Ireland and the Empire

New Zealand Tablet, 29 September 1921, Page 17

Ireland and the Empire

The following letter from Miss Jessie Mackay, appeared in the Manawatu Daily Times, for September 20 :

To the Editor.

Sir. May I offer a few words of comment on your editorial pronouncement on de Valera's reply to Mr. Lloyd George ? I recognise that it expresses the general British sentiment at present. But, reading carefully this Irish ultimatum with Mr. de Valera's previous repudiation of \ny settlement that leaves Ireland less than an independent nation, I, for one, am firmly convinced that Britain will one day express a very different opinion. To-day Britain is pleased to make statues of George Washington and present them to America. One hundred and twenty-five years ago she would gladly have hanged him. If Britain confesses the justice of American claims of independence, despite their plunging two peoples into bloody war, how much more will she confess the justice of the same claim from Ireland, which has had ten thousand times the wrong-' the American colonists ever had from England? At present we can only stand aghast at the temerity of a little country, which, partially for seven centuries, and absolutely for over three and a-quarter centuries, we have held down by espionage and the sword, and which now tells us with perfect truth we must either let her go or tear up our constitution of the League of Nations as so much waste paper. We Britons offer no valid reason why Alsace should be free of Germany, and Bohemia free of Austria, and Smyrna free of Turkey, while we alone should contravene the pew iaw of self-determination. We do offer two very extraordinary invalid reasons, one that we have already succeeded in holding her a vassal for seven centuries; the other, that as Providence planted her within a few miles of Britain, it has been divinely decreed that she can never be an independent nation. Those who best understand the' slow-moving mind of England best know that these reasons will be as thistle down when the time comes for sending over a statue of de Valera to Dublin. The plain end of the matter is that Ireland has the case : we have nothing but the bluff. It -is deeply to be deplored that Greenwoodism, f superimposedi. on Elizabethism, Cromwellianism, and coercion, has 5 left no other word than separation humanly'

possible, but since, it is inevitable, we must make-the best r of it, and preferably before the Empire goes to pieces than ; after. . , /,_.:: ~,'-'-.,. "'■ '• '.-■•/.. '_, :" V. % [ ~;'; ''■■'• : \' '. : j But reading President de Valera's two manifestoes stilr more carefully, there is more behind, and it is the studious moderation ■. and courtesy of these historic utterances that will impress the future historian. All Britain,. Great. and . Greater, is making the huge mistake of isolating Ireland's case from the unique world situation of which it forms a cardinal-factor. We not only demand that Britain shall, over-ride the postulates of the League of Nations; we ask that a nation at once . free-born .• and new-born shall be bound to our chariot wheels on whatever reactionary track it may take. The crux of the whole matter is military. I am bringing no railing accusation against the British Cabinet and Premier. They have offered complete control of domestic" affairs to Ireland, I believe honestly. But Mr. Lloyd George's six points plainly turned upon the use of Irish harbors and the use of Irish revenue for military contingencies. And Ireland, knowing that the world peace depends on Britain's handling of the Pacific problem, that no possible war can now be waged upon Britain by any European power, and that no possible drive can come at her from the west, but one humanity dare not name, has replied with that clarity which always distinguishes statesmanship from parish politics. She belongs to a new worldera, that of the world peace. She will make war on no nation, nor waste her substance on defence for which her policy will give no reason to anticipate . She will not be entangled in any wars that any other nation may wage. In a word, Iceland has signalised the occasion of that selfdetermination Britain blesses in all other cases by her new nationhood to that as yet invisible League of Nations, on which the most forward peoples of the earth are at one. The Scandinavian countries and America are essentially at one on this new world policy, which means non-aggression abroad and the fullest development of their peoples' interests at home. Ireland stands on the same basis, and can accept no settlement which will drag her back into the chaos of an order painfully dying.

But why should subordination to Britain drag Ireland back ? I answer as a loyal citizen of the British Empire, or, as some prefer it, of the Pan-Britannic Confederation. I answer as a loyal citizen, but a sad one. The worldsituation, now hinges on the control of the Pacific. Four Powers hold all worth holding of that sea-board —Britain, America, Japan, China. Of these, China is at present helpless, crippled, exploited, partly by old European concessions wrung from her in years gone by, very particularly by the open! arrogance, and subtle self-seeking of her hated neighbor, Japan. China appeals to the world for a nation's rights; America has shown herself averse from the stranglepolicy adopted towards China. The coming League of Nations, if civilisation is to come through at all, will put \ China and Japan in those respective places which alone j can secure the peace of the Pacific and the world. Japan is banking on the renewal of the military alliance once wisely accorded her by England under the shadow of a European peril which will never exist again. Russia and Germany are both down and out. Britain has the choice next November

'.of dissolving that alliance which now stands for the combined spoliation of China, the continued torture of- Korea, ' and the continued exploitation of Japan's own miserable - industrial population, or of throwing her glove fair in

the face of America, who will never accept the AngloJapanese Alliance tinder any circumstances. If Britain chooses the first alternative, she belongs to the new world

order. If she chooses the second she belongs to the old. Her present Government declares for the renewal, seemingly uncaring that she has plainly been warned the Alliance will oost her Canada.. I ask your readers whether the statesmen of Ireland—for Ireland has statesmen at the helm this hour of fate could honorably or safely answer

other than they have done? If England decrees Ireland

shall perish by the sword, is it not better, she should perish nobly fighting for the new world order, in which she had hoped to take her part than ignobly to perish in that

final cataclysm of East and West which is the logical outcome of the renewed Anglo-Japanese Alliance.;. Pray heaven' the Pan-Britannic . Confederation may •■ recognise these plain' facts before it' is too late, and make safe and honorable agreements with the young Republic at itar gates.