New-York tribune., 1919-08-16

letter threatening his life if he found the
miscreant guilty.
There is no public opinion in this coun-
try. Every action in it is dictated by the
extremists. The police are threatened with
death and their relations and friends are
boycotted in shops and places of amuse-
ment, and yet they are all Irish of the
Irish. Our friends among the civilians are
friends indeed, because they take a risk in
knowing us. 1t is only our armed presence
which saves them.
One learns In this country what the Union
Jack is. The man who puts it out asks for
trouble and usually gets it, In one town
on Peace Day the ten loyalists who dared
hoist it were raided by sixty Sim Feiners
who endeavored to get away with the flags.
1t is cheering to note that though in some
cases they got them, in the ultimate end
the police waded in with truncheons and
most of the Sim Feiners went home with
sore heads. The police are quite amazing
They will readily take on a crowd ten times
their own number and win out every time,
but that is their only consolation for the
hell they have to go through.
La,C AndtFaemu
The cause of all the trouble is this: the
Irish don't know what they want; thew
won't be happy till they get it; and then
they'll hate it. This is not my own inven-
ton, but has been quoted to me by Irishmen
IN tour different towns, and, loyalists
though they be, they do not attach it to the
Nlnn Felner but to the Irish. AS a nation
they have proved it times without number.
Whatever law is passed-at the wish of the
Irish themselves-it Immediately becomes
anathema to them
AS an example of their inconsistency, a
Slnn Felner goes into court as a defendant.
tie adopts the historic standpoint, az am
citizen OF the Irish Republic and do not ac-
knowledge your jurisdiction" The same
Sim Feiner goes into court as plaintiff
TOR sum of money from a neighbor and
quite fails to the humor of the situation
The basis of the trouble is the love of
hghting in the Irishmen, together with the
lack of consistency | see in to-dav's manor
that member of the Rural District Council
IS summoning the whole of the rest of the
X. d. c. for assault at a council meeting a.
"hlch apparently the plaintiff was in the
unfortunate position Of being minority all
TO hlmself. Daily reports appear OF council
ana committee meetings which are less rowdv
out none the less very acrimonious The
only reason that fighting does not develon
IS that the sides are too evenly matched
Inc best debates usually occur with the
voting about 12-11
I'm not preJudiced in any degree ] have
not lived in the north, but I'm quite certain
that Orangemen are quite as useless in their
politics as are the Sim Feiners, in so far "a
any hope may lie in either to find a real
solution to the Irish difficulty.
One hope remains and one only-Llovd
George has returned from the peace con-
terence and Northclife has put his hand to
the wheel So far Northciffe has failed IN
no single thing he has ever ATTEMPTED. and
Lloyd George has had no small share in
steering the Entente through mass Of
alihculties to triumph, but the works which
they have done in the past are as nothing in
po'"' OF diflculty toethe work which they
now set their hands to,