[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—At the present time
the Government in Ireland has rendered itself peculiarly obnoxious to a section of the working class because of its decision to enforce a special type of identification-permit on all motor-drivers. It is notorious that nine-tenths of the more serious crimes have been committed expeditiously and safely by means of motor transport, so that every law-loving man would welcome such an Order.
Not so the Irish workers as influenced by their Sinn Fein leaders; and as a result all motorists who have complied with
the Order are intimidated by pickets "peaceful" and other- wise. Why such picketing was not immediately put down is not yet dear. If Mr. Asquith's law which allowed " picketing " in labour disputes be considered just and equitable, or as a mistaken sop to the Labour Party, by no stretch of imagina- tion can such a law be considered as having application to such a case as this when it is not a dispute between Labour and employer but between the ruled and ruler. " Picketing " those who comply with the law is surely nothing more than open sedition, or so it would appear to the average law-abiding citizen. And for any servant of the State to offer an alternative to the State's own Order is surely an encouragement of
lawless- ness, and a proof of the greatest lack of understanding at a time when solidarity and unity of purpose is the only possible hope of salvation. And yet this unwise servant is probably in no sense abashed, but pursues the even tenor of his way, ready, when another law is made that proves unpalatable to the lawless, to suggest a modification of his own and so gain the brief approval of the fickle mob.
Surely it is time for us to arm ourselves with understanding and to silence every dissentient alien voice, come it from what- soever .quarter. It is time for us to realize that sane men do not commit organized raids upon the homes of peaceful citizens and carry away arms without some definite object in view, and that object is certainly not a battue of pheasants or the extermination of rats or rabbits! May one not even conceive the possibility of a " divine " who publicly wrote of an armed attack upon a peaceful shooting party as an "ugly joke" looking upon an Irish St. Bartholomew in much the same light, as a larger "joke" perhaps, but little if any uglier! This is not a call to men to disarm themselves with cowardice or fear—but rather that they may arm themselves with under- standing. If blood be shed it will cry out against those who weakened the laws of those in power, and may God avert so hideous a dishonour by making all men see that Freedom is false to herself when she removes the strong hand of restraint and that England only stands as she upholds this Freedom.—
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