The Irish standard., 1919-12-20

THE IR1
gates have only one mission to this country, high
dream, and that is to convince the American pub
lie that every man. woman and child in Ireland not
a Unionist, is follower of Lenine and Trotsky ! |;
Their mission, it appears, is not sectarian. They
have not to preach the gospel after the manner
of the Episcopal Methodist and Presbyterian
churches of this country, being we'll that
these churches very we'll take of them
selves Neither are they here political mission; ;
that would SAVIOR too much of the secular spirit and
expose them to Babylonsh imputations. Therefore,
they are come to convince the Sim Fein of sin of
justice and of judgment-of the sin of rebellion
against British autocratc rule, of the justice of the
punishment, past and present, meted out to them,
and of the judgment that will be pronounced against
thenl-by tanks and machine guns-if only America
can be brought around to the desired point of view
| To raise finger against the benevolent British
Government in their eyes is nothing less than Boil
shevism. Now. how do they propose to convict the
Irish people of Bolshevism? In this way: They
another and will fan into fame, if they can, the
dying brands of bigotry and race-hatred that still
unfortunately smouldering here and there amongst
us. They will beat the Orange drum and play the
Boyne Water on their tin whistle till their cheeks
crack. They will ring the changes on Popery and
resuscitate from its mouldy grave the old familiar
slogan of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion. In short,
they will out-Sunday the great Billy himself and
make De Valera and his Sim Feners look like an
old-fashioned Quaker Bible meeting.
Will they srokeed in their task? They will, with
those whose hearts leap up at sound of the Orange
drum-but with none others The American people
have long made up their minds on the question of
religious bigotry and intolerance. They are re-
solved that never again shall they countenance
seizure or maintenance of political power on the sole
ground of difference in religion They know now
at last that the clamor of Ulster is pretence,
an elaborate piece of camoufage devised not by
Ulster whole but by that section of her popula
I |tion-among whom are these clergymen-who take
their cue from London These indeed are the pup
pets but it is Bonar Law & Company who pull the
strings "Divide ct impera," writes John Mitchell,
has ever been the great principle OF British Inn
perialism. No power in all the world has used
that grand agency of craftsmanship so long, so
wisely and so effectively England has done in
2 Ireland; and at this moment there is country
r of Europe or of America where Catholics and Pro-
testants SO cordially detest one another English
statesmen bound to affect to lament this sad
feud; and they often say lifting up their eyes to
E Heaven "Ah why will the Irish never lay aside
+ their unhappy party spirit! For England must
never forget that she is phianthropic power-a
for peace and good will to men, And the same writer
S goes to say: "How this bitter, but most useful
and necessary feud. is occasionally exasperated as
for instance before the Dublin rising of 916) by
carefully disarming the Catholic majority, while
e the Protestant minority is generally armed
7 sometimes secretly, with sent from the
Castle of Dublin to Orange Lodges, as in 1885,
and how this system is the source of frequent col
s1onS and hghtS-and how such a state OF things
5 manifestly makes Ireland more easy to govern"
(that is; to plunder)-a this is so obvious that
2 need only allude to it."
The American people have at last discovered this
cardinal principle of British imperial satecrat; and
they are meditating upon it, They pondering
it hard that neither the barrel of money the
r British have spent in propaganda here, nor the
genius of their statesmen nor the charm of their
writer's nor the army of their agents, nor the
snuosity Of their methods, their hreling press
e nor any of these instruments Of deceit we behold
in full activity around us, have been able to
!, American sympathy away from Ireland. Today as
during the past four centuries Ireland remains the
touchstone of British sincerity. AS the touch of
Uriels spear revealed the grisly Phantom, does
the Sim Fein, tearing off the hypocritical mask,
e reveal the hollowness of British wartime profess
n sions England now is what she was-a greedy,
soul-less mperalistic autocracy, while Ireland
o than before is the symbol of nascent world
liberty. Encouraged by American fair-mindedness,
relying American justice, she will rise from the
ashes of her devastated hearths and decking herself
e in beauty, will go FORTH like another Judith, to
s smte the tyrant Of her people, The dawn is break
ing in the East The sunburst of freedom will soon
appear Irelands hills and when it does appear
r not this "bucketfu of Boyne" just landed on our
e shores, nor many of them, will be able to put out
J. that sacred fire.
M &c.