THE CHURCH AND SINN FEIN.
[TID THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—A so-called "Church meeting" was held at the Central Hall, Westminster, on May 25th. The object of the meeting, as set forth on bills printed in green and posted up in London churches, was "to appeal to all Christian people for a new spirit in dealing with the Irish question."
The Bishop of Peterborough, in the chair, told US that this was not a political meeting, but a religious meeting for Christian people, and said that force was no remedy. The Bishop of Southwark followed, beginning with a general con- demnation of Sinn Fein methods and similarly of reprisals by Crown forces. Then followed a gentleman from Cork, who told us that this trouble was not begun by Ireland! We were also edified by some remarks from an American born in Belfast, who admitted that he had just been " gun-running " with the I.R.A., that he had been all through Roscommon with them. This was greeted with loud applause, and there was no protest from either the bishop in the chair or the others. He also made sundry references to such " martyrs " as Robert Emmett and others, whose names were greeted with
frantic applause by the audience. Finally, the Bishop of Manchester told us that we should love Sinn Fein as a Christian duty! This is no exaggeration but is actually what he said.
The absurd part of the whole proceedings was that while the bishops and others were preaching to us, as English people, to forgive and forget, and to grant all the Sinn Feiners asked, and admit that we were wrong, to cease oppressing them, Ac., the majority of the audience was obviously Sinn Fein, mostly women. To people who know Ireland and this class of Irish the fact was obvious before the meeting began, but the course , of the proceedings left no doubt on this point. Of course, no questions were allowed, as one might have expected in a political but not in a religious meeting. The whole subject was treated as if there were no loyalists in Ireland, and as if it was merely a question of oppression on the part of England, and always had been so. On our way out we met a man who was furious at the political aspect that the speakers had assumed, saying that he himself had come only because he objected to reprisals, but was thoroughly dissatisfied with the proceedings. Although, of course, it was not the intention, yet in effect we have these bishops actually encouraging a Sinn Fein audience. It does seem strange and a thousand pities that three bishops of the Church of England should lend themselves to such proceedings, however good their intentions.
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