IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 28 July 1921, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

ENGLISH BISHOPS AND IRELAND: PRAYER FOR UNDERSTANDING. From the London Tablet we extract the text of the following joint letter from the Bishops to the clergy and people which has been, read in the churches throughout England and Wales: We have repeatedly during the past year called upon our people to unite in.fervent prayer for the Divine Guidance that a true, just, and lasting understanding may be established between the sister countries of England and Ireland. Such supplication is needed more than ever at the present moment: events are daily occurring which perplex and shock the public conscience of both nations. We desire,> therefore, that during the coming month of May your intercession be renewed, that God may be pleased to hear our repeated prayers. It is our wish that in every church throughout England and Wales the Rosary be recited for this intention. In many of our large churches it may be possible to arrange for an almost continuous recitation of the Rosary during the day. With the ready help of the religious communities, many of which are devoted to perpetual adoration, it will probably be possible to maintain a succession of prayer even during the night. .We earnestly call upon our clergy and people to unite their Masses, Holy Communions, and private'prayers with this intercession, whereby we desire to proclaim our unfailing trust in God and our deep sympathy with all those who are personally affected by the present lamentable condition of public affairs. Francis Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster; Edward, Administrator Apostolic of Birmingham; Francis, Archbishop of Cardiff and Administrator Apostolic of Menevia : Richard. Bishop of Middlesborough; George Ambrose, Bishop of Clifton; Louis Charles, Bishop of Salford; Peter, Bishop of Southwark; William, Bishop of Portsmouth; Richard, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle; Joseph Robert, Bishop of Leeds: Frederick William, Bishop of Northampton ; Hugh, Bishop of Shrewsbury; John, Bishop of Plymouth; Thomas, Bishop of Nottingham; Arthur, Bishop of Brentwood; AVilliam Pinnington, Vicar Capitular of Liverpool.

ARCHBISHOP MANNIX: IRISH HIERARCHY'S ADDRESS. The following is a copy of an address recently presented to Archbishop Mannix on behalf of the Irish Hierarchy. Bishop Fogarty read the address: "Beloved and venerated brother in Christ, — "We, the Cardinal, Archbishops, and Bishops of Ireland, had cherished the hope of giving your Grace a warm welcome to your native land, and of marking our appreciation of your spiritual work, which has reflected an additional glory on the Church of St. Patrick. "With pride and pleasure we have watched your triumphant vindication by the citizens of your adapted country in a struggle that has won you world-wide fame. "The Irish people are deeply grateful for your splendid pronouncements in favor of our national rights. "As you have always carefully insisted, these pronouncements are not the outcome of hatred of the British people or of the British Empire. You have been inspired solely by the love of justice, and it would be a blessing for the Empire as well as for Ireland if British politicians could bring, themselves to your broad and statesmanlike views on the Irish question.

"They have chosen rather to insult and pursue you with petty tyranny unworthy of the rulers of a great Empire. "You were captured like a criminal on the high seas and rigorously excluded from visiting your aged mother and the land of your birth.

"Not Catholics alone, but we believe fair-minded men of every shade of religious and political thought, resent this gross indignity to an illustrious Archbishop whose only crime has been an unflinching exposition of truth. "We have waited patiently for months in the hope that

the British Government would recognise the folly, as well as th« impropriety, of its action. '

"We have been disappointed, and we hereby renew our indignant protest against the treatment to which you have been subjected.

"You have had already won the paternal sympathy of our Holy Father, and we give you the assurance that you bring back with you to Australia in increased measure the admiration and love of your countrymen throughout the world, and especially your episcopal brethren in Ireland, who have long known and appreciated your worth."

AMERICAN COMMISSION ON IRELAND. COMMENT OF THE NEW YORK NATION. The British Embassy is sure that the report of the American Commission on Ireland is biassed and misleading, and the charge is echoed by some of our wiseacres of the daily press, says the New York Nation. The New York Evening Post feels, for instance, that the language of the report is not judicial, and is too bitter. Very well. But what have they to say to this passage on Ireland from a loyal British weekly, the London Nation?

"There may have been a time when Ministers believed honestly that they were trying to put down a murder gang. At this moment they know perfectly well that the obstacle to their power is not the wickedness of Irishmen, but the virtues of the Irish people. By blunders, by blindness, by crimes, they have brought the two peoples into this grim and terrible tragedy— conflict, not between order and crime, but between power and justice. The offence alleged against Ireland is that of encouraging and inciting the armed servants of the Crown to take the law into their own hands. The Prime Minister cannot deny this amazing charge; he has to sit silent when it is pressed in the House of Commons. To-day, Ireland is full of stories of the personal behaviour of these men, of murders and tortures of which they have been guilty. We have an illustration of their code of morality in the conduct of 13 cadets who watched their comrades bully and insult and finally kill an old priest of 73. These brutalities lasted a quarter of an hour, during which time these 13 honorable and courageous men— as Sir Hamar Greenwood tells us, for their bravery in battle—watched the consummation of this cowardly murder. Such is their code and such is the code of their masters."

If it be objected that the London Nation is a chronic "kicker," let us turn to the Tory London Times. It allows Mr. Arthur Vincent to say in its columns that "under the mask of enforcing law and order every canon of civilisation, has been broken." That is precisely the finding of the American Commission to which Sir Auckland Geddes objects, and which the Evening Post criticises. Meanwhile, it is gratifying to note that the Tribune's correspondent cables that the result of the printing of the American reports in Ireland, and of President Harding's endorsement of Irish relief, has been "to force the issue and drive the Government to a more satisfactory position." This alone justifies the American report.