Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 11 August 1921, Page 14

Current Topics

Result of Irish Elections The Publicity Department of Sinn Fein has now issued an analysis of the Irish election returns. It reveals how successful the gerrymandering in Ulster has been. The Republicans polled thirty-three per cent, of the votes for the so-called Ulster Parliament while they obtained only twenty-three per cent, of the seats. In Belfast they polled twenty-three per cent, and obtained only six .per cent. of the seats. In all Ulster the Unionists polled fifty - three per cent., which makes it appear that there is a Unionist majority of six per cent, for Ulster. For all Ireland the Republicans polled eighty per cent, and the Unionists twenty. We have previously related in what manner and by what means the Unionist majority was obtained. Notwithstanding murder and personation and fraud of various kinds eighty per cent, of Irishmen have declared for a Republic. Read that fact in view of the recent ruling of the Commission of the League of Nations which declared that a minority was not justified in demanding to be cut off from the whole state. ,Of course the minority was in Aaland and not in Orange Ulster.

The King in Ulster The following comment of the New Witness on the King’s visit to Ulster is worth while reading* . The decision to send the King to Belfast is a most disastrous blow to all the best that remains in the ancient tradition of the British monarchy. We 1 pay no attention to politicians when they claim to be above party, but there did remain a real and honorable meaning in the King being above politics. The monarchy was popular because it was not powerful; and therefore could not be blamed for the present incessant and infamous abuse of power. Englishmen naturally wish for some symbol of the fact that they love their country while they loathe their government; and found in it a symbolic social figure who admittedly did not govern He was cheered by the people, because he was almost certainly not the author of the latest social reform or dema^ 6Xpe ™ ent in . efficiency. The money and demand for such things might come from the ends of be earth, and' from - the off-scourings of the earth, from him was very , improbable that they came from him. He therefore refreshed us with the ritual ©appearance of one normal and decent English gentle now’/"™ thr" ° f C ° rr ? t and i-ompetlt cads who Anythin? that f ve ™ ment of every capitalist society. smnethin? r ? h ™ lnto P arfc y pobtics lowers him thinTfW g ™ loW ,f , than P art y politics, the horrible nmg that m now called practical politics. It is hardlv the BeS to rf 6W . ith W-ho doe, not see tilt the Belfast visit does drag him into party politics If t sIS Pa !'r ent first ’ - about ne same time, it might not have been so bad, even if Lb fwT T lneffecfcive Parliament. It is not his ault that he has not; but it is certainly his misfortune him v^h^he T t ds ar fi ply „ i46ntfies aIHeS him with the Orange bigot™ °oM} if SpeC . ially allies Catholic subiects fncla|°n7thL > a g all his remain his %ar s ubtu ng The 05 ? ‘ ,U manage to naturally be delighted • and ” sh P®P u bhcans will politicians do not care* what ha ■’**■ "S lish monarchy, or to any^ther^nglish^hing* 0 the En g llsh

Palestine

oursfwho' recently''wTa" "*** * friend ° f his opinion that thorn wao 7 ' ' Clemenceau expressed Of the Jewi*“oZS P rcsumabl y that Government. ,In n 0 t w nd the present British mmsh: BXrnmtm as

Christian people by appointing Jews who are absolutely unqualified to high positions of trust at home and abroad, and he has outraged Christian feeling by his policy in Palestine. A recent visitor to the Holy Land has informed us that hatred of the English there has united the hitherto hostile sects and that, as in our own islands in the Pacific, German rule would be hailed as a deliverance from British bungling. Dealing with the position of Palestine during the recent Consistory the Pope spoke very plainly on the question: The situation of Christians in Palestine not only is not improved, but has been made worse by the new civil arrangements which aim, if not in their authors’ intention, at least in fact, at ousting Christianity from its previous position to put the Jews in its place. We therefore warmly exhort all Christians, including nonCatholic Governments, to . insist with the League of Nations upon the examination of the British Mandate in Palestine.”

One would think that Cardinal Bourne and Cardinal Gasquet, who failed .so ignominiously in their efforts to serve the Lloyd George Government by leading the Vatican astray regarding Ireland, might find here a means of making reparation for their crime against a small nation. But John Bull is a queer fish, whether he wears a Cardinal’s hat or not.

Another Lie Greenwood and Lloyd George tried every base means they knew of to break Ireland, Calumny was their favorite weapon. Recently they have been trying to persuade the world that the Sinn Feiners are waging a religious war against Protestants, but they never have a word of blame for the Orange majority that murders and robs the Catholics of Belfast. The Sinn Fein authorities have decreed that there must be complete religious freedom in Ireland, and in this they are a reproach to the Carsonites and the Greenwoodites. In is saner moments Greenwood has been forced to admit that Catholics do not persecute. But of more weight 1 is the testimony of Protestant clergymen who nobly bear witness to the charity of their Catholic fellowcountrymen. Recent testimonies are the following: n , I) 1 r - 11 • Glenn, {Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, in an address to the Assembly on June 6, said • In all my goings, North or South, I have never been molested or threatened, nor have I found one of our churches, even in most isolated places, wantonly injured. He added that everywhere his people told him that amidst all the fearful upheaval there was no trace of a religious war manifesting itself.” ' Rev. W. G. Stratham said he had cause to complain of the military and police who had turned manses into barracks, but he testified to the help given him by Sinn

w , Re y-W. P Young said that travelling in the West of Ireland he had never “met with the slightest discourtesy from any individual in the matter of wor- . In , spite of such dear evidence the Government descends to the old-time trick of publishing bogus oaths of such a nature as , the P.P.A. floods New Zealand p™* Every .ensure helps Ireland and sinks the Government still deeper in ignominy and disgrace.

Sinn Fein Is Non-Sectarian q. It ought , not be necessary to impress on all that inn hem is an Irish Nationalist movement and strictly non-sectarian. The British Government, for its own ends has tried to make it appear that the Irish struggle is a fight between Catholic and Protestant, and for this end has even issued 1 forged oaths of the type commonly spread abroad by bigots like Howard Elliott. This campaign of misrepresentation is intended to divide Irishmen into hostile camps, and it is only people of no education and incapable of reasoning that could be deceived by it We think it well to mention briefly a few guments that will prove that religion has nothing whatever to do with the matter, except in so far as the Orangemen are fooled •by their political bosses- — ‘ .. ■ ■ . . ■ ... • • . . . > • V '• ■

1. In every Irish National movement for a hundred and fifty years , Protestants have taken a leading part. Thus, Grattan was a Protestant, and the volunteers who won an Irish Parliament for him were Protestant to a man. Moreover, the Irish soldiers who fought against England in the American War of Independence were largely Protestant. Mitchel, Smith O’Brien, Davis, Parnell, Biggar, were Protestants, just as Jemmy Hope and Putnam McCabe and Henry Joy McCracken before them were. In the movement today there, are Protestants among the rank and file and among the leaders. We need only mention Blythe, Barton, Hobson, and Darrel Figgis, who have been in English gaols because they want a free Ireland. 2. The subjugation of Ireland was undertaken by Catholic England first. Catholic England forged a papal document in order to justify her invasion of Ireland. Thus, the struggle began between two Catholic countries, and not between Catholics and Protestants. It was never sectarian. It was economic in the days of the Henrys as it is to-day. Ireland was persecuted by Catholic England as well as by Protestant England.

3. Cardinal Bourne and Cardinal Gasquet are not Protestants and yet they are on the side of the Orangemen to-day. The Duke of Norfolk, the leading Catholic layman in England, took the platform beside the Carsonites against the Catholics of Ireland. To-day one of the bitterest enemies of the Nationalists is Denis Henry, the Catholic Irish law officer who plays second fiddle to Greenwood.

4. While we have the Bournes and the Gasquets and the Norfoiks, against Irish freedom, we have Presbyterian ministers like Mr, Irwin fighting and even going to gaol because they stand with Sinn Fein for a free Ireland. -

5. English Catholics are never weary of trying to get the Pope to condemn Sinn Fein. If Sinn Fein was a Catholic movement their activities at the Vatican would be very foolish. Only a person so ill-informed as the Rector of Knox Church nowadays pretends that Sinn Fein is a Jesuit .movement against Protestants. Any reasonable person who considers the evidencewe have touched upon will recognise that the assertion that Sinn Fein is sectarian proceeds either from dishonesty and malice or from sheer ignorance. While bigots injure us by insisting on the sectarian aspect of the question, our own people are often a stumbling block inasmuch as they do not do all they might do to placate Protestants and dispel their prejudices and errors. We want all in the movement. It is for all Irishmen and for all friends of Ireland, be they Jews, Quakers, Presbyterians, or Catholics. De Valera has time and again refuted the falsehood that the movement is a religious one, as he has pointed out that insistence on this notion is most injurious to its success. It is an all-for-Ireland movement and only an enemy would try to create discord by introducing the sectarian issue.

Fltzalan and Carsonia

Act i.

The opening of the Carsonia Parliament went off tamely indeed. The Unionist Irish Times says: “There was no bunting, there were no favors, and there were no crowds. It was not until after ten o’clock that people began to gather outside the City Hall. Even then there was little evidence of popular interest. One can often see as large a crowd watching a raid on a public house in Dublin.” b Compare that with the cabled accounts of the stupendous reception and cheering crowds that greeted King George. Even the poor old Irish Times admits that the proceedings were marked by public apathy. It was clear that even the Orangemen were-in no way excited over Lloyd George’s gift; for they had the disheartening foreknowledge that they were the recipients of a bankrupt scheme, and their dying industries and their slender bank accounts reminded ■ them that Sinn Fein would kill their Parliament as it killed their trade. Small but stately” is all the Unionist organ can find

to say for the procession. The “Parliament” met in a footy little room in which there was just room for them to sit. , The elements of farce were not wanting. A battery of cameras and an army of photographers got in front of the Speaker’s chair. The Times' tells the tale of the farce:

“The Speaker gravely requested all the members to remain quiet for a few minutes, as a photographer wanted to take a photograph of the House. All eyes were lifted to the gallery whence a voice was heard beseeching the Parliament of the North of Ireland to be £ All steady a second, please! ’ The House froze into awkward rigidity. A camera clicked, the- Speaker relapsed into reposeful austerity, and the voice broke the almost painful silence with, ‘ Just a second, Mr. Speaker. The second expanded itself into about a minute and a half while the gentleman in the gallery rigged up an enormous magnesium ribbon.” After the photo had been taken the House adjourned and the curtain fell on the first act.

Act ii.

In the City Hall Banqueting Chamber. Fifteen Ministers and Under-Secretaries, and about twentyfive private M.P.’s for Carsonia are assembled to meet the Viceroy. Nearly all present had sung “To Hell with the Pope” during the elections. Some of them had urged the expulsion of all Papists from Carsonia. Enter the Papist Viceroy. Hungry-looking, cadaverous Orangemen feed voraciously. Craig rises and proposes the health of the Papist Viceroy. Fitzalan on his legs puts his two feet in it with remarkable success. His speech might be an extract from The Eloquent O' Dempsey or some similar farce. Inter alia, he said: “Ladies and gentlemen [through force of habit, of course!] we are not of the same religion. (Laughter and applause from the Orangemen.) I glory in mine. I daresay you glory in . yours. (Hear, hear and wild applause.) A most remarkably funny thing occurs to me. If I were to change my religion 1 believe everybody in the room would look on me as a bounder. If you were to change yours I would not look on you as any worse than you are. (More laughter.) Isn’t it The Eloquent O'Dempsey again? Was ever such an asinine speech delivered at the birth of a Parliament ? But any other words would have been an international loss: what he said suited the occasion and made the farce more ludicrous. He then dropped a tear and spoke lugubriously of the sins of Ireland Amid cheers he hit out at Sinn Fein. But there was deep dark, solemn silence when he denounced the Black-and-Tans, who are very popular in Belfast: n We know the force in this country commonly called the ‘ Black-and-Tans ’ are accused of committing serious and grave crimes. . . It is true—l do not deny it for one moment-let us be frank about these tbmgs—that crimes, horrible crimes, have been committed by members of this force. You may find explanations, but there is no excuse for any force under discipline committing these crimes,” Seemg the long, frozen jowls of the To-Hell-with-the-Pope men he now thought it safer to change the subject. Once again he waxed comic. For his subject was comic: it was the Carsonia Parliament itself: ,1 u xi?, Act of Parliament is an historic Act. I don t think it will be the less historic because nobody seems tq, want it. (Laughter, loud and long.). . In fact it wants amending already. (More laughter.) ’ * \ 1 know you here did not want it, and that t nrd°r' V aCCepted , on the advice of your great leader, Lord Carson— your present Prime Minister ” In these dignified and remarkable words' Lord Fitzalan dealt once and for all with the great topic of a Carsonia Parliament. He made a farce of the whole th mg Perhaps he could do no better and no worse. But it was unconscious genius. He said exactly the sort of silly footling things that fitted, the occasion was hfe speech.’ nsay,ngthattheA ' :twas so

v." . Act in. , The Viceroy fled to England. He stayed there a long time; some said because of his disgust with what

he saw v in Ireland of the methods of the Orangemen and their murder-gang. But a “diplomatic denial” came to tell us that he only stayed away because they were whitewashing the walls of his little cabin in Phoenix Park. And, sure, we all know what diplomatic denials mean. The Orangemen celebrated the Viceroy’s flight by undertaking to kill, beat, maim, rob, and otherwise ill-use their Catholic neighbors. Once more they let themselves go in order to prove to the world what sort of men the British Government and our Colonial day-liars delight to honor. Thus the curtain was rung down on a page of British history that will lead future generations to wonder what sort of savages Englishmen must have been in the beginning of the twentieth century. Many English papers have denounced the British Government for subjecting the King to the indignity of being present at the Carsonia farce. We suspect he will never forgive Lloyd George for it. It is a pity he could not cut off the Welshman’s head. On the King’s part in the proceedings America comments: “The King of England begs the Irish people to forgive. Wearing the unaccustomed garb of a penitent, a Wettin comes to Ulster, strange confessional, to be absolved. The garment does not hang well; it seems too hastily assumed; perhaps for a purpose. But God grant that sorrow, deeds of reparation and speedy amendment go with this confession of English outrages in Ireland, and that sincerity, a confession’s prime requisite, be not lacking. But Ireland forgives. Too long has she stood in the shadow of the Cross to forget how her. Master’s first words pleaded with His Father that those who had pursued Him even to a felon’s death might be forgiven. She knows what suffering is, she who has been scourged and buffeted and spat upon by lustful Herods and time-serving Pilates, she upon whose dark' head has been pressed a crown of thorns. One last torture she has been mercifully spared. She has never been rejected by her own. To-day even as the nails are sunk, martyred Ireland forgives. That is her noblest victory, as it was the sublimity of the Cross. The Irish people, whose heart has long been sorrow’s home, can forgive because they, too, have been crucifled. . . The glow on the hills beyond Jerusalem was as blood, but it quickly paled to the gold of an Easter dawn. So, too, the hills of Ireland are red with blood of her sons ; blood that cries aloud for justice, .and will be heard in God’s good time.”