the North—east regarding boundaries calculated to prepare the Way for an united Council to determine such rnatters affecting both in which the religious element had; no part. Unfortunately, there is a smhll but wealthy and influential party in British governing circles which is opposed to any degree pf Home Rule being concetled, and it was‘ by that party’s efforts that the Home Rule Bill was shclvc-d.'a.nd Ireland assumed a state of disafit'ec'tion hith-i erto unprecedented. 'l‘he fact that al Member of the New Zealand Parlia-1 ment is seeking to use his position‘ to bring about some degree of the bit-‘ terncss that is rampant. in Ireland amongst people of this Dominion forces the Irish problem once more under notice. British extreme labour clelegates have sat. in confel'ence—--eight 0 hundred of them; claiming to represent five ~million'workers——but, a_resolution to down tools if British military in Ireland was not immediately withdrawn was decisively defeated. That decisive defeat indicates that even extreme labour in Brit-ain recognises that it might prove disastrous to the Empire -to allow the setting up of a Sinn Fein republic across! the Irish Sea. V-Vhatever Mr" Hc/)lland’s intention may have been, he certainly, knows that labour in New flealandl would vote as labour in Britainhas done pn any similar resolution. ‘To gain the worl(l’s mloral support Sinn Fein must agree to do unto others -as they would be done by. While some threefo-urths of Irishmen might follow‘ dc Valera in setting up an Irish republic there is {l~'«.‘=(‘.OllSi(]C‘l'.'lblo section that would spill its last drop of blood rather than be forced into entire scparati.or_r from British. rule. Great! Britain and Ireland, it cannot be de—l nied... constitute one «let'en.sive unit; were Britain to allow Irelmid. to secede from that defensive unit "it. assuredly would render Britain an easy] prey to any potent enemy. Had the‘ enemies of the British l*lmpil'e been} alyln to grive fl‘:-5 -:1-’-=3‘.t:'::l l-rnuw-'.‘.\‘ PH"t‘,C~l

‘live ('o\'el' on Irish ten?!’-.>x‘._y and in l l'ri.<;-ll \\’ul<-I's the peuple of rho Anglol .‘w‘:lxml 1':1(:e. w}lm‘evel' (](3'll|l(‘.l,l(°.(l, would now have h'een"the slaves of the Gerinflux Kaiser. It will therefore be H-aclily nn<lel-stood that" {\‘inn Fein is g'.<f:n:<lillg out for lhlll‘ \\'ll.iell l31~il':1im {will n(-\'(»‘r: eon<'Cde. unul Flue _;:'x-eal‘e;<t ,1 never invited 01' exper-led the Rril‘i>th "people In plilce Slllfll :1 lmll’el' :n'unn<l “ their own ni’-clis. I\fl' .T<)hn Dillon. the , _::;'e:1l' ls-i.-11l T\'nl':m.:ali.-1 le:1.'.l(-.31‘. .<:1i{l: “ l. ,‘::xnl <~ml\‘inw'-(l 192011-, lirml_\' than c-ver lfllal flue r.:l_)jl.‘<'l :xin:er.l ill lay Ille fiinn lFein.- is nnol.\1':1in:.1l)le, :1n«.l Hunt the Epolll'_V of the Sinn Fein lenders has _I been «lisuslrous to the Irish cause, and is l.)(:1111<l, if ]‘>er.<e\'ered in, to lead to even '__rl-valor als.'lsl‘er.<. ll". bound to’ plull-:10 the eollnlr_\_' deeper «zind -.-‘.eopr>r‘ in nhgm.~: and (ll.<()l‘t]m‘; play W into HlO l.~nm;l.~' of the milit:n'_\' und all the lrifteru-.<t enemies of the lv":.-~'h peop“»F.‘. and nlimlzlle ‘;'."l=" l7lH‘ I,‘:!llSl" Of’ l’.-"LL11: I?:{lil‘]]f_l]ll‘)' slll‘ ~":‘I‘:ll:lllll(-":~‘ (bf dmnovcratic nzrtions l-l11'«~11g‘lm11l the \'{'orld.” A scheme__ r-volved r'on(.*.ul'-l rently with that of the German mili—€ tarists became ilnpl-antic-algle with’ German defeat and sehould lmve been! abandoned for the sinner Nationalism’ policy, as urged by Parnell. Rednmnd, Dillon and others. With the Sinn Fein spirit an Irish ‘republic d‘.u:‘lng «the war would. doubtlessly. have been‘ fatal to the Allied c"ausc. It should therefore be undersfizndalale tlmt Britain will never consent to any mutilation of the defensive unit tlmt would leave Britain open to illvasfen. Father Flnnagnxl, 3, Sinn Fein \'iee-presid-

out, has pointed out that 11a‘.’io.v.~ul -Lxml g‘eogl':lphic:ll boundaries p-»::1‘€-"Ly :cqin~ icicle, and, therefore, that 11151“ CA" no more be forced into an Irish re- } public than Portugal can be fo.rcefully' absorbed by Spain. What We mean is; that Britain and Ireland are interdepelldellf on nratters of national «lefence, «and that no body of intern:L—tiondl extremists Inust be allowed to i‘l.‘“’Y ‘my imllflir that defence" so as itlo rcudel‘ either or both countries li‘oble to destruction. The indc-.pen<_lol]t “Public idea is a mistake, and, as ! Mr Dillon and other Irish patriots have ‘declared; it is putting back the day“ io'f H913-lid’-‘S Complete emancipation lflll‘thCl' INO the future; it i? u.-.u.ising imurder and frightfulness \’Vlli(sll is Efraught: with fatal results in conngc. [UOII Wlfh that measure of freedom that many P3tl‘iot~S have given their ‘ li\-‘CS Work to attain. -The spirit that 1 actuates Irishrpen in their struggle for freedom: though it be in the r'ol'm of illi~a(lVl.SCd. Sill!) Feinism, is by no 1 113031155 allied to that which caiises the I B.ols:llev'lki in our midst to espouse the [Sum Fain cause. There is no desire 1011 the Part Of those lilbO‘.‘.l' imerna-\‘l itionalists to establish a hcrmogenous, contented people in Ireland, for they: would immediately sacrifice the Irish} l 35 Teadib’ as they would British, Ger- J ‘man 01' Russian to their insane cult‘ ‘Of in’tel‘nat.ionalism. Plroud. Irishrrinn ' have :1 burning love for their country‘ ‘and readily give their lives to stem! any invader or destroyer; the inter-I nationalist labour people, as they call 1 themselves, would merely use Ireland, and Irishmen as stepping Stones to‘ smash up all nationalism. as tools to‘ destroy all nations and merge theml 'into one great w\ol'ld—n:_ntioia, to be lgoverned, not Ireland by Irishmen,l ]Britain by British, no-t. Germany by I Germans, but by the leaders "of inter- [ } nationalism, These iinternationalists ‘ are not satisfied to break down the ,mon«al'ehy or government of one or‘ two countries, they" seek to rule the whole earth and a.ll there is upon the ‘ face of it. All men are equal and of like nature, they say; they would domicile the Australian aboriginals and the barbarians of equatorial Africa with the higher civilised peoples; they ‘ would discard all the obvious homogehiety of peoples and mix them up into one huge incompatible mass. In > short ‘these internationalists, these Intdependent Workers of, the World are ' striving for the very antithesis of what Irishriien are seeking after. Irishnien, for centuries, have worked to become.’ an independent people, ‘.O ileterniinoi their own destiny in their own way: that is if we hhvé understood the? Irish cause nright. If that be so then there is greater danger even in the insineerity of internationalists than there is in the few martinets at West- ; minster. That Ireland will get home rule is beyond doubt; a form of‘g‘,6vernment ‘such as other parts of the Empire enjoy; but there seems little hope indeed of Ireland ever becoming so completely detabhd as to destroy that defensive unit upon which the: safety A of Ireland and lrislrmer: depends equally with the safety‘ of’ E-?!f;“lfiT1'l.l Scotland and Waleps. - i