TOPICS OF THE DAY • THE GOVERNMENT, IRELAND, AN]) MAN-POWER.
THE Government will be judged by the proposals which they will make for supplying fresh troops for the Army in the field. Upon the necessity for a bold and prompt handling of the problem there is no need to dwell. The country is perfectly willing to give the Government that lead on the question without which they apparently deem them- selves unable to act. So far so good. We wish we could end the matter here, and say nothing which might seem like recrimination while we are at death-grips with our enemies, or might threaten to break the unity of the country. Unfor- tunately, however, the light-heartedness of the Prime Minister, and the special character which he has given to the Adminis- tration, make it necessary to warn the nation that it must not only wish for and call for the right thing, but that it must see that the right thing is actually done, and that it does not receive some ingenious substitute in lieu of the real article. We cannot forget that when the Government came into office in the first week of December, 1916, with the full confi- dence of the nation, that confidence was largely based upon the belief that the Government would at once take in hand the question of man-power, which was then, almost as much as now, felt to be the essential of the whole situation. Reference to our own pages in December, 1916, shows that we regarded a drastic handling of the man-power problem as virtually promised by the new Ministry. "The new Government," we declared, "owe their existence to the belief of the nation that they will tackle the question of man-power without fear or favour. Ireland is the crux of the man-power problem." It would be the duty of the Government, we argued, to do away with all privileges and exemptions which are political in their character —namely, those which are not justified, as in the case of shipbuilding, agriculture, and munitions, by war necessities. If Ireland, we went on, were made to do her duty to the Empire as England, Scotland, and Wales have done theirs, she could produce some three hundred thousand men of the best fighting quality. "Can any man allege that we dare neglect such a source of power?"
Though we considered then, as we consider now, that Ireland was the crux of the man-power problem, we went on to insist that Mr. Lloyd George must array the whole nation for war, and must put to every man in the country the ques- tion: "What are you doing to help to win the war ? " In our simplicity we imagined that, considering the unreserved support which the whole country gave to the new Govern- ment, these things would be done, and done at once. Un- happily practically nothing has been done during the last precious sixteen months in the matter of man-power. If active preparations had been begun in 1916, we should by this time have an extra million men trained and equipped. Instead, we are only just beginning to debate how to handle the nettle ; and unfortunately, though we are far from saying that the problem is now insoluble, it is infinitely more difficult to solve than it was a year and four months ago. We venture to say that in December, 1916, when the prestige of the Govern- ment was at its highest, when the Germans instead of out- numbering us on the Western Front were outnumbered by the Allies, when from the military point of view our pre- dominance was universally admitted, and finally when the Sinn Feiners were not half as closely organized as they are now and had not received half as much secret enemy support as they have now obtained, the application of the Military Service Act to Ireland would have been a comparatively easy task. There would have been a certain amount of local resistance, no doubt, but it would have been easily surmounted. rhe Government, however, " funked " the application of Compulsory Service to Ireland, and preferred the ridiculous substitute of an Irish Convention, and the search for a unanimity which all who knew Ireland knew could not be obtained.
Bitter though our thoughts must be about the lost sixteen months, we should not at such a moment dwell upon what is past did we not see abundant signs in that Press which either directs the Government or is encouraged by them that a new substitute is to be found for supplying the contingent of fighting men which Ireland owes to the cause of freedom and honour. The word is being passed round that it would be impossible to apply conscription to Ireland, and that the only way in which we can get more men out of Ireland is to tinker once more with the Home Rule Act. Then, out of gratitude, a United Ireland—which means, of course. a wildly disunited Ireland with the word " United " painted in bright colours on the outside—would send a con- tingent of heroes to the front. The idea is plainly a mere piece of Nationalist and Home Rule bunkum. Whatever else may happen, no help whatever in the matter of man-power can possibly come from the establishment of an Irish Parlia- ment which is vested with power to coerce North-East Ulster. But we have the Nationalists' own assurance that unless they are given the power to coerce North-East Ulster they have no use for Home Rule. Even apart from the fact that the application of Home Rule minus Exclusion means not union in Ireland but civil war, there remains the fact that under existing conditions the first Nationalist Parliament would be a Sinn Fein Parliament, a Parliament in which men like Mr. De Valera—men who have openly declared that in the present war they are on the side of Germany and against the Allies—would hold the predominant power. Without doubt an attempt to obtain man-power from Ireland through the application of Home Rule would be a mere act of political camouflage analogous to that practised upon the country by the establishment of the Convention. That ingenious device lost us sixteen months ! Surely the country is not going to be so foolish as to let another and similar plan waste another year and a third.
And now for the essential point. Of course we shall be asked : "Whatever the bygones, and however right you may have been in the past, do you in existing circumstances seriously propose to apply the Military Service Act to Ireland ? Do you not realize that by so doing you will be bringing a lighted torch into a powder magazine?" Our answer is that which Abraham Lincoln gave when all the doubting Thomases of the Union implored him not to force the Draft upon New York because of the hostility of the Irish in America's greatest city. The Governor of the State of New York, many of the important newspapers, and some of the most influential of the President's supporters in Congress begged him not to run risks so terrible, but to yield to what they called the irresistible determination of the Irish not to be compelled to fight. Lincoln answered all these apparently sound arguments with the laconic telegram : "Apply the Draft." If the Government are wise, they will not be deterred by fear or favour, or by the thought that they will be worried by the Nationalist vote or by Sinn Fein rebellion, but will apply the Act. Very possibly there will be fierce rioting for a short time, such as there was in New York. (Over two thousand Irishmen are believed to have been shot down in the riots caused by the enforce- ment of the Draft.) Again, however, as in the case of New York, as soon as the Irish people see that the Govern- ment are going to stand no nonsense in the matter, and will shoot but not argue, they will "go quietly." It was, indeed, one of the most remarkable facts of the Civil War that after the New York riots had been put down the Draft was applied to Irishmen, not only in that State but in other States, with practically no trouble. The Irish recruits in the Northern Army proved excellent soldiers. When people talk about the appalling physical difficulty of chasing Irish conscripts over the hills and bogs, they are simply finding excuses for avoiding an unpleasant task. Let us look at the matter squarely. In the first place, in the richest, most prosperous, and most thickly populated portion of Ireland--i.e., the Six-County Area of North-East Ulster—there will be no trouble whatever. The much- abused but loyal and competent Unionists of North-East Ulster will see to it that law and order are preserved in their area, even if a few cartridges have to be burnt in the Falls Road. Again, there is not likely to be much trouble in Dublin or Cork, or even in Limerick, or indeed in any of the chief centres of population. No doubt, however, at the beginning a considerable number of young countrymen will take to the mountains and the bogs, and lead for some time a brigandiah existence. If the Government are wise, they will not attempt to follow them into their fastnesses, but will be content to know that in a very short time the brigands will come in of their own accord.
Remember that at this moment Irish agriculture is one of the most prosperous trades in the United Kingdom. Remember also that the Irish farmer is a man with a valuable stake in the country, and that he is not going to run the risk of a forfeiture of his interests under the Land Act. He will not imperil his farm if we take proper precautions, and ensure that resistance to military service by physical force shall have the most serious consequences, including depriva- tion of the right to vote during his lifetime. The man who fights in order not to fight the enemies of the whole human race should deservedly be outlawed for life. In fine, it is clear that it will take very few more men to apply Compulsory Service to Ireland than it does to keep the disaffected parts of Ireland from rebellion, even though these are enjoying the illicit delights of exemption from military duties. People sometimes talk as if by not applying conscription to Ireland we had been able to free ourselves from all military anxieties and to leave the country without a garrison. That, of course, is far from the truth. The Germans have instructed their Sinn Fein allies to keep us in hot water, with the result that Ireland is at this moment full of British troops. The Government might just as well and as easily use these troops, not merely to counteract Sinn Fein Volunteers, but to apply Compulsory Service.
Let us by way of postscript draw attention to a singular statement in the Evening News of Monday, to the effect that the Government will not only be unable to apply conscrip- tion to Ireland, but will be unable to state their reasons. As to the truth of the latter statement we feel no doubt whatever. As, however, the Evening News tells us that the writer of the paragraph from which we quote speaks "authoritatively," we had better give the passage verbatim :— " Perhaps the most perplexing problem the War Cabinet has to deal with in relation to the further call upon the man-power of the nation is that of the recruitment of men from Ireland. They know that there will be a very strong demand in the House of Commons for conscription to be applied to Ireland, but there are circumstalwes, which cannot very well be explained publicly, why conscription there would be inadvisable at the present time. I am told that Irish Unionist M.P.'s now hold that view, and are convinced that the trouble involved in getting men from disgruntled areas would not be worth while. They are not likely to press the Government in this matter, and the Nationalists would offer strong opposition to any compulsory enrolment of their countrymen. Every phase of this question has been discussed again and again by the War Cabinet without any decision being arrived at. It will be finally settled, however, before Parliament meets."
We will only add that we shall want a great deal better evidence to make us believe that the Ulster Unionists will oppose conscription for all Ireland.
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