TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE SITUATION IN IRELAND.
BEFORE we deal with the Irish situation, let us say what we have said a dozen times before, and always with absolute sincerity--namely, that nothing would give us greater satisfaction than the finding of a solution of the Irish question by the Convention. If a unanimous, or a virtually unanimous, recommendation for a Constitu- tional settlement of the problem were achieved, the present writer would be the best-pleased man in the United Kingdom. We are not forgetting, however, the official decree of silence in regard to the proceedings of the Convention. We deemed that decree thoroughly sound, and we have never attempted to evade it in the letter or the spirit. We will only add that if the suggestions which have been published of late in the Press that good progress has been made under the conciliatory Chairmanship of Sir Horace Plunkett are true, the news is indeed good news. BEFORE we deal with the Irish situation, let us say what we have said a dozen times before, and always with absolute sincerity--namely, that nothing would give us greater satisfaction than the finding of a solution of the Irish question by the Convention. If a unanimous, or a virtually unanimous, recommendation for a Constitu- tional settlement of the problem were achieved, the present writer would be the best-pleased man in the United Kingdom. We are not forgetting, however, the official decree of silence in regard to the proceedings of the Convention. We deemed that decree thoroughly sound, and we have never attempted to evade it in the letter or the spirit. We will only add that if the suggestions which have been published of late in the Press that good progress has been made under the conciliatory Chairmanship of Sir Horace Plunkett are true, the news is indeed good news.
But though we are not going to deal in any shape or form with the Convention, it is permissible to pomt out that the one thing which would ruin the Convention and blast the promise of good results in the future would be a serious disturb- ance in Ireland. That, as every one knows, would destroy in an instant the edifice of conciliation and good sense which the Convention is so carefully seeking to establish. Those who provoke, and those who tolerate or fail to deal adequately with, anything which tends to destroy public order in Ireland, are therefore the worst possible enemies of the Convention. And yet, amazing as it sounds, we see the Government hesi- tating to deal firmly with provocations to disturbance, and allowing matters to drift into a condition which may cause an explosion at any moment I Though we say it with deep regret, the present policy of the Government is undoubtedly putting the Convention in jeopardy We must, then, protest against the supineness of the Government, and urge upon them, with all the strength at our command, to deal before it is too late with the causes of disorder.
What is happening in Ireland can be described in very few words. It 1.9 " Birrellisss " over again. Astonishing as it scenic, we are actually committing the same folly, and in the same way, which we committed in the period just before the Irish Rebellion. The only difference is that now the guilt of our ineptitude is doubled by the fact that we have had so recent an experience of the consequences of " Ilirrellism." Mr. Birrell and his colleagues might plead that nobody had ever tried their patent political pill before, and that it was just possible that it might produce a " complete recovery." We know now that the pill produced instead the most violent convulsions. Yet here we are, with unshattered hopes, trying the same nostrum in the same way and for the same disease! The essential of " Birrell- ism " was to pretend that the Irish tiger was a tabby cat. According to the Birrell formula, if you only called it " Poor pussy " in sufficiently dulcet tones, offered it a saucer of cream, insisted that its claws were harmless, and when it growled swore that that was only its peculiar way of purring, the tiger would eventually be turned into a "harmless, necessary cat." Its preparations to spring were only one of its pretty playful ways. A good many people thought this treatment insane ; but still, as the policy of turning tigers into pussy cats had never been tried before by any human being, it was no doubt technically possible to say that the 'ukelele was going to be performed. Then came the inevitable smash. The tiger turned opt to be " Poor pussy " proof. It sprang, and a good many unfortunate people lost their lives in proving that, although the name might be changed, the teeth and the claws of the creature were the same.
Now, as we have said, we are doing just the same thing over again. Only the form of excuse is changed. Before the rebellion it used to be said that it was perfectly safe and sensible to allow the Irish Volunteers to practise street fighting in the utmost detail on Satur- day afternoons in Dublin, and actually to carry out manoeuvres in which " the special idea " was the seizing of the Castle or of the Post Office ! Anybody who suggested that the manoeuvres were a little too realistic for safety was laughed at as fussy " and " funky." After all, it was only child's-play and make-believe, and must be tolerated because it kept the Dublin Volunteers happy and amused. There was no possible danger unless some clumsy, brutal Englishman stepped in, interfered with' the war game, and irritated beyond endurance a quick-witted, sensitive, and oppressed race. Then, indeed, things might become serious and a real rebellion take place. When these excuses wore a little thin, we were told that at any rate the policy of the blind-eye was absolutely necessary in the interests of Mr. Redmond and the Nationalists. If we provoked the Sinn Fein Volunteers to anger, we might destroy that most valuable Imperial and military asset, the goodwill of the Nationalist Parliamentary Party. The Nationalists were sound about the war, though the Sinn Feiners were not. But if the Volunteers were interfered with, public opinion would swing right over to the Sinn Feiners and the Nationalist Party would be ruined. In a word, the Nationalist Party were represented as having made an appeal ad misericordiain to the British Government to save them from the extre- mists, which the Government could not resist. Accordingly Dublin went to its doom. Now exactly the same sort of things are being said. We must not interfere when the Sinn Feiners cheer the Kaiser, or when their spokes- man declares that it is to Irish interests that Germany should win, because a German victory would mean " the restoration of the temporal power of the Pope." Next we are told that we must not only let out men condemned a year before to life sentences for murder and treason. When they once more commit treason and incite so violently to rebellion that we have to rearrest them, we must not venture to do more than detain them on "hotel conditions." At any rate, we must apply our prison rules only to those who make no resistance. Those who resist must be allowed to break the rules. Further, if we make regulations against the wearing of " rebel " uniforms, or the carrying of sticks to represent weapons, or illegal drilling, we must not enforce them if any one should refuse to obey. In that case, " so much the worse for the regulations." They must be tact- fully withdrawn. As for a person who virtually commits suicide by starving himself and by insisting upon being forcibly fed, his body must be allowed to lie in state, dressed in a rebel uniform, with rebel " soldiers " with rifles and fixed bayonets mounting guard over it. Finally, there must be no objection to the firing of a military salute over the grave.— Yet the possession of arms and their employment by the Sinn Feiners have, since the rebellion, been strictly forbidden ! But this is not all. When an Irish leader, Mr. De Valera, who got into Parliament on a platform the chief plank of which was " an absolutely independent Irish Republic," creates in the County Clare a very efficient military organiza- tion and carries out manoeuvres which amount to nothing less than practising taking military possession, not only of the county named, but of both sides of the mouth of the Shannon, that wonderful waterway which leads deep into the heart of Ireland, nothing must be said—apparently on the "pussy and tiger" principle. The only difference is that the excuse for the old " 13irrellism " was, " We must save the Nationalists," while the excuse for the new " Birrellism " is, " We must save the Convention." Once again conies the familiar apologia: "The Simi Feiners are only playing at rebellion. They mean nothing in particular when they march ten thousand perfectly drilled men into Ennis and then march them out again, or when they occupy Kilrush, or appear in force on the other side of the Estuary." The official mot d'ordre appears to be that these interesting manoeuvres are quite as harmless as, we were told eighteen months ago, were the operations for seizing the Castle and the Post Office. " As long as you keep on swearing to your- self, and any one who will listen, that this is only a cat and not a tiger, all zaust be well. Just think, too, how dreadfully it would interfere with the peaceful deliberations of the Convention if the Government acted as if the old Indian telegram had come true:' Tiger jumping about on platform; staff much alarmed ; please arrange.'" In spite of the risk of being told that we are not playing the game, we feel it is absolutely necessary to speak out, and to enunciate as loudly as we can the elementary truth that a loose tiger, even when under an alias, is an infinitely greater danger to the Convention than a tiger under restraint. " But we can hear the advocates of the new " Birrelfism " replying, " you don't really mean to suggest that Mr. De Valera has any serious design in his head when he amuses his Volun- teers by practising taking military possession of the County Clare, and apparently also a good part of the County Limerick ? Didn't he give the correspondent of the Daily Mail to under- stand that he had no particular object in holding his military manoeuvres where he held them f To suppose there was any special significance about the place where the manoeuvres were held is to attribute plans to Mr. Do Valera and his colleagues which it is impossible they could ever have entertained. Why they chose this particular place for their child's play neither they, nor we, nor anybody else can tell any more than we can tell why a child chooses to play Indians in the south corner of the drawing-room rather than the east." And yet, if one looks at a map of Ireland, sees where the Shannon debouches, notes how the waterway is navigable for ships of considerable burden, and marks how it leads right into the heart of rebel Ireland, one will understand that practising how to take military possession of the estuary and river might be quite as good business for people who want " an absolutely independent Irish Republic " as learning how to take possession of the Castle or the Post Office, and how to carry on street fighting. However, if we say more here, we shall perhaps be told that we are playing the cruel game of British ascendancy, and putting wicked ideas into the heads of poor innocent Irishmen who but for us would never have thought of them. Indeed, we are not sure that it might not be held to be a much greater crime to suggest the possibility of criminal acts in Ireland than actually to engage in such criminal acts oneself. We must be content to wonder whether ever before in history a great nation has allowed itself to be twice fooled within eighteen months by the same old fiction. Nothing, indeed, seems to fit the situation adequately except Landor's epigram :—
" You wept and smiled, and I believed,
By every tear and smile deceived.
Another man would hope no more, Nor hope I what I hopod before. But let not this last wish ba vain, Deceive, deceive me once again."
In the plain language of the street, the Government appear to be " asking for it." But no doubt we shall be told that we arc too pessimistic, and that though the " Poor pussy " miracle didn't work in 1916, it is going to work this time. All the same, and even if we are written down as suffering from nerves because we draw attention to the " hooroosh " upon the Shannon shore, in fact if we are driven off the ground as visionaries, there is one little grievance which we crave leave to point out—one which we think will evoke a good deal of human sympathy. The correspondents describe Mr. De Valera and his A.D.C.'a as tearing about the County Clare in high-powered motor-cars, engaged on staff work, ably planned and ably executed. That does seem to us a little hard. Here is the unfortunate English- man unable to get petrol even to do Red Cross or other public work, and yet self-dubbed rebels like Mr. De Valera and his A.D.C.'s have apparently no difficulty whatever in getting all the petrol they want for their peculiar " work of a national character."
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