The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1918-08-10
BY G. X. Chesterton.

posed to be temporarily and provision
ally trying to pursuade Irishmen to
volunteer for the war. 1t is just
and desirable aim, and none of us dis
agree with it, save in wishing it had
been done better and done before.
Some may think it is belated; some
may think it is hopeless, but all will
continue to hope that it is not hope
less. We need not repeat the over
powering reasons which should make
an Irishman be the first rather than
the last to resist Prussia; they con-
sist of thousand applications of two
plain truths. First, that in support
ing French idealism against German
materialism it is not Ireland that is
following England, but rather England
that is following Ireland. And, sec
ond that even in this war Prussia
enslaves what she claims to save as
much as what she claims to conquer.
That is what we ought to be saying to
the Irish. What are we saying to
them, and above all, what are we do
ing to them?
We would draw attention to the re-
port in Hansard of some questions
asked on June -, when it was sug-
gested, and apparently admitted, that
at Cullen in County Cork, five of our
aeroplanes flew Immediately above the
heads of some peaceable Sim Fein
meeting engaged in national dances
and songs, making a noise to drown
the music and dropping flare rockets
to brighten the crowd; and that, fin
ally according to another apparently
responsible ACCOUNT, some of the con-
spicuous performers were children,
and some of the immediate effects of
the flare rockets were matched roofs
in flame. According to the Parlia-
mentary reply, whatever was done
was done at the request of the mill
tary authorities. We will not esti-
mate the responsibility of the indi-
viduals who did this, or any part of
it. Perhaps they were drunk. Per-
haps they were half-witted. For, as
we know, there is a quaint old GUS
tom of selecting some dangerous lun-
attic for a position of high military
trust in Ireland, and of putting him
in madhouse after and not before
he commits a murder. We prefer to
take the matter on the mildest basis
assume that the worst was not intend
ed, and consider this method of propa
ganda in the light of what we are sup
posed to be working for in Ireland.
Now, before noting how indefensible
a thing this is in the way of oppres
sion, it may be we'll to note how i'm
polite it is in the sense that it looks
oppressive. It is the queerest point
about all this business that it looks
even more oppressive than it is. The
whole of this mad affair, of sending
aviators flying with fire and thunder
above the heads of little crowd in
Ireland, is a monkey trick that car
only be described as the play acting
of Prussianism. It is as if an English
soldier in Ireland were deliberately tc
dress up in field gray, with a spiked
helmet and spectacles, solely that he
might look like Prussian. Mr.. Penn
berton Billing, in his researches into
pathological psychology, has declared
that certain maniacs who have moi
the moral courage to entertain them
selves with public massacres can be
entertained by mimicry of it in pr
vate theatricals. One is almost in
clined to suspect that some of Mr.
Billings maniacs must have organized
the Prussian pantomime at Cullen ii
County Cork. They deliberately
choose place in which there are chill
dren; they deliberately choose the ma
chinery of dropping fire from the air;
they deliberately claim to do it ii
the name of the military authorities
and then they expect us to say to the
fathers of those children, who have
watched the falling of that fire, "Gt
forth and fight the fiendish Teutor
who has Mortified the world by drop
ping fire on children" That they die
not really drop the fire on the chill
dren, that at least they did not, as {
solid result, kill the children, makes
it intellectually more idiotic than il
they had. There would at least BIZ
some meaning, however immoral, il
making sure that there were fewer
Sim Feiners in the world; to do what
they did is obviously to make sure Of
there being more. The most moderate
Irishmen present will probably fee
that the children might have beer
killed by accident. The less moderate
will certainly say that the children
were spared by accident. Nor are the