Norwich bulletin., 1917-08-16
LETTERS TO HE EDlT02
What is the Irish Question?

MT. Editor: The following is for the information Of your readers; and in no way is it to be taken as a reply to the one who signs his name "A Dem ocrat."
 I recognize clearly that one who hides behind an assumed name de- serves no answer. Indeed, anonymity rarely shelters one who has either courage or convictions.
 The claim for independence in Ire land is as old as the English occupa- ton of that unhappy land No genera ton of Irishnen has lived without making 9 demand for it, and numer- ous times within the last three hun dred years Irishmen have risen to at tain it, and suffered death in their efforts to do so.
 The sentiment in Ireland is shown by convention held in Dublin in than one thousand delegates demand ed total separation from England. Elections held a short time ago in Clare, Longford and Roscommon gave an out and out victory for the repub- 1icans, or Sim Fein candidates.
 Ireland since April, 1S16, has been under martial law. The country is sarrisoned by some 100000 or more troops; kept there by England. This is evide nee which goes to show Eng
 
 it is her brutality that permits her to remain on Irish soil This is testi- mony which proves that her rule of Ireland is in no way founded upon the consent of the governed
 Tn the last century Ireland has been overtaxed by the English government to the amount of something like s1,- 800, 900, 900. It would take until the end of time to even try to go into all the wrongs that Ireland has suffered at the hands of England.
 IreIanTs parliament was assassinat- ed by fragrant and notorious bribery so base that even England's historians have not dared to offer a defense. 4 land of pulsating industries was crushed deliberately by legislative en- actment. A land with a thriving com merce, the harbors were ruined by barbaric laws. A prosperous peasantry the sword. A land at whose schools her kings learned wisdom. England made it a crime for an Irishman to educate his own child. A seven hundred years of a policy of eyictions by wholesale. during which old women sank down on their knees in the snow and cursed England; whole families turned out on bleak mountainside roads foodless clothes less, with nothing but the hope of death to relieve them from their awful suffering.
 The days of the crowbar brigade. the battering ram, and general rnisruie, has reduced Ireland to a land of mis- cry and despair.
 The feeling in Ireland against the packed and rigsed confidence trick miscalled an Irish convention is grow ing more and more intense. Tn the north, south, east and west it Is con demned.
 A body made up of 1o1 men has been brought into existence by the ap- pointment of Lloyd George, even their temporary chairman being selected for them by him, and provision carefully prepared to exclude the consideration of the question of total separation from England. question which the Irish people want settled, as has been shown by the elections held and all contests on this issue.
 We have anonymous correspondents who tell LIS it is really national con- ventinn. It is enough to make anyone than his own name.
 What is the Irish question: It is he English government in Ireland, and there will be no settlement of that question until England leaves Ireland to the Irish. to be governed by them in their own interests.
 Tn Ireland venal men of ability have been the instruments by which the chains have been riveted on the mind and the body of the nation. in the in terests Of a foreign imperialism. Every oppressed country has them. and we have the mark of Cain for them. In Ireland they are called "placehunters." Without the aid of the "placehunter" in Ireland the English government could not maintain itself there. Patron age in the hands of England makes the Irish "placehunter."
 The English parliament is the source of that patronage, and so it will be as long as Ireland is welded to that parliament, the placeEunter will work her evil.
 Fay Pay O'Connor and his party, who did so much for Ireland. made the rivers and streams, made the and hills. brought St. Pat rick to Ireland to drive out the snakes. l to make room for themselves, invented the shamrock, taught the hens to lay boiled eggs, had the streets paved with l penny loaves. the houses thatched with 1 ancakes, and Ireland is so happy.
 Fay Pay oconnor cinema censor | and temporary deputy assistant envoy l extra ordinary to his Britannia majesty | 10 the United States, tells us. All Tas, 1 Do fe tf1cr If r