THE ARMY, THE KING,, AND THE IRISH QUESTION

New Zealand Tablet, 29 May 1919, Page 21

THE ARMY, THE KING,, AND THE IRISH QUESTION

A somewhat remarkable petition has been presented during the past week to the King asking his assistance towards having Ireland’s claim for selfgovernment laid, before the Peace Conference (says the (j las ;/o tr 'Observer of March 15). The petition has been signed and presented by a group of Army ' officers ho have taken part, many of r ,: them a notable and distinguished part, in the war. Iwo generals, three colonels, seven majors, 42 captains, and twice that number of officers of minor rank, some demobilised and some still serving with the colors, and all of them claiming to represent ‘‘a very large majority of the fighters of Irish birth and Irish blood in the. Allied forces,” ask the King's assistance towards the furthering of an Irish settlement. We fear that petition will prove a vain one. The King is not a Home Ruler, so far as can be gathered. He hgs not the Irish sympathies of his father, and the statement attributed to him regarding the Sinn Rein insurgents that ‘‘they ought all to be shot” would go to show that the sympathy of the Sovereign is Avith the disloyal Carsonite rump which threatened to transfer its allegiance to the Kaiser rather than with the well-disposed bulk of the Irish people w 7 ho—at any rate prior to the Maxw r ell massacres —were willing to promote, accept, and adopt an international settlement which would leave Ireland a self-governing unity within the Empire. : ' 0 The King is reminded that 200,000 fighting men volunteered; from " Ireland for service in the Avar,, and that at least an equal number 7 ere furnished by voluntary enlistment in Great Britain, while from the Dominions the voluntary enlistment of Irish soldiers is something which even the Honors Lists of the Colonial forces adequately attest. It is indicated that the petition has been signed by the widows of William Redmond and. Thomas Kettle, another of the signatories being , General Hickie, 7 ho commands the 16th Division. The, petition reminds the King that the Ho ne Rule Act, a great pact of international appeasement,” was ratified when the Avar began. While quite respectful in, its, terms, the petition does not mince matters in its’statement of fact-

‘‘The petition urges that, in virtue of her efforts and sacrifices in the battlefield, as well as the intrinsic merits of her cause, Ireland is entitled to benefit from the victorious assertion of those great principles which she has given of-her life blood to maintain. . . . Victory over the Central Powers has now happily been achieved, but we Irishmen upon our return home find cause; for deep dissatisfaction. Ireland has been told by certain of your Majesty’s responsible Ministers that she shall not have the Home Rule which the Imperial Parliament enacted for her unless she assents to the permanent amputation, of a portion of a province. . . .

In our opinion Ireland as a nation has been robbed of her treaty rights, and the Irish people as a race reduced to the position' of helots by, the withholding of that which, jin : virtue of -Theircitizenship, they .had won by - t constitutional ..action. . . ;We respectfully pray, therefore,-that Ireland’s claim' may -be referred to the Peace Congressjepft^h.iqh:| the- President of the

hiench Republic in his opening address described tlm objects as v ‘nothing. but justice, justice that has no favorites, justice in territorial problems, justice in financial problems, justice in economic problems,’'' and whose 'task- 11 ‘to remake : the map of the world ... in .the name of the peoples’ on condition that it ‘shill faithfully interpret their thoughts and respect the hight of nations, sin all and great, to dispose of themselves and reconcile it with the right, equally sacred, of ethnical and religious minorities.’ ... We " pray your Majesty that the long agony of Ireland may thus be at length assuaged, and that her future destiny may be moulded by the application of those great principles which we, as Ireland’s devoted sons and humble representatives, and as portion of your Majesty’s armed forces, have aided in enthroning upon the judgment seat of human civilisation.” .; ■ r.: I _lt is unlikely that the petition will have much, if, indeed, any, effect. After all, the Government in powder is essentially a Unionist Government. (Its puppet Premier is obliged**!© send out letters of support to Unionist -candidates in current by-elections.) It exists to uphold, maintain, and apply the views, principles, and desires of the Unionist Party, which is its master. It is therefore hopeless to look for Home Rule from such a source: Nothing but the force of American pressure or of physical necessity w 7 ould compel such a Government to grant Home Rule" or even to refer the settlement of the Irish difficulty to the Peace Conference. Irish self-government must be won in one of two ways. The continuance of British government in Ireland would have to be made impossible, or the Unionist Ministry which perpetuates British misgovernment in Ireland would have to be displaced. ■ Our view all along, repeatedly expressed, has been that the British Government will endeavor to play, a dilatory game, to ‘‘keep President Wilson in good humor” till the Peace Conference is over. And that thereafter it will implacably adhere to its support of ascendancy, in Ireland until the strength of Ireland’s resistance to such ascendancy makes its continuance impossible. On the other hand, the advent of a Labor Government in Britain would probably save conflict, disruption, and that danger to the British Empire which never ceases so long as Ireland remains justly dissatisfied and profoundly disaffected as it is now.