THE "WORKER" (SYDNEY) ON THE IRISH SITUATION

New Zealand Tablet, 29 September 1921, Page 13

THE "WORKER" (SYDNEY) ON THE IRISH SITUATION

The editor of the" Worker writes in his own column:

Ireland's rejection of Lloyd George's "terms" is only what students of the Irish situation expected. .What right has the British Government to submit "terms"? '

Once the fundamental principle of self-determination is conceded, no outsider has the smallest title to interfere in the affairs of a nation, and any attempt by the rulers of another country to impose upon that nation a form of government of which it does not approve can only, be regarded as wanton aggression.

Self-determination has the plainest of plain . meanings. By no verbal ingenuity, by no casuistical tricks, can it be made to mean the right of one nation to meddle in the domestic concerns of another.

The Irish people alone must determine Ireland's destiny. Nobody else has even a fractional claim to do so.

For my part, I never had any belief in the professed love of the British ruling class for self-determination.

They assured us, they assured the whole world, that self-determination was such an article of faith" with them that they were prepared, if necessary to sacrifice the Empire in that holy cause; that they were resolved to shed the blood of millions, and fling their fortunes into the flames of war, in order to vindicate the right of every nation to govern itself as it pleases.

And all the time there was never an atom of sincerity in their protestations; What we listened to, while the great conflict raged, were the accents of hypocrisy. The ruling class of Great Britain, then as always, were a gang of posturing humbugs, pretending to be animated by the highest moral motives, when a keen regard for their own status and their own safety was the spring of all their actions.

They laid down sacred principles, in accordance with which it was their duty as soon as the war was won to unconditionally liberate Ireland, India, and Egypt.

They have not done so. Nor for a moment had they the slightest intention of doing so.

Instead they entered on a policy of ruthless repression in those countries, and in the case of Ireland it was only the failure of their bomb and bayonet atrocities that moved Lloyd George to try more Machiavellian methods.

Those, too, failed.

Ireland was promised self-determination. Fifty thousand of her sons laid down their lives on the battlefields of Europe for the self-determination of the land they loved. The Irish people have made up their minds that self-determination they will have. They have made up their minds that the British Government shall not -be permitted, by so-called concessions, to wriggle out of the solemn obligation into which they entered before all mankind when the war for self-determination was begun.

Irish Protestants Thank the U.S.A.

One might imagine from our cables and the comments thereon that Protestant Ireland is out of the great fight for liberty (says the Tribune, Melbourne). This is far from the case. A notable illustration is afforded by a recent incident from Washington. There, was recently received in that city at the Republican headquarters a message of appreciation to the American people, etc., signed by 1000 Irish Protestants, representing 26 of the 32 counties in Ireland, thanking them for the support given the American Committee for Relief in the campaign to raise $10,240,000 on behalf of Irish sufferers. Of these 1000 non-Catholics, 228 live in Ulster; 13 are clergymen, representing such various denominations as Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists; Jews, Quakers, and Christian Scientists; while the remaining laymen are distinguished members of all professions, being lawyers, doctors, naval and military officers, engineers, college professors, county magistrates, architects, and bankers. Among them are J. Annan Bryce (brother of Viscount Bryce,. ex-Ambassador to the United States), Professor Oldham, . Colonel Sir Nugent Talbot Everard, Charles Jacobs (a . Quaker of the Jacobs Biscuit Co., the leading biscuit maker), Lord O'Neill (Deputy-Lieutenant of Co. Antrim), and others.