"A KIND WORD FROM IRELAND "!
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR21 Sia,—In your interesting article of January 29th on Mr. Harold Cox's paper in the Edinburgh your statement that most Englishmen would welcome a " kind word from Ireland," i.e., of course the "Ireland " that you mean and that I mean, made me turn hot all over. Since 1914, or say 1916, I have taken some trouble to form an opinion of the mental attitude towards the disloyal Irish majority—of educated and indeed other private individuals in a wide district in two home counties. This in- cludes a very large number of visitors and temporary residents from all over the country, and indeed the world. Excepting an occasional crank of a Pacifist or similar persuasion, I have not encountered a single person who does not express from the depth of his heart a feeling that is so saturated with contempt it is difficult to find an adequate word. How should it be otherwise? You yourself, Sir, have given the reasons again and again. All of these people, met in the ordinary intercourse of life, ranging from High Court Judges and Generals to country tradesmen, would, I am absolutely certain, resent the imputation that they were awaiting " a kind word " from the disaffected Irishmen whom they look on as eternally disgraced and outside the pale.—
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