The Washington herald., 1921-03-06
Tells Hou Britor,
Feels About Irish
Sir Philip Gibbs Clues an
EnHghtening Niew of
Puzzling Question.

XsSSOSeOHs -
( Americans who are somewhat confused
py an the discussion and dispute over Ire
OF an article by Philip Gibbs, in Harper,s
Magazine tor March. somewhat enlighten-
ing MT Gibbs, whom .Washingtonians
heard lecture here few weeks ago, can
be counted upon to give as sane and as
unbiased an opinion as might be expected,
from citizen of the empire in which the
row is centered
There are two extremes of thought in
England" he writes, but they are both mir
norities and do not in my opinion repre-
sent the great body of moderate Engiish-
men. who are anxious to know the truth
and to fnd out some kind Of reasonable
solution to the Irish problem. This aver
age Englishman, as j meet him in tram
cars, tea shops, and other places of middle
class circumstances, is nightly perplexed
about the Irish trouble. Frankly, he does
. not understand the Irish temperament, nor
see any kind of solution of the Irisi, prob
lem. For. one thing, he cannot bring him
self to believe that the Irish have real
hatred of England and the English. He
sees no adequate reason for hatred and
argues that the Irish with whom he comes
IN contact in London or elsewhere are nice
people with a sense of humor and not at
all murderous in their instincts He likes
most OF their men and all their women, as
= Tar as he knows them, and he believes firm
iy, IN spite of all evidence to the contrary,
that Sim Fem and its "wild men" are only
minority of extremists who do not at all =
represent the great body of Irish people,
and that, therefore, their violence is arti-
5eialiy engineered. and, if defeated by
renewal of friendship between our two
peoples, provided ireland were given gen.
erous measure of home rule.
He is beginning to admit, however, that
there are some qualities in the Irish char
acter which battle him. His remembrance
OF old novels by Charles Lever, Samuel
Lover, and other writers, as well as the
stage type of Irishman traditional for
long time in England, still holds his imagi=
nation with the figure of breezy, laugh
ing, devii-may-care, romantic. soul who
helped to win most of England's battles
and was loyal to the flag. Now recent ex-
perienees have taught him that there is
something wrong in that picture. He finds
an unexpected cruelty in the Irish people,
the cruelty of the peasant mind brooding
over old grievances, unforgiving, relentless
in the pursuit of vengeance. Where he
expected weakness he finds surprising
strengthened obstinate resistance to Eng
lish reason" Where he looked for senti--
ment, especially in the war with Germany,
he hnds the hardest realism, a most selfish
refusal of allegiance, and, worst of all,
black treachery to Old England in her
hour OF need. What is the meaning of
thatl -.
What the DEVIL he asks, plaintively. is
the matter with these people?' =.
1t must be remembered that the average
Englishman knows very little of Irish his
tory. He does not read it in his school
books; he does not find it in his newspa-
pers. He has not seen, as l have before
the war, young men and girls in Dublin
standing on orange boxes in side streets
on Saturday light, reciting old ballads
about the battle of the Boyne, the massacre
of Limerick, and other, episodes of tragedy
which are kept green in the memory of the
people. He knows very little of the way
in which Irish industries were deliberately
killed by CastleIesgh-Cutthroat Castle
reagh, as they call him-nor of the fright
full famines which decimated the country
because of that policy, nor of the tragic
evictions under English or Anglo-Irish
landlords which made thousands of fam
lilies homeless and foodless, nor of the
penal laws which made martyrs of their
priests and tried to kill peoples faith, nor
of the executions and jailing of Irish pa
triots through many centuries of resistance
, to English rule. The average Englishman
has not read much of that and does not
know that it is the intellectual food upon
which the Irish feed from early childhood,
so that the remembrance of all that history
is black in their souls and fame of pas
sion in their hearts. Vaguely the ordinary
Englishman knows and admits that Eng
land in the old days was rather rough" on
is unaware that even as re-
Gently as 1880 there were the evictions and
terrorism of Clanicarde-and, generously,
as it seems to him, he wishes to make
amends. He thinks he has made amends
= by the Wyndham acts which enable the
peasants to buy their land with English
credit, and for the life of him he cannot
understand why the Irish bark back to the
past and refuse to recognize that England
is a good friend.
HE does not realize-that anything Eng
land does for ireland, or has done or will
do, is not received with gratitude as a
favor or as generous act, but is regarded
as long-delayed concession forced from
us and as dust in the balance compared
with half thousand years of tyranny,
robbery, and brutality. He does not un-
derstand that the claim for national indie )
pendence has never been abandoned for
all that time, and that, though the spark
burns dim in times of misery, it flames up
again and spreads, as it has now spread
again, like a prairie FIRE throughout those
island people with their frightful remem-
brance of history, their cherished faith, .
their undying pride" - +
The retailer says he can't replace the
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