THE LOYALISTS IN THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. [To THE EDITOR
OF THE -" SPECTATOR.."1 SIR,—The splendid letter of Mr. Arthur Elliot, and the seven letters which followed it in your issue of December 17th, will be a very great comfort to our broken-hearted loyal fellow- citizens in Ireland, judging from the gratitude expressed from the North of Ireland for my own letter in your issue of November 26th. They seem very gratified that there are still some people in England who think with sympathy of them in their bitter time of trial. The Southern Loyalists, as you say in your footnote to " G.'s " letter, need our sympathy very specially, for, although the Six Counties will still be a rallying ground for the Union Jack (for which we shall be very thankful when we have to intervene to stop the anarchy which will ensue when Sinn Fein and the United Transport Workers and Communists have held sway over the South for a certain period), at present the Loyalists in the South have no such rallying ground nor any place of refuge. When our Govern- ment hoisted the white flag of surrender surely the very least they could have done in their negotiations with the rebels would have been to arrange for the evacuation of the loyal. garrison, but there is no word of concern for these—our loyal fellow-countrymen—in the Settlement (?).
Hitherto any citizen of British birth has felt secure in the knowledge that his British citizenship was a sure and certain guarantee that the whole power and might of the British Crown would be invoked for his defence and protection if needs be. Now, at the heart of the Empire, in the British Isles, our loyal brethren in the South of Ireland have called, and called in vain, for the protection to which their birth- right entitled them. Mr. Birrell in Ireland, Mr. Montagu in India, and others have sapped the foundations of our liberties, which are law and order. Living here in East Cheshire we may be secure for the moment, but if we fail to raise our voices in defence of our fellow-citizens in Southern Ireland it may be we who, in due time, will be thrown to the political wolves, and if we selfishly make no protest on behalf of others, then when our time comes it will serve us right. Surely before the capitulation it should have been stipulated that the Southern Loyalists shall be allowed to march out with all the honours of war when the fortress is surrendered. They have upheld our cause, and a rearguard should surely be sent over to see that the wounded are safely evacuated before the retreat becomes a rout. I am glad that you drew attention to the fact that the Southern Loyalists deserve even more of our sympathy than those in the Six Counties of the North.—I am,
Sir, &c., E. L. OLIVER. The Waterhouse, Bollington, Macclesfield.
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