[To ram Eons. or Tea "Brocraroa.")
SIR,—Mr. Richard Crosbie in his letter in your last issue on the above subject draws a contrast between the Northern and Southern Volunteers. He writes: "In Belfast Volunteers are paid. In Cork the Volunteers are genuine, drilling for love, et.c." This is a choice example of the hurtful misrepre- sentation which has had so disastrous an effect in separating the North from the South in Ireland. The Celtio Irishman is a master in the art of illusion. He creates an atmosphere of unreality. In that atmosphere his love and, still more potently, his hate distort all the facts of a situation. Unhesitatingly, he affirms the thing which is not, and repeats the affirmation endlessly. He is not intentionally false, but he has allowed imagination to master both reason and conscience. Here is the cause of the persistent statement that Ulster's prepara- tions were only bluff ; and of the constant repetition of the assertion that the majority in Ulster is in favour of Home Rule. The latter assertion, refuted a hundred times, is still made from Radical platforms and circulated in Radical leaflets.
It is not too much to say that the whole Radical Party is, at the present moment, the victim of the Celtic imagination. For thirty years Ireland has been the spoiled child of the Empire, yet, in the mist of Celtic illusion, the simple mind of the English elector sees an Ireland oppressed by a malignant ascendancy waiting in sorrow for the great act of justice which is to set her free. Mr. Crosbie's assertion that the Belfast Volunteers are paid is pure imagina- tion. Who could pay thirty thousand men ? The Belfast contingent of the Ulster Volunteer Force is well over that figure. These men, who are the most hard-working men in Ireland, give themselves, all their spare time, and their money freely for the service of their country and to save her from disaster. They are ready to undergo any privation and to face any danger rather than submit to a Home Rule Parlia- ment. And, let me tell Mr. Crosbic, every fresh misrepresen- tation which is put in circulation adds strength to their determination. If Nationalists really desire to win Ulster, let them show themselves capable of giving fair play.—I ant,
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