The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-11
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Does Not Ring True

To the Editor or The Age Herald.
 have read with interest in this morn- ing's Age- Herald the communication of Mir J. c. Reilly in defense of the Sim Fein propaganda now so prevalent in the United States. Surely Mir. Reilly does not want any sane person to be- leve that the efforts of the friends of Irish freedom are being exerted on be- half of America. It is not America first" It is sim Fein first Their declared purpose is to defeat the league document guarantees the territorial in tegrity of the members against external aggression. This would make it impossi- ble for America to enter war against the British empire in behalf of the Irish republic That is the milk in the cocoa- nut The Sim Feiners threw in their lot with the Hun first when Basement and his colleagues planned to have a Ger man army land on Irish soil. The alli- ance with the Hun failed; now some other nefarious scheme must be cons cocted. Meanwhile the Irish people are divided at home, and kept from realizing that national unity which Is fully possi- ble under the British constitution.
 People who know the facts object chiefly to the Sim Fein propaganda be- cause 1t does not tell the truth. It is essentially Prussian in this respect. It endeavors to present Ireland as a poor. unfortunate subject nation lying pros- trate at the feet of a tyrant As 8 mat ter of fact any intelligent and properly informed person knows that Irishmen have every constitutional right enjoyed by other British citizens. Even Sir Rog- CT Easement was high in the confidence of the government he betrayed. was knighted for his services as a British consul. and at the time of his regrettable act Of treason was drawing a rather handsome pension from the national treasury.
 As for the people of Ulster being a favored minority. as MT. Reilly suggests. this also is not borne out by the facts Ulster opposed the government in thF past when the government was unjust now she seeks to perpetuate it because
 1t is just. What Ulster has done indus trially she has done because of the thrif' and energy of her people. The Ulster farmer tills fields which are no more fertile than Nthose of Munster. The Ul- sherman fought for his political rights
 in the past, and now that he has them he wishes to retain them in the far flung British democracy rather than venture out into wildcat republic head ed by DeVaIera, New Yorker by birth and Spaniard by blood. The Irish re public would be much more attractive even to an Ulsterman if 1t was heade1 by a Reilly, a Murphy or a Kelly, in stead of Spanish American politica' adventurer Is the Sim F'ein in Ireland so poorly representative that it has t come to this side of the pond for a pres
 tent for it's paper republic?
 There is something radically wron ? with this whole Irish propaganda in th.s country. It doesn't ring true. Theri are too many Huns and hyphens about it. It sets at naught the work of the great constructive Irish leaders like Sir Horace Plunkett, the Redmonds and al
 rose liberal minded Irishmen who sin
 rely wish to find political peace for g
 nted and unhappy people. When the
 ass meetings of the Sim Feiners car i ias the name of the President of the
 'nited States. as they did recently in New York and Chicago. and then chee, DeValera, patriotic Americans ought t' frown down the whole Sim Feln move ment and turn the Spanish gentlema over to the officials at Ellis Island fo~ speedy deportation.'
 Edmund Burke. the great Irish states men. said shortly before his death: M poor opinion is that the closest connec ton between Great Britain and Irelar is essential to the well-being, had a
 most said. to the very being of the tw kingdoms Little do many poopl in Ireland consider how much of it prosperity has been owing to. and sti' depends upon it's intimate connection with Great Britain"
 EDWARD G. MACKAY. Fairfield, September 9. 1919.