The New York herald., 1922-06-11
Sees Unwise Moral Pressure
on British in Offer of
Treaty.
OPPOSES MAILED FIST
Says Venomous Spirit Of De
Valera Played Into Hands
of It's Advocates.
ULSTERMEN INTOLERANT
Sir Henry Wilson Out for
Blood, Churchill for Peace
With Honor.
BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS.

BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS.
Special Gable to THE NEW YonK HERALD
LONDON, June 10.-The condition of
affairs in Ireland, which is disgrace
full In the eyes of all civilized peo-
pies, causes increasing agitation in
the public opinion of England. Even
the warmest friends of the Irish peo-
pie frankly confess despair over that
unhappy country and have lost all
patience with both sides. 1t is espe-
cially hard upon those who advocated
peace and conciliation at time when
Sim F'ein was fighting it's guerilla
warfare with British troops and who
brought unwise moral pressure upon
the British Government to offer that
treaty which history will surely judge
as a generous and magnanimous
measure for the sake of liberty. Their
liberal sentiments are now made
mockery by those who regarded all
such idealism as weakness and treach-
cry to imperial interests.
BY the folly of fanatics, rejecting
the spirit Of liberty and good will for
a theoretical formula, by the murder
Gus instincts of young gunmen who
play the game of death as English
boys play cricket, the treaty is jeopar-
died and England is again faced with
the necessity of armed intervention.
The forces and personalities in Eng
land believing in the old fashioned
conquest of Ireland by Britain's armed
might, as they believe in holding
India, Egypt and all possessions not
by moral influence, but by the good
old mailed fist, were for some time
compelled to lie low, to cool their
passion by the victory Of peace meth
DDS. They are now in the open again.
proclaiming the urgent need of strong
measures by which they mean full,
frank war. with all the available
strength of Britain to defend Ulster
from Republican raids and to restore
the union of southern Ireland as it
stood before the treaty.
Played Into Hands of Foes.
Although 1 do not agree with this
policy all can say is that De Valera
and his fellow fanatics have asked for
it. Their stupidity or intolerance, their
mean nagging, their. venomous spirit
and their complacency with horrible
crime have played straight into the
hands of that English group which adj
vocates reconquest. Collins and those
who signed the treaty. by surrender
ing even in appearance to the bullies
of the De Valera crowd. have made il
hard for the British Government ia
resist the militarists inside and out.
side their own ranks
There is no doubt that Ulster must
be defended at all costs. We are
pledged to that and must keep that
pledge unless we lose our honor. But
there are powers working secretly as
we'll as openly to make Ulster a grap
pling hook which will drag England
into war of reconauest in southern
ireland. Those Ulster loyalists-dear,
innocent lambs as they make them
selves out to be-are shouting for
rescue from their English brothers
against the murderous campaign of
Sim Feih gunner, and already mill
ions Of simple hearts in England are
stirred to sympathetic Indignation be-
cause loyal Ulster is threatened with
invasion from the Irish republicans.
because Sim Fein gunmen are busy
in Belfast.
It is easy TO see how this loyalty to
those who call themselves our friends
Is a good battle cry for Englishmen
in high places as well as for Ulster
leaders who wish to stamp out the
treaty of peace with the Irish Cath
olics. The dividing line between ag-
gression and defense is always thin.
Attack is sometimes the best means
of defense. Ulster WILL therefore,
have no difficulty in persuading Eng
land that she merely wishes to defend
her frontier. and already British
troops rushed to her rescue have been
plunged into border warfare. 1t is
impossible to say where that will stop.
Ulster Also to Blame.
For me II is also impossible to ac-
quit Ulster of blame. cannot re-
gard Ulstermen as injured fnnocents,
having had a painful experience be-
fore the war of their intolerance and
brutality. / have seen gangs of them
kick to death a single helpless Cath
olic. have stood under the shelter
of houses in Donegal street road when
they have collected piles of kidney
stones and hurled them at any man
they suspected as an inhabitant of
Catholic quarter. / have seen ,their
organized eviction of Catholic work.
ingmen. which they have recently
repeated. so that there is threatened
invasion from Irish republicans of
10000 Catholics who have been CHASED
out OF Ulster under threats of death
Catholic gunmen in Ulster have been
busy and murderous, but Ulster gun
men haven't been idle. and UP to the
last day OF May this competition in
assassination since the peace treaty
results in seventy-three Catholics
killed as against twenty-nine Protes-
tants, 40 Catholics wounded as
against ninety Protestants. 1t is
religious and racial vendetta on both
sides which tempts one to despair of
hrnan progress in that island of
trage~-'
The most formidable advocate OF
British Intervention by repeal of the