2 APRIL 1921, Page 3

It is announced from New York that a fund is

being raised which it is hoped will amount to as much as ten million dollars for relief in Ireland, and that President Harding has approved of the fund. Before our Liberal friends here have convinced themselves even more deeply than they have yet done that the generosity of Americans is a great humiliation for Englishmen— in that Americans are offering to restore areas devastated by the wickedness of the Crown forces in Ireland—we should like to point out that the relief of distress wherever it exists has not necessarily a political implication. In the case of Mr. Harding it certainly has no such implication. Only last week we recorded an instance of his absolutely refusing to allow representatives of the American Executive to be involved in a political demonstration.