IRISH EMIGRATION TO AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 June 1915, Page 3

IRISH EMIGRATION TO AMERICA.

To the Editor. Sir,—fust about a week ago we read in the. newspapers of this Dominion a cable from London, through the "TimesSydney Sun" service (a remarkable combination, to be sure), where 3110 young Irishmen from the AVcst of Ireland arrived at "STew York aboard an 'American liner, and it is suggested that their purpose is to avoid enlistment. Tliey were well provided with gold, so we are informed. How fortunate! Time was when not a few hundred but hundreds of thousands—aye, millions—of the, Trisli race, emigrated to the land of the Stars find iStrijies. when conditions 'in their, own hind rendered it unlit to live in, anil thev had to quit their native home ami cross the. Atlantic to the United States, where they were warmly received, and they have'thrived and prospered in the country of their adoption; but they were given very little gold. Did we then get luring headlines in the newspapers and cable advices explanatory of why this enormous emigration to Ireland was going on? Knowing from whom these cables receive their birth, the wellinformed Irishman knows how mueli reliance to place upon them, and takes them with the pryjerbial gram of salt. 'He has fathomed them in the' past, and they will not

stand tlw light of day. Put however that may be these lying messages <lo serve a purpose, and that is to exp'ode the feelings of the Irish race and its descendants. .Somi l of our newspapers are dreadfully eon.erned about Ireland, and they devote leading articles condemning her for this and that, despite the fact that she lias a quarter of a million with the colors, and this alter she 'luis la-en depopulated so much ' as mentioned above. Surely when her I leave sons are dving to the death on I the tbaftleliehls of Kurops for the cher- | .islied liberty of the British race, surely when we remember that in Britain's bat- ' ties of the past the valiant sons oi' Irej land have courted death on every hand, ■and have done their share so that we illicit live unfettered bv the tryiinny and (1 cspotit- 1 ni of some foreign Power, and enjoy a common freedom, surely tlii'ii Ireland might reasonably expect some consideration for her many sacrifices. With her brilliant generals and her brave soldier boys, has she not ably assisted in the fight for right? It would appear that all she has done through the centuries Ims not gained for her the respect and fair representation'that she ia justly entitled to. On the contrary, we lind men even in this enlightened'age, who nurture hitter feelings in their breasts for Ireland, and the many shameful vaibk'9 we are introduced to bear this out very well. Our earth is of Mrge dimensions and Ireland is only a small spot 011 the great planet, so let Ireland's traducers vary things a little and turn their attention to sonic other country, and if they go into the thing in earnest they will surely find elsewhere •plenty of scope for their energies.—l am, etc., PATRIOTIC lEISTIMAX. Stratford, June 2S, 1015. I