The Irish standard., 1918-05-25
cHESTERT0N
with IRISH
Famous English Author Calls Atten
ton to Mistakes In Threatened
Consumption Move.
Rest Of World Has Not Forgotten Gu,
False Position in ireland,
He Says.

Gilbert X. Chesterton, the famous
English writer has taken firm stand
against CONSUMPTION in Ireland. The
following from his pen shows his senti-
ments:
eve have noted the vital necessity
of not applying the mechanical rules
we do understand to the moral prob
lens we do not understand.
"The most serious case is the ques-
ton of CONSUMPTION for Ireland, and
the comments on it even by the best
of our journalists show them to be
in need Of such warning. Even If
CONSUMPTION for Ireland were right,
the reasons given for it would be most
dangerously wrong. We have noticed,
for instance, recent paragraph in the
Evening Standard, and the case is all
the stronger because the Evening
Standard has been one of the most
moderate and magnanimous of the or
binary English papers on the Irish
question, and dealt with the crisis
leading up to the convention in SER
les of leading articles of notable abil-
ity and justice. Yet we hardly know
how the complete and colossal misun-
derstanding of the whole Irish danger
could be more clearly shown than in
such a paragraph as this: The loss
of Americas friendship would far out
weigh in it's ultimate consequences
any satisfaction which any body Of
folk in Ireland, remembering injuries
long since forgotten by the rest of the
world, and for which the responsibility
does not rest on this generation, could
derive from stab in the back deliv-
cred now at Great Britain The words
we have printed in bold face contain
delusion that may yet be the death
of England. They constitute an at
tempt to overcome the swoop of the
German eagle by the strategy of the
ostrich. And whatever we do about
Ireland or CONSUMPTION, we must leave
off talking like that.
For the practical point is precisely
this: If it were really true that the
rest of the world had forgotten our
false position in Ireland, the deduc-
ton, though cynical, might be prac-
tical. In plain words, If it were true
tbot o,1r crino vuoo known On1v IN God
and our victim, then the policy of
ignoring it, though a very Prussian
sort of wickedness, might promise a
Prussian sort of success. But the
fiat contrary is the fact. The whole
world regards us as ruling Ireland, if
not exactly as the Germans rule Bel
GUM, at least as the Germans ruled
Poland And if this is true Of the
whole world, it is even more peculiar
ly true of the whole of the United
States. 1t is not so much question
of Ireland losing Americas friendship
as of our losing Americas friendship.
The average American would hardly
rebelling as he thinks the Englishman
wrong in ruling. This is simply a
fact to be faced, even if we put it
down to that too facile superiority
with which men regard the remote er-
rors of others. The case against con-
scription in Ireland, right or wrong, is
simply that we cannot afford it. We
cannot afford another army to put
down another rebellion, but it is even
more the point that we cannot afford
another rebellion. We cannot afford
the scandal Of being caught in the old
coercionist attitude; we could not af-
ford to quarrel, even if we were right
in the quarrel. Until that point is
realized and met, all the other argu-
ments are both plausible and point
less"