New-York tribune., 1921-03-13
Britons Cease
To Rule Erin.
Says G. K. C..
Chesterton Warns Nation
of Policy of War That
Will Hold England Up as
Legendary World Despot
Press Changing Attitude
Author Draws Parallel of
Prussia in Plea to Hold
Support of Other Nations
BY Harold E. Scarborough

by F1arold T.. Scarborough
LONDON Feb. 1S.-England is be-
ginning to be annoyed by the Irish
question. In this fact there is more
hope for Ireland than there has been
IN any other recent development An
England annoyed is an England in
terested; and an England interested
in the Irish tragedy is an England
which will take steps to end it.
For many months it has seemed that
the two newspapers which have per
sistently harped on the futility of
attempting an Irish settlement by
force have been crying in the will
derness. 1t is true that The Manchester
Guardian and The Westminster Gazette
have been occasionally reinforced by
The London Daily News, and very oc-
casionally by The London Times; but
in the main they have conducted their
fight alone. New The Times has ccme
unreserveedly, to protest against the
governments. Irish policy.
Lord Northcliffe's two other great
London newspapers, The Daily Mail
and The Evening News, trim their sails
before the wind of popular sentimenet
much more thoroughly than The Times,
are still on the borderand, still prone
~ ~ CiHll rein piOC. dt any lulTC
from a subway tie-up to a fall in the
exchange. But there is not, among the
populace at large, anything like the
Indifference, which is worse than hos.
tility, which existed few months ago
with regard to Ireland
Many voices now are warning Eng
land that in the measure in which Ire
land is "subdued' the friendship of
other nations is being forfeited
French, Italian and Spanish newspapers
publish little news from the British
Isles beyond that which relates to Ire
land. Of late there have been many
apart from the Labor party's campaign
Of popular education about Irish facts
which has been carried out on an
amazingly large scale) that Americans
are becoming increasingly critical of
the Irish troubles.
United States Opposes Extremists
These men usually are careful to
point out that Americans hold no brief
for Sim Fen, nor for the methods of
it's extremists. but that ,hey are
amazed that the British government
should adopt similar tactics
The most recent addition to this list
is Gilbert K. Chesterton, writing (from
the United States. it is to be assumed)
TO The Manchester Guardian, with a
sober emphasis upon some very plain
spoken dicta.
"The whole world" he begins, "thinks
that England has gone mad. We do
appear to be doing in Ireland some
thing quite wild and extraordinary
whether we ourselves believe i. to be
right or wrong
He proceeds:
Everybody sees what we are doing,
and nobody has the least notion of why
we are doing it. For the sake
of clearness and order, let us put first
what She case is, and how it appears to
critics all over the continents of Eu-
rope and America. First, outsiders not
know sometimes what we are doing
better than we do. Details appear in
their papers which are often sup
pressed in our own papers. And, sec
ond, when lies are told against us along
with the truth, as of course they are,
the outsider pays no attention to our
papers, which cannot publish the truth
even when they contradict the lies.
There are two broad impressions
about the English in Ireland to-day
which are bewildering the whcle
world. The first is that England las
abandoned the government of Ireland
government at all. 1t does not really
profess to be government at all. 1t
is at the best war; and a very wild
sort of war. And the second is that
the war is of the particular sort now
generally called Prussian war, and the
English are still glowing with re
cent and quite real Indignation against
it when it was practiced by Prussia
The principle of reprsals i
the very opposite of the principle ST
law and order. We have ceased t,
rule in Ireland.
"Our rulers tell us they can never
recognize Ireland as separate, ma
ton. But in fact. they are recogniz-
ing it as separate nation. They ars
paying the planest possible compli-
ment TO it's independence; they are
invading it. They are invading ire
land exactly as the Prussians invaded
Belgium. Even the Prussians did not
invade Bavaria. Nor can our foreign
critics. bring themselves to believe that
Britain is invading Britain"
After remarking that this creates ar
impression of instability of the empire
Mr. Chesterton continues:
"But the case is far worse than that
What we are creating against our
selves is legend. Exactly the same
legend that grew up against Prussis
is everywhere at this moment grow
ing up against England. The peril OF
England is Of the most practical sort
Modern nations may not go to wal
with each other for purely romantic
reasons; bu. when they do go to wal
they must have a romance ready tt
hand.
Warns of Despotic Legend
Tracing parallel between the
growth of the legend which made
Prussia universally disliked and that
which, he believes, is now in process
of creation about Ireland, &c. X. c.
warns:
Eve can afford even less than the
Germans to distribute our foes every.
where, for we gather our food every
where. 1t was touch-andgo with us
even when all the American republics
and all the Australasan colonies
rightly regarded us as fighting agains
despotism. And we are piling up {
topping tradition against ourselve.
which will make them regard us as the
last survival of despotism. When on,
of the hundred entanglements of i'm
perial politics brings us again into {
war that war will become a crusade.
"Those who foresee these things hav,
TO pleasure in foretelling them. The,
love their country and not their proph
ecies. There will be no triumph il
which they can share, no foes of Eng
land whom they will ever call theii