The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-29
Says COuntrymen Are Being
Made Germany's Catspaw.
THE INSTANTANEOUS
They Are Accused of Helping to
Cause the Trouble.
Germany Should Be Natural
Enemy of All Liberty Lovers.
BY JOHN REDMOND.


London, April 29.-My first feeling
on hearing of this insane movement in
Dublin was one IF horror, of discour
agement and alL-oSt of despair.
1 asked myself whether Ireland, as
so often before in her tragic history,
was to dash the cup of liberty from
her lips; was the insanity of a small
section of her people once again to
turn all her marvellous victories of the
last few years into irreparable defeat
and send her back on the very eve of
her final recognition as a free nation
into another long night of slavery, in
calculable suffering and weary and
uncertain struggle.
For, look at the position of Ireland
today. In the short space of 40 years
she, by constitutional movement, has
made almost unbrokenly a triumphal
march from poverty and slavery to
prosperity and freedom. She has won
back the possession of the Irish land:
she has stayed emigration: she has at
last begun an era of national pros
perity Finally, she succeeded in plac-
ing on the statute books the greatest
charter of freedom ever offered her
since the days of her creation.
Is this all to be lost?
Made Her Choice.
When the war came she made her
choice, which was inevitable If she
was to be true to all the principles
which she has held through all her
history and which she has just so
completely vindicated On her own soil
namely, the rights of small nations
sacred to the principle of nationality
liberty and democracy
Moreover, the nations for which
through all her history she had felt a
sympathy that came from their COM
mon principles and common aspira-
tions. were being tramp1ed, as she, in
her time, had been trampled under the
iron heel of an arrogant force.
What has Ireland suffered in the
past that Poland, Alsace. Belgium and
Serbia have not suffered at the hands
of Germany? And 1 may add also that
portion of the soil of France, her old
friend and ally, which is in the hands
of Germany?
What has been the record of Ger
many but the suppression of national
ity, freedom and language, in short,
the suppression of all the things for
which for centuries ireland has strug-
gled or the victory of which the Irish
have achieved.
Belgium Like Ireland.
Take the case of Belgium Has
| there not been there the same ruth
less shedding of the blood of priests
| and people that is a part of Ireland s
own history?
Leave the question of principle out
and consider the question only after
the mere interests of Ireland herself.
What did the situation demand?
Neutrality? That is impossible.
Hostility to the just cause of the al
lies? Is there any sane man in Ire
land who does not see that this meant
| the browning of newly won liberties
for Ireland in Irish blood?
Be these views right or wrong, this
was the opinion of an overwhelming
majority of the Irish people, 1t is
nj ioI1
| soldiers have sealed with their blood
| by dying for the cause of the liberty
| of Ireland and of the world.
But, anyhow, it was the opinion of
Ireland and surely I need not argue
! principle, especially with ANYBODY who
| processes himself to be home ruler
That policy of Ireland must be de-
| cided by Ireland herself. That is the
| principle which has been accepted by
the Irish race everywhere.
Millions of our people in the United
| States and elsewhere whose generous
devotion has helped us so largely to
win our victories for the motherland
of the race have always accepted it
However bounteous their help. never
have they denied the right of ireland
to choose her policy for herself
Catspaw OF Germany
That doctrine has been contested
only by the very same men who today
have tried to make Ireland the cats.
paw of Germany.
In all our long struggle to obtain
home rule. we have been thwarted and
opposed by that same section.
We won home rule not through
them but in spite of them.
This wicked move of theirs was
their last blow at home rule. It was
not half as much treason to the cause
of the allies as it was treason to the
cause of home rule
This attempted deadly blow at home
rule carried on through this section is
made more wicked and more .nsolent
by the fact that Germany plotted it,
/ Germany organized it and Germany
paid for it.
So far as Germany's share is con-
cerned, it is a German invasion of Ire
! land as brutal, as selfish and as cyni-
/ cal as was Germany'S invasion of Bel
GUM. Blood has been shed an
| Ireland has not been reduced to the
same horrors as Belgium with her
starving people. her massacred priests
and her violated converts. it is not the
fault of Germany.
And the final aggravation of move
ment is this:
The misguided, insane young men
who have taken part in this movement
in Ireland have risked ard some of
them have lost their lives. But what
am to say OF those men who have
sent them into this insane anti-pa-
triotic movement, while they remained
safe in the remoteneSS of American
cities?
Places Blame on L. 6.
might add that this movement has
been set in motion by this same class
of men at the very moment when
America is demanding reparation for
the blood of innocent men, women and
children shed by Germany. And thus
they are mostly of double treason to
the generous land that received them
as we'll as the land that gave them
birth.
1t is not a national horror that on
the very DAY when We hear that the