Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-07-11
Case for the Irish
From the London Times.

Y LATTER Introductory comment on the iepoft
made at Paris by Messrs. Walsh and Dunno
after their visit to Ireland, the great London
newspaper gives some interesting views, which
will be of real interest over here.l
The charges have their comic side, but really
they are no laughing matter. The report in
which they were made is dated June 8; the
reply June Ia, eight days later. During these
eight days the lies have been running round
the world, poisoning the wells of sentiment and
varying many an honest mind against us. The
interval is far too long; really efficient Irish
government would have had the truth in hot
pursuit ventre a terre two hours after the lies.
But this delay is all of piece with the whole
Ireland from London is Bad enough, but gov
ernment from Paris is crazy. At the moment
when Sim Fen is beginning to pay the newt
able penalty of success in Ireland-namely, to
provoke reaction amongst people whose in
stinct for being in minority is infalhble-Mr.
Lloyd George, presumably without making in
quiries, treats three frothy rhetorcians from
America as though they were painstaking stu
dents of truth. His weak Incidence is imme-
diately twisted into recognition by the Paris
conference of the Irish question is subject
for international legislation, which it is not and
cannot be. The delegates go to Ireland and
there stretch the permits which the prime min
lister, good, easy man, has given them, into a
license to preach rebellion and then refer the
results to Paris. Our Irish correspondent has
several times enlarged on the mischief that was
done in Ireland, and the news from New York
and Washington shows how it has extended in
the United States. Meanwhile Dublin Castle is
seen helplessly wringing its hands at this COM
plication of its tasks, and after wrapping itself
in the mantle of injured innocence for week
now stammers out its explanation. When will
governments recognize that, in politics, what
seems to be may be even more important than
what is, if only it gets start; that Irish politics
in particular are species of make see" carried
on behind a row of footlights; and that some
publicity is needed if the English side of the
case is ever to have chance? The cellar in
which the government loves to work has no
chance in contest of publicity with theater.
Let no one who laughs at the humorous side
of the Irish-American mission and its report
grimmest of tragedies. The report is wickedly
ingenious in its drafting, and omits nothing
that can prejudice American opinion. The gen
crosby of American politics, their sentimental
ism, their weakness as to facts, their passionate
attachment to phrases-nothing is left unex-
plotted by these mountebanks. Dublin Castle,
on the other hand, goes on administering in
a vacuum Of good intentions, and marves that
it is misunderstood as though thcre were no
such thing as human nature.
One fact is clearly brought out by the history
of the American delegation. Ireland is not an
international question in the sense OF Mr.
Walsh and his friends. But it is the greatest
of all questions for those who think of Eng
lands position in the world. Ireland is our one
failure. If we had succeeded in Ireland as we
have elsewhere, the increment of power and
loyalty at the center, where it is most valuable
would have equalled everything that we gained
by the growth of our self-governing dominions
We have been unweaving in Ireland the web oil
power as fast as we have been spinning it else
where. At this moment a solution of the Irish
question which would turn Irishmen into
friends would, in its effect on our position ir
the world, be the equivalent of another year
of victory like 1918. The hands of our diplomacy
would be strengthened and the influence of oul
ideas, now clouded by the suspicion of insn
certify, would be intensified. We do not deny
the immense progress that has been made O.
recent years to prosperity and happiness in Ire
land the reply published today gives some re-
markable facts and figures that will repay study
Nor do we refuse to Dublin Castle keen sym
pathy with the monstrous injustice done to i
by the visit of the delegates and their farcca
report. The fact remains that the politca
| problem in Ireland is still unsolved, and :ha
| so long as it remains unsolved it Injuries ou
| position in the world by the equivalent of
succession of military defeats every year. W.
are not content that that should always be so
and no explanation of the facts however homes
and sincere, can take the place of a constructive
policy for Ireland which is our greatest need il
| the world today.