The New Zealand THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1915. IRELAND AND THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 3 June 1915, Page 33

The New Zealand THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1915. IRELAND AND THE WAR

F all New. Zealand papers, the Christchurch (uOillll l J,ess stands out as consistently remarkable ' for the smallness of its outlook and the pettiness of its views where matters confix nected with Ireland and Irish national questions are concerned. On these **&<& subjects the paper has neither princi- ™ pies nor opinions—it has only prejudices. So far as British politics are concerned, it is the representative of that party which John Stuart Mill described, in a sobriquet which clung to it for years afterwards, as ' the stupid party ' —the party which never learns and never forgets. After forty years' experience of the free and broad democracy which this self-governing Dominion enjoys, it might have been expected that even the most reactionary of journals would have acquired some little enlargement of its horizon, and some slight touch of the tolerant and progressive spirit which is one of the most marked and valuable developments of our time. But crude and ingrained prejudices are hard to kill ; and so far as the large historic political questions are concerned, the- Press of to-day stands precisely where it did in the fossil days of long ago. It is still the stereotyped exponent of ' the stupid party.' In . its issue of Saturday, under the heading of Ireland, and the War,' its editorial columns find place for one of the meanest articles which we have, ever seen in any reputable paper in this country. Seizing on the circumstance that Mr. Redmond has deemed it advisable not to accept a position in the ' omnium gatherum ' ministry which is being formed, the paper attempts to read into this fact an intimation on Mr. Redmond's part that the Nationalist Party, as a party, does not ' share the common feeling of bis Majesty's subjects throughout the Empire ' ; and the meanness of the article lies in its cold-blooded and deliberate suppression of the truth, and its consequent deliberate. and unscrupulous suggestion of the false. So far as we in this country are aware, Mr. Redmond has as yet made no public statement of his reasons for declining appointment in the Coalition Ministry. It may be that like the London Times he looks upon the procedure as,.'a grave experiment ' : it may even be that, like our humble selves, he shares the time-worn and wellgrounded prejudice against having a superfluity of cooks to look after the broth. It is a common-place - with men of affairs that huge administrative' bodies are invariably unwieldy and ineffective. But whatever his reasons may have been, the one thing that is absolutely certain is that they have no relation to any lack of imperial patriotism on his part, or to any want of the most whole-hearted desire to help the Empire in her

hour of .need. No man in Britain, no man in the Empire, has rendered finer service in the cause of recruiting than Mr. Redmond ; and his magnificent work in this direction might well have deterred even the bitterest and most hide-bound partisan from lightly taking up the pen to carp and cavil at him. * In elaborating its attack on Mr. Redmond, the Press refers to the fact that at the Convention of the Irish National Volunteers in Dublin on Easter Monday, the Irish Leader, commenting on the parade of some 25,000 men which had taken place the previous day, described it as a demonstration of ' magnificent material for voluntary service at home,' and suggested that, if the War Office accepted these men for home defence, 20,000 regular troops would be released for the front. The Press, ignoring the fact that enlistment for home defence is taking place in every part of the Empire except Ireland, professes to see an unpatriotic significance in these remarks; and it is here that the Christchurch paper's discreditable policy of suppression is most glaringly in evidence. What are the facts? The 25,000 men who paraded before the Irish Leader are only a moiety of the Volunteer body: the rest are already at the front. Of the 25,000, according to Irish papers, two-thirds were rural dwellers--sole holders and workers of Ireland's farm lands. Mr. Redmond was careful to explain that these men were so situated that they could not leave home, and that it was solely on that ground that he made the generous, sensible, and thoroughly patriotic suggestion that they should take the place of the men who are at present garrisoning Ireland. lie was careful also to emphasise what- he has again and again pointed out — that the first duty of all Irishmen who were free was to join the color's; and he proceeded to show that Ireland had already responded nobly to the call —in greater numbers, in point of fact, in proportion to her men of military age, than any other portion of the Empire. His remarks on this head are so weighty that we make no apology for quoting them at length. " 1 say if Ireland gave any other answer than she gave when faced with the present danger she would have covered herself with contempt. Well, Ireland has given a magnificent answer. (Cheers.) I could not help being deeply moved on Sunday when we had twenty or twenty-five thousand young Irishmen marching in the ranks of the Volunteers, and especially when I remembered that every man of them had a colleague or comrade serving with the colors. (Cheers.) 1 have official figures here, and 25,000 National Volunteers are to-day with the colors. I am told that there are about the same number of "Ulster Volunteers.. That would mean that there are 50,000 Irish Volunteersand why should we draw any distinction between them ? There are 50,000 Irish Volunteers to-day with the colors, and we know that, taking into account the number of men who were in the Army before the war started and the number of men who had joined the Army since the war started and not enrolled Volunteers, / know, from ■figures supplied by the Government, that Inland herself has over 100,000 Irishmen with the colors, and I know, further, that, taking into account the. Irish race — and we have a right to speak for the Irish race as well as for the Volunteers —I say that, taking the nation as a whole, Ireland has a quarter of a million men vindicating the principles of right, justice, and nationality. (Cheers.) So far as heroism in the field is concerned, Ireland, if she never struck another blow in the war, could for all time hold up her head with honor. (Cheers.) But there is heroism at home as. well as patriotism, and the Volunteers and Irishmen generally who cannot go to the front for various reasons which we all understand, and which, mark you, operate just as much in Great Britain as in Ireland—lrishmen who are not Volunteers and also Volunteers who cannot. go to the front, can do great and heroic services at home.' That is, as we have said, common sense and sound patriotism. These facts, and these expressions of patriotic sentiment on the part of Mr. Redmond, were all before the Press writer as he wrote; yet he has deliberately suppressed even the most distant allusion to

them. . The Press contends that as the British Navy keeps Ireland free from invasion, these 25,000 men are not required for home defence. The retort is obvious? If that is so, the thousands of skilled and trained soldiers who are at present garrisoning Ireland are employed on work that is not necessary, and their place is clearly at the front. Mr. Redmond's statesmanlike and practical offer gives the War Office a feasible and excellent opportunity for sending them there. * The Press is displaying a very poor quality of patriotism, and a very poor sense of public spirit and civic duty, in thus railing and girding at the man who, at a time when he could have seriously embarrassed England, threw the whole weight of his influence on the side of national service. If the paper is really anxious to develop a proper spirit of patriotism in the Empire there are many directions in which it may find scope for its energies. It may have a word of admonition to offer to its particular friend, Sir Edward Carson, who but lately was hobnobbing with the Kaiser, and drilling troops for the express purpose of fighting his Majesty's forces and drenching Ireland with blood. It may devote some attention to that son of an earl and responsible headmaster of an English public school who has been preaching the highly patriotic duty of ' not humiliating ' the heroes of Reims and Louvain, and of the Falaba and the Lusitania. It may have something to say to those sections of Englishmen who prefer drink to duty, and who are shirking their country's call to such an extent as to evoke a widespread and insistent demand for compulsory service. When it has settled scores with these worthies, it will probably be too tired —or too wise—to waste its time in recrimination and abuse of those who are giving their best blood for the Empire, and making glad and willing sacrifice in what they believe to be a just and holy cause.