The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-02-05


IRELAND WILL LEAD TO AN
ARcHY-HENRY w. NEvlNsoN,
AN .ENGLIsIiMAN. AND SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENTS, DEscRIREs
TERRIBLE CONDITION OF THE
EMERALD lsLE-REPoRTs ONLY
WHAT He HAS SEEN WITH HIS
! OWN EYEs-coNTINUED PERsE.
cUTioN HEGGARs DESCRIPTION.
Within the last five weeks I have
been, for some days off and on, in
Dublin, and have also visited the fol-
lowing scenes of recent devastation or
murder, or both: Templemore,
Thurles, Mallow, Castleisland, Traiee,
Ardfert, Foynes, Limerick, Killaloe,
Scarriff, Raheen, Gort, Ardahan, Gal
way, Tuam, Swineford. Belfast and
Cork, in that order. On MY way
have also seen the ruins of the par
TALLY or utterly destroyed creameries
at Loughmore, Ballymacelligott, A6-
:
beydorney and Lixnaw, and the CO.
operative stores at Foynes. In all
those places, with the possible excep-
tion of Killaloe and Swineford, pri-
vate houses, peoples halls, or public
buildings had been burnt out, and in
many of them murders had recently
been committed by groups of men
whom everyone in the place or dis
trict believed to be members of Brit
ish armed forces, either military or
police.
ReprisaIs Not Justified.
If reprisals upon innocent and un.
tried people could ever be justified,
excuse might be pleaded in few of
those cases, where members of Brit
ish armed forces had been Kidnapped,
ambushed, shot at, or killed by un-
known people who probably MAIN
tanned they were at war with the
British Government But, as Mr.. JUS
tice PIN said in his. charge to the
grand jury in Belfast on the first of
the month, There can be no legal
reprisals. If reprisals were carried
out, or if there were an excuse for
that kind of thing, it would lead di-
rectly and absolutely to anarchy, and
to nothing else.'
In Ireland it is leading to anarchy
and nothing else. The worst of it is
that the anarchy of reprisals is being
produced by the representatives OF
''law and ORDER" In Belfast and other
towns of the northeast corner, re
prisals have been perpetrated by
Protestant and Orange mobs. But
suppose that there is not one human
soul living in Ireland who even pre-
tends to believe that the reprisals in
the rest of the country are not the
work of the British reinforcements
to the armed police, whether Auxil
liaries or Black and Tans proper, or
in far fewer cases, the work of the
regular British army. In Ireland
have never heard or read even a sug
gestion Of any other agency. Be
sides, the question always recurs: il
the agents of the "reprisals" are not
in the service of the Government
how do they procure the motor lorrie.
in which they rush through the streets
of cities and through the country, anG
the rifles with which one sees then
firing at random? How do they Sc
cure the immunity to prowl in cite.
lat night and burn out buildings suci
as the 'Freeman's Journal office o.
the Sfnn Fein Bank in Dublin, or thu
great shops and Sinn Fein clubs ii
Cork, where the earlier burnings wer,
all done during curfew hours? O.
how is it that a party of FIVE or st
in the Auxiliary uniform could will
impunity rush into the shops ant
homes of Catholic Irish people an,
smash all the goods. glass. furnitur
and other possessions, as + saw hat
been done in Cork last week, Will,
they kept crying, Wen teach you t.
mock at us!"
| Some Queer "officers."
] do not know who imagines him
| self in control of these Auxiliaries ol
such occasions. The men are sur
tposed to be all ex-officers. In thirt
lyears' fairly intimate acquaintanc
I with the British army, l have neye
4 seen officers like these. General T,
dor tells us they get a guinea da.
i What more they acquire cannot sa.
but many Of them behave more like
lgang of bandits let loose upon a poo
and distracted country than like th
british officers to whom have litl
erto been accustomed.
/ Cardinal Logue is. an old man
man of known moderation and studie
discretion. Let me, then, recall
passage from his Pastoral Letter I
three weeks ago. After saying thu
men had been taken from their home
and shot because they were suspecte
Iof sympathy with Sim Fein, the
captors acting as judges, juries an
executioners, he continued:
"Lorries laden with armed me
! careen through the country day h
day. and when the unhappy peop
seek cover or fly, as one natural
would when cry is raised of a ma
dog at large, or savage beast e
capped from menagerie, that fiigl
is taken as sufficient proof Of guil
and they are pitiIessly shot down
sight. No false pretences, no mi
representations, no pail of lies. eve