Pueblo chieftain., 1921-01-16

British government. Their political opinions Amer
lean citizens dominated by hate for England rather
than by love for America, and they would not hesitate
to plunge America into in order to avengc upon
England the wrongs that ireland has suffered.
The certainty that anything that any fair-minded
and unprejudced American write about Ireland will
be denounced and msrepresened should not deter the
conscientious editor from expressing his opinions upon
subject that is of general current interest This duty
is the commanding because there has already been
far too much reccncc the part of the great body of
Americans whose thought is for America first and
always with the result that American sentiment in re-
gard to Irish affairs has been grossly misrepresented
and misunderstood, at home and abroad.
There is abundant evidence that the present condi-
ons in Ireland inconcevaby and nexpressiby hor
rble A recent writer in the London Times says: "lf
the people in the sister ISLE (England) knew what is
happening in their country they would inevitably take
steps to put end to the inolerable suffering, the
nightmare of terror in which they are cowed and
tortured Day after day and night after night
especially night after night-murder and violence and
terrorism knocking at their DOORS In the disturbed
areasand at any moment any district may be added to
car road place that is not guarded by armed
forces superior to the possible attackers is safe from
the rule of tho revolver. No one can SO
bed at night without the feeling that armed men may
walk into his bedroom in the hours of darkness At any
moment the dreadful hamcring at the door may come,
and then no power earth keep the doors Closed
=. Grim letters of personal warning, notices
rbolo md mIla ar
charming threats almost commonplaces of life 1t
easy to find people who have been cruelty knocked
abou or thrown into rivers, who have had their
houses burned about their Every night thousands
of people sleep in the fields, under hedges haystacks
because they dare not sleep at home Every night II
they stay their houses many thousands so to bed II
fear and trembling, Christian land in the twentieth
century, in time of peace -
The stories that have been published in the United
States of the outrages committed in ireland against the
Irish people have not been exaggerated and what is
known to Americans generally is far less than the hor
ribe truth But Americans ought also to know that the
responsibility for this awful condition rests both upon
the British government and upon those Irish leaders
who in campaign of murder have provoked campaign
of murder in retaliation.
Quoting again from the London Times ''Therc is
no laughter in Ireland today. 1t has fled the land, ban
shed first of all by the terrorism of Sim Fem grim
cold boodcd and cruel and by the fear of rcprsas
Between the neither and upper milstones the aw-abd
ing populaonthat is, the great majority of the Peo-
pie of Ireland-are ground to powder. They live lfe
of panic. e. Sim Feiners declare that there
werc no shootings of policemen until the government
by long campaign of arrests imprsonments without
trial and other repressvc had exasperated the
people beyond bearing. The forces of the Crown con
tend that tho rcprsals which they admit, only came into
force after the cold booded murder of of police
Everyone except the extreme Sim Feiners knows
tho many afraid to admit it, that before the Irish
people were tcrrorized, as they arc, by the
ccsscs sometimes committed by members of the Crown
forces they tcrrorfzed by the tyranny of Sim
Fcin by night raids in search of by compusiou
of the younger enforced by threats of death from
which there only way of escape, to join the
ranks of the Irish Republican army
Under such conditions unprcjudiced Americans
be expected to be parsans either OF tho British
government or of the friends of Irish freedom. The
radical Irish rcvolutonarcs have made sincere cf-
fort to reach compromise that would give the Irish
people home rule and at the same time maintain the
integrity of the British empire On the other hand the
British governments forces in Ireland have finally
reached stage where they have undertaken campaign
of indiscrimnate murder and terrorism against the
Irish people.
An unfortunate though minor aspect OF the situa-
ton is that the murder campaign of the Irish radicals
was partially financed America and that its object
all -y,,,,p ibnr