ARCHBISHOP MANNIX

New Zealand Tablet, 12 June 1919, Page 30

ARCHBISHOP MANNIX

A NOTABLE ADDRESS AT CASTLEMAINE. His Grace the Most Rev., Dr. Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne, was accorded a, magnificent reception recently, on the occasion of his visit to Castlemaine to open St. Mary’s new hall (says th Tribune of May 15). The audience rose and cheered lustily as the Archbishop lose to address the gathering. He said he was very glad to find himself back again in Castlemaine, especially as he- was getting better treatment than he got on another occasion. Then he could not get into an 7 public hall. Now they had a hall of their own— St. Mary s Hall, or “Liberty Hall,” as he might call A the finest hall in Castlemaine; and, moreover, they had the gracious permission from “the .council to take over’ all the thoroughfares of Castlemaine for their great demonstration. That was a great change for Castle-maine—-and he hoped it would continue. It was said that the election of their hall, which reflected so much credit upon the pastor and his generous people, was really due to the senseless opposition of a section in Castlemaine. If so, Catholics were grateful to them, and they would repay them by giving them the use of this fine hall for any legitimate purpose whenever they had an audience to fill it. When he was her© before the people were asked to believe that he was an enemy of Australia and of the Empire ; that he had betrayed the Australian soldiers ; and that his mission to Australia was to foment sectarian strife and set up Rome rule in the Commonwealth. He knew that the vast body of non-Catholics did not believe these things. He had ample proof of that. But he would not dwell upon the matter just now. He would just read a letter received within the past few days from a Protestant soldier who had been, as he said, ploughing the battlefields of Europe for lour years. The writer was not an Irishman, nor was he of Irish descent, and had no connection with Ireland, but whilst on furlough he visited Ireland. He writes :

“Permit me to convey to you my appreciation of your attitude during the conscription campaign in Australia in 1911, and your logical utterances as a citizen of the Commonwealth who should win from Australian democracy the warmest appreciation. I am not a Catholic. I have been ‘ploughing’ up the battlefields of France during the past four years. . . . The military authorities forbid the Australian soldier's to take their furlough in Ireland. Ireland and Scotland are easily first favorites for the members of the Australian and American forces.” You would think, when reading the newspapers here sometimes, that it would take all the police in Castlemaine to separate the Australians from the Englishmen. They made it appear that they were falling upon each other’s necks. That is not the view of this Australian Protestant soldier, and he makes no secret of it. He goes on : “It is just possible that, in the view of the military authorities, we were becoming too sympathetic with the aims and national aspirations of the Irish people. I hope to see the day when in sunny Australia there will be the same democratic ideals that I have discovered in Ireland.” , ;

Concluding the letter, the soldier said ; “Briefly, I have given my impressions of your own country. I have no interest whatever in it, except that I am actuated by a sense of justice for'one of the small nations for which we were .told~ : we were fighting.” Continuing, his Grace said, the soldier signs his number and his name, and gives-His Australian address, and adds:—/ adtfnfcO'atoll

“You will please observe that’’owing to military discipline, my name,:-. for the .present'at all events, may not ,be made, public.^ / That, said his Grace, "was only onepL,many, letters he had . received: from time to time’ from people who did not belong to his Church—from people who could ;

not be charged with being bigoted Catholics and 1 harebrained Irishmen. In : the face of so much public criticism, he sometimes was 1 tempted to ask who he was" He did - not know whether he was an Irishman ? ■an Australian, or an Austrian'. In certain camps theprevailing theory was that he was an Austrian. ’lt might be well for him if he were an Austrian or a Hungarian. The Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs were great favorites at present. * l! ' '' 6 The Archbishop dealt at length with his attitude during the war, and contended that all, or most, of his statements had been justified by events. ' ' Continuing, his Grace said he was not a politician, nor did he have any desire to be one neither was he an orator or a poet, but had at all times tried to speak the truth on subjects, as it seemed to him, and he had succeeded in speaking the truth, for many of his statements had already been verified, and if they lived long enough they would see them all verified. It was learned that there were 25,000 honors to be conferred by the British King, and if that were so it would be hard to escape one of 1 them. If they were to be conferred upon people for speaking the truth, then he (Dr. Mannix) would claim one of them. There were some people, he said, who picked up the Age and the Argus, and believed absolutely everything that was printed therein. I hey had no more intelligence or discrimination than a sheet of blotting paper. Even when the letter had gone to the fire or to the waste-paper basket, the writing was still on the blotting paper. The Age and the Argus, with the wrangling of the Peace Conference befoie them, would be ashamed to repeat all they wrote about the “little nations,” and making the world “safe for democracy” and the pure, lofty ideals of the Allies. But, their dupes, the human sheets of blotting paper, still repeat the' brave things said at the beginning of flio war. ~ °

Speaking of the situation in Ireland, he said; Ireland had always been the most crimeless country in Europe. If Australian people had put up with the same treatment as the Irish people, there would not be one rebellion in a generation, but one and only one rebellion, because they would settle the matter for all time. “As for ourselves at home,” quoted the Archbishop from a letter he had just received from Ireland, we are pounded into cinders by British oppression. Soldiers are everywhere. The gaols are full, and in these gaols the young fellows are treated in the most horrible and abominable manner.” Fancy 100 of these Irish boys in Belfast Gaol, handcuffed day and night for the last eight weeks—these handcuffs never taken off even for the purposes of nature’s functions(cries of “Shame”)these men never left out of their “cells.” They might talk about the Armenian and Turkish atrocities as long as they liked, but they could not beat that the world over. The writer of the letter concluded that the “determination of the Irish people was fixed, and they would yet succeed, and get the free government that Australia had.”

People say why does Dr. Mannix constantly harp on these things. He would perhaps say less about them if the metropolitan - dailies' did not systematically defame his country/ They told their readers that Ireland had 1 no grievance at the present time; " that Ireland was the “spoiled child of the Empire,” Yes, blit they tell nothing about the infamies now being perpetrated in Belfast Gaol under the shadow of the Union Jack, They are silly enough to think, or to pretend to think,'' that they can make people loyal by displaying the Union Jack at, every ' corner and’ waving it in every / procession. No doubt ; the Englishman, ; the Scotchman, the Welshman, and the Australian may look upon the flag as a symbol of the freedom they enjoy; but when an Irishman looked upon the flag it did not remind him of freedom, but of oppression. It did not remind him of justice, but of injustice. He wished the flag well in. any place in which it ought to be. But there was no welcome" and no room for it in Ireland. - Of course - he would be accused of -holding extreme views and of having no good i word or kind . thought of England. Why, honest

Englishmen have not a. word. to say in their .own . defence. 4 One of their most >• prominent; and - respected ' politicians, writing forg Englishmen in ; .an £l English re- . view, writes* as follows:“M. Clemenceau has declared;, that the Peace Conference will listen to all the little nations who before this August .tribunal must make good their. claims to nationhood. _ Ireland will be there excluded from, inside, yet always knocking at the door. The deepest prison cannot exclude consciousness of her presence; with a demand from more than three-quarters of the inhabitants of that little island, and twenty millions of Irish descent scattered throughout America and the Dominions. If, under the remodelling of the world out of its present chaos, they may give nationhood to Jugo-Slavs, with large alien minorities, who will hate their rule, or give self-government to Czechoslovaks, with far greater national minorities than any proportion in Ireland, and if nothing is done, towards self-government for Ireland, the British delegates may emerge with the loot of German colonies, and the possible promise of gigantic indemnities, but they will emerge also with the deepening of the accepted tradition' of British hypocrisy amid the contempt of the civilised world.” He (Dr. Mannix) could not say anything stronger than that. His own contempt for British hypocrisy could not add much to “the contempt of the civilised world,” but with ail his soul ho made his contribution to the world-wide execration in which this English writer says that his country will be held if justice be still denied to Ireland. lie thanked them all, the people of Castlemaine and the district far and wide and the people of Bendigo, for the magnificent demonstration of that day : and once again -he congratulated Father O’Farrell and his people in the erection of St. Mary’s all, a monument o their generosity and of their fixed resolve to assert their legitimate rights in Australia. The proceedings terminated with the singing of “God Save Ireland.”