The Irish standard., 1901-11-30
NO ARMS TO FIGHT WITH,

In a recent interview with Major
John Mcbride, the Paris correspondent
OF the New York Sun reports him to
have said that the Irish are preparing
to meet the Saxon foe on the battlefield.
Whether it is the Irish in Ireland or the
exiled Irish who are preparing, the gal
liant major does not say. If he means
the Irish on their native heath he is
egreglously mistaken. They are NOT
preparing, and if they were it would be
imprudent for Major Mcbride to notify
England of the fact. 1t would also be
imprudent for him to announce that the
Irish abroad are getting ready to free
Ireland by physical force. AS he is a
soldier and man of practical views, he
is not likely to have meant what he
says. He only means to scare Eng
land, as if England was not already
well scared.
The fact Of the matter is that the
Irish at home have not the remotest in.
tention Of resorting to physical force,
and any Irishman who says otherwise
is drawing on his Imagination. If the
Irish were DESTROYS Of securing liberty
by force Of arms, the first thing would
be to secure the arms and get trained
in their use. At present, they have no
arms to fight in open rebellion, and a
repetition of the rebellion Of 1903 would
be suicidal to Ireland's ultimate hope of
freedom from British domination. Then
they fought with the rudest weapons
pixies, scythes and rusty old flintlocks.
They had no skilled warriors to lead
them. but despite all drawbacks they
killed 10000 British marauders. About
10000 Irish men, women and children
lost their lives in that instruction into
which they were goaded by the British
government.
The Irish Standard does not DENY
that the Irish of the present day have
ample justification to rise against Brit
ish tyranny with arms in their hands.
but they have neither the arms nor the
money to buy them. They cannot bear
arms of any kind except with the per-
mission of the government authorities.
Michael Davitt shipped arms into Ire,
land in 1867, but they were seized, and
he was sent breaking rock in the pris.
ons Of England. Were the Irish organ
lied, armed and drilled like Grattan,s
$4,000 volunteers, and were England
engaged in life and death struggle
with a first-class power, then they
would most assuredly rise and drive the
Briton forever from their shores.
1t is nonsensical to compare the
Beers and the Irish in a military sense.
The Irish in physical courage and mar
tal bravery are the equal of any peo,
pie on earth, but they are differently
situated from the Beers and lack the
advantages the latter have enjoyed to
cope successfully with England. The
Irish, in the first place, are unarmed
and within a few miles of England.
They have had no government Of their
own in hundred years, and the one
they then had was an Anglo-Irlsh gov
eminent which treated the natives like
serfs. The Beers, on the other hand,
are we'll equipped with the best modern
appliances of war, and are sharpshoot-
ers with the rife. They live far away
from England in a country Of magnif-
cent distances. They have had gov
eminent of their own and plenty Of
money to carry on war against in
vaders. The British soldiers find a vast
difference between a campaign in South