IRELAND, ONCE AGAIN

New Zealand Tablet, 10 April 1919, Page 34

IRELAND, ONCE AGAIN

The Irish problem has taken a new and vexed turn, not through Ireland’s fault, bub through England’s perversity in not approving of an act which Great Britain herself bade the Irish perform (says America). And the strange part of the present tangle is, that this is the first time in centuries that Erin has done Britain’s bidding, and yet Britain is not only sulking over it, but is actually threatening dire reprisals, in the form of many a pound of Irish flesh and a river or two of Irish blood. What can be the matter with Great Britain ? Surely, she is sincere, at least now, in this terrible crisis in which her very existence is threatened. Have the horrors of war blunted her keen sense of justice or dried up the fountain of her exquisite humor? For four years and more she exhorted and even prodded Ireland to action, and now, to the amazement of the multitude, she is angry that Ireland has fulfilled her behests. The very last pre-war sentence that England spoke, was a protestation that the consideration which made her jump to arms was the freedom of small nations. But Ireland has won freedom, has obtained that for which England declared she sacrificed men and money beyond counting. Why then does England sulk and threaten? Was she sincere four years ago? And during the course of the war Great Britain protested to all the world that she was fighting for the freedom of small nations and would end the war the instant she was convinced that the aforesaid nations were safe in the possession of liberty. Ireland is safe in the possession of liberty ; rather, Ireland would be safe in such possession, if Great Britain, the nation which waged Avar that small nations might be free, would let her alone. What is the matter with England? Surely she is not hypocritical, especially now when the Bolsheviki are ready to submerge her. Yet there are her words and there are her acts, and they are contradictory. The fact of the matter is, England is playing the most dangerous game of her history. Heretofore she tried to fool the poor, oppressed Irish only, now she is striving to fool the world, and the world will not be fooled. Jaws are set in the United States, Canada, Ireland, England, and Avherever the great issue is understood. And that issue is: the war was fought for democracy and democracy must be extended to Ireland too. The sooner Great Britain stops her acting and becomes honest, the better for the Avorld, but for herself especially, for she is nearing the brink of a precipice, a fact she would do well to recognise before it is too late.