The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-12-02
Will Gaunt Famine
Destroy ireland?

(By Helen Russell, woman Irish
Refugee Who Fought in the Re-
bellion, Recently Escaped, and
is now in New York;
The fate of Ireland is once more
in the balance. The instruction Of
April last averted the danger of Eng
land carrying out her cunningly con-
ceived plot to arrest and execute Ire
lands leaders, disarm her volunteers,
and then enforce CONSUMPTION on a
helpless people. England, believe,
planned to exterminate our race.
The splendid fight of the Volunteers
defeated that plan, but England is
ready to try new and more menacing
one. She has taken from us the best
trained of our young men and holds
them in disease-breeding prisons, and
now when she thinks the spirit of Ire
land is finally and forever broken, she
plans once more to wipe out the Irish
as a race entity. This time she will
try to do it by means of the most
dreadful of her foul weapons-econom.
tc CONSUMPTION. Ireland is England's
commissariat. England carries off the
best Of lreland's farm produce and
meat and pays her the lowest prices.
ENGLAND hoo pIorpod ~ on rot&Io
feed over the places where stood, less
than a generation since, the home.
steads of Irishmen, and now England
urgently requires cattle and foodstuffs
to feed her troops.
There is in Ireland today. as there
was in Ireland in as and ~, enough
foodstuffs and cattle to feed popu-
lation ten times greater than the is.
land supports. Yet everything points
to history repeating itself in another
Irish famine manufactured in England
by the coalition government.
Already the hay has been seized by
the military all over the country and
the sale of it without military permit
Is punishable offense under the DE
Tense Of the Realm Act" Fines are
imposed every week in Ireland for
buying and selling hay without the
sanction of the military authorities.
Our cattle were supposed to be suffer-
ing from foot and mouth disease"
that kept the prices down, but the out
break Of war with the resultant cut.
ting off of colonial supplies and tho
possibility Of a German blockade of
Great Britain and Ireland cured them
as by miracle in one week. England
needs meat. But even more than meat
she needs an Irish famine.
Ireland has department of agri-
culture whose first care should be to
conserve supply of food to carry the
Irish people over till another harvest
but control Of the Irish department
has been grabbed by England.
The Irish department Of agriculture
was founded by Sir Horace Plunkett
who belongs to another branch OF the
same family as Joseph PEunkett, exc
cuted for participation in the Irish
revolution. The department he found
ed was the first to preach and teach
practical, progressive agriculture in an
avowedly agricultural country.
1t was long looked upon with jealous
eyes by the English government who
fear nothing so much as an economi.
cally independent and progressive Ire.
land. The English and Scottish de
partment Of agriculture and technical
instruction" were built on the Irish
model. Alter many attempts to hinder
the work of the Irish department" the
English government decided to cap.
ture it. England has one strong pre-
scription for dealing with bad case
of any form of Irish independence
economic or otherwise, known to the
world as an "Act of Parliament" Hor
ace Plunkett was member Of Parlfa
ment. An act was therefore passed
prohibiting member of Parliament
from controlling the department o!
agriculture" in Ireland. The British
government then elected T. w. Rus
sell, a Scotchman. to replace Horace
Plunkett. In short time T. w. Rus
sell was elected as a member of par
lament and the public and press Of
Ireland began to look for his resigna
tion as a member of Parliament or o
the agricultural department. How
ever. needless to say, he continued tt
hold both offices. Ireland protested al
this glazing dishonesty, but the "tol
dog" can always keep a silent grip or
his victim and the British bulldog
ignored the protest.
Today an English statesman frankl,
announces in public that in the even
of a German blockade of Great Brl
tain and Ireland and a consequent