IRISH AFFAIRS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 May 1911, Page 808

IRISH AFFAIRS

THE IRISH LEADER REPLIES TO TORY CHARGES

On the House of Commons going into Committee of Supply on March 8 Ulster Unionist members moved a reduction of the vote for law charges in Ireland, and accused the Irish people of all sorts of crimes. Mr. John Redmond in replying expressed the hope that the committee would take notice, and that the public outside would take notice, of the true meaning of the speeches that had been made. They were approaching a time when matters of most grave importance to Ireland would be submitted to the decision of the English people, and a campaign was being engineered by those who were opposed to the concession of liberty to Ireland to blacken the name of Ireland and to misrepresent the action of her people. The meaning of the speeches to which they had listened that afternoonand they had two evident meanings and motiveswas, first, to show that there had been an unfortunate recrudescence of religious animosity in Ireland, and, second, to show that there had been a recrudescence of violence and crime in Ireland. There had, on the contrary, been no recrudescence of religious animosity and hatred, but the effect of speeches such as those to which they had listened might be to lead to such recrudescence, and he hoped the motive of those speeches was not to lead to that effect. He believed that those who were opponents to Irish freedom thought that THEIR ONLY CHANCE of inducing the British people to take an unfavorable view of the proposals to be made would be by inducing them to believe that religious animosity was becoming so acute again that it would be dangerous to trust the Irish people. That was the meaning of the speech of Sir Edward Carson, and it was always the meaning of the speeches of Mr. Mobre, whose whole object in this House seemed to be the endeavor to show that the Irish people were really a race of uncivilised savages, fighting with one another for the love of God, and tearing each other to pieces for religious objects. A more ignoble mission was never undertaken by those who were engaged in the campaign of calumny of Ireland which they hoped would prevent her obtaining freedom in the near future. They would fail in that campaign. So far from there being a recrudescence of religious animosity and hatred in the country, religious hatreds which had been the disgrace of Ireland in the past were softening and disappearing, and so far as those who sat on the Nationalist benches were concerned, they had said, and would say, nothing which would lead to a renewal of those religious discords. Who was it who constantly in this House talked of the iniquities of the Catholics? Was it not hon. gentlemen above the gangway? The Nationalists had never attacked the Protestants by assaults or riots of any kind. They had remained very often silent rather than challenge such attacks. He believed these RELIGIOUS DISCORDS WERE DISAPPEARING in Ireland, and with all his heart and soul he hoped the object which those gentlemen had in view, to influence religious discords in Ireland, would fail, and that they would find Ireland in the near future. just as they found in Quebec, where the majority- was Catholic, a Protestant

minority dwelling in their midst with their rights and liberties safeguarded and their persons and property projected, and living with overwhelming goodwill with their Catholic neighbors. The second object of those speeches was to show that Ireland was the scene of violence, disorder, and crime. Lord Castlereagh ought to hesitate before he adopted the role which he seemed to have taken up. He did not wish to say anything that could be taken as personally offensive to the noble lord, but Lord Castlereagh bore a name associated with deadly crime in Ireland—a name associated with the vilest crime committed against the nation, and his descendant and namesake should shrink from adopting the rple he now appeared to be going to take up. The noble lord never lost an opportunity, in season and out of season, of attacking his country and saying something to its discredit. That came badly from any man calling himself an Irishman. It was an ignoble role to take up, and he was afraid that role was hereditary. Lord Castlereagh was trying to create an impression that there was crime and outrage in Ireland. He had said there was murder in broad daylight. Was there any country in the world in which murder did not occur? How many murders occurred in England? When last discussing this question, he quoted the cases of murder, attempted murder, violence, and outrage, aud showed that they were TENFOLD IN ENGLAND what they were in Ireland, as was also the case of every crime. A murder was committed recently in Ireland, a deplorable one, which attracted a great deal of interest and caused some sensation in this country. There had not been one before for many years, yet one murder caused more sensation owing to the methods of gentlemen above the gangway and other people than scores of murders in this country. He deplored crime and outrage from his heart. He deplored it even more than the noble lord. The noble lord had everything to gain from murder and outrage in Ireland. The Nationalists had everything to lose. They knew that, and every influence they had 'at their command was used, and would be used, to prevent anything of the sort. Ireland was in a state of profound peace, far more so than she was when ' twenty years of resolute government' was in operation. The noble lord's complaint was this, that the Executive Government in Ireland did not administer the law fairly and with a firm hand, but when he had his own firm hand and his ' resolute government for twenty years' I say that those twenty years of coercion in Ireland were marked with crime in England of ten times the amount which existed in Ireland. Only the other day—within the last three or four weeks — criminal statistics of Great Britain were published, with the report of the Commissioners, and what did they say Why that, unfortunately, for the last ten years, there had been a large and progressive increase in every kind of violent crime in England, and they went on to consider what they thought were the causes which led to the increase. Of criminal statistics last published in Ireland there has been a decrease in these crimes, everyone of them and it was a monstrous perversion of the truth to suggest to the committee that Ireland was not in a state of absolute crimelessness as compared with any other part of Britain. There was a good spirit abroad in Ireland to-day, a spirit full of hope. That spirit was leading to the softening of religious hatred and discord and was leading to the maintenance of peace; and his part and that of his friends would be to promote that spirit, to promote religious tolerance and good feeling and peacefulness, and to put down violence and crime in every way. The spirit they desired in Ireland was one of hope —hope that the future administration of the law would be viewed with greater confidence by the mass of the people of the country, without which it could not be, in Ireland or in any other part of the world, either effective or respected. AN AGRARIAN REVOLUTION. Mr. Birrell.—ln all' the judges' charges here there are Meath, Waterford, Limerick, South Tipperary, Longford, and Monaghan. I did not come here prepared to meet the charge which has been raised; but I would ask the noble lord generally to read these reports, and ask himself whether on the whole he does not think that they represent the country as being in a very satisfactory and a growingly satisfactory condition. There is one point I would like to make. There are, of course, in parts of Ireland, arising out of the operation of the Land Acts, offences such as boycotting, firing at the person, and firing into houses, which, of course, show a lamentable and very sad state of things; but I. do ask hon. members to remember that we are trying in Ireland, and have been for many years, an extraordinary agrarian revolution and experiment. The whole of the agricultural land of Ireland is in the market. Everybody knows that it has got to be sold, and sold to the tenants in every village and district in Ireland. The lands are to be divided among a land-loving and landhungering people, who have lived for years looking forward to the time when they would have a bit of land of their own, and, it may be, have been thinking out what particular bit of land it is to be. All these things you have done, and you have placed British credit at their disposal for the purpose of allowing them to be done. I ask you to put yourselves who know village life in England—where the land hunger is by no means what it is in Ireland—what would happen? Can you suppose that titer*

would not be boycotting? I know perfectly well that if the land of Lancashire was to be sold to the tenants, and the untenanted land would be divided among the poor people in that neighbourhood, I say you could not carry out an agrarian revolution of that kind without a great deal of trouble and disturbance. I cannot think that the Irish people have behaved worse than other people ' would do in the circumstances. I think, having regard to their past history, they have behaved far better than any rational statesman would have thought possibie. There have been crimes and outrages, local jealousies, local disputes, and local unhappiness with regard to the manner in which the Estates Commissioners have divided the lands between these people. As soon as the difficulty is got- overl am sorry that any financial reason should make land purchase go slower than it was previously doing l believe that Ireland will be not only what it is at the present moment, as compared with England, a comparatively crimeless country, but when these troubles and disturbances are removed from the mind of a land-loving and excitable peasantry, you will find the state of Ireland an enormous credit to your Empire.