The Irish standard., 1916-06-03
BY Katherine Hughes.
The Editor, Montreal Daily Star.

writer OF some distinction, writing III
the Daily Mail in Dec, 1906, of the
Sim Fcin movement, says: ireland
is becoming Irish A Movement
is on foot broader, grander than any
even she has ever known. 1t is a
movement Of national resurrection, of
national Standardization and self-de-
pendence. In Hungary, Bohemia, Fin
land and Poland we have applauded
and sympathized with similar move
ment in the past. In Ireland, whether
we applaud or not, we may at least
try to understand"
sort Of text for my letter, but must
first comment upon letter written
you last week by Toronto clergy
man.
His TRADE against the professional
strikers, Larkinites. rowdies. and in
surrectionist Sim Feins" follows close
upon another Toronto effusion. pub
lishcd in Toronto. which implore0
us not to mistake these Sim Feiners
for anything but the cowardly Williams
that they are ever ready to mutilate
helpless animals or stab in the dark"
and talks darkly of "hcmpcn deserts"
instead of "dallying with rebels" and
"interning vipers!" This. too,
when three-fourths of the leading edit
orial writer's of England and the
United States are protesting against
further executions in Ireland.
The last is the more bitter perhaps
Kipling is right sometimes about the
female of the species" :.
Altogether different note was
struck in the humane plea for better
understanding and cooler Judgment
among Canadian people. made by Lady
Aberdeen during her address at the
Ritz-Carlton on Monday. Lady Aber-
deem is in a position to know of what
she was speaking, ! would carry on
her plea farther here.
II it is permissible for Il mere out
slider to question the infallbility of Il
Toronto opinion. | desire to call your
readers attention to the striking SINH
larity between the Irish Rising of 1916
and the Canadian Instruction of 1897
which emphasized the need of rcspon-
~,
feel | can do this to some advan-
tagc, for am of that strange and
somewhat rare breed of Canadian that
has made a serious study of our OWN
history and political evolution. And
even as in Canada have close friends
at Ottawa in both camps of our politi-
Cal parties, ] took the same faculty to
Ireland and have some warm friends
among Irish M. p's and some among
the Sim Feins.
The Larkin-Connolly element, which
has always, like the continental So
cialist parties, been the revolutionary
factor in Dublin, is less well known to
me. But | am morally certain that il
any live Canadian were condemned to
live in the horrors of a Dublin Stun he
would have spirit enough to follow
Larkin or any man who came along
with an offer of sympathy and promise
OF extrication from the muddy Hell of
such an abode.
All the world knows about the Irish
members; very few in Canada have a
clear understanding of the Sim Fcins
These last as ! knew them in their
normal state, were no more advocates
OF physical force than the Irish col
leagues of Asquith at Westminster
Quite unlike Carson and his prompt
recourse to arms to bend the British
Government to his will, they preached
either Dcak's Hungarian passive re-
sistance or intellectual domination as
the real instrument to secure self.gOv-
eminent for Ireland.
Sydney Brooks-an English writer, Il
Protestant, and a gentleman who had
the car Of Morning Post readers -
wrote Of them in 1907: ct must not
be supposed that the Sim
Fciners are physical force men. They
are not. They see no necessity to be-
Their policy is wholly constructive.
They urge Irishmen not to fight Eng
land by arms, still less to whimper and
manoeuvre in her House of Commons.
They were men in every walk of life,
intensely national in sentiment Their
leaders were young men OF wide edu-
cation and usually the masters of three
or four languages and literatures.
From my own observation of their un-
selfish devotion and singlcncss of aim,
fully agree with the Chicago writer
who stated last Sunday: 1.-THE party
has been led by a group Of high-spirit-
ed young men of remarkably keen
intellectual powers who in any country
more happily placed would be the
| leaders of progressive constitutional
party"
But in their protests against the
Angiicization of Ireland (Which began,
they claimed, in the inertia after the
Famine,) and against the destruction
Of their ancient tongue and the races
distinctive culture they often put a