LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] —_- AN AMERICAN ON THE IRISH QUESTION AND AMERICAN OPINION. [To THE EDITOR OH THE " SPECTATEE."] 612,-1 have just been reading with intense disgust the recent letter of Sir Horace Plunkett to the Times about public opinion in America, and I wish to register an indignant protest against hie statement that there has been any large change against the
Government's treatment of the Irish question in this country. He had no large opportunity to find out the opinion of any large fraction of 100,000,000 inhabitants of this great Republic. He spent about two months in this country this last time. He visited possibly a dozen cities and discussed the subject with not more than a hundred people, so that his know- ledge of the subject is of the meet superficial kind. Probably a number of people expressed. opinions that coincided with the opinion that he wished to get, and then he concluded that he, could conclude from what fifty people said that such was the opinion of a large majority of this nation. It is scream- ingly absurd for any man, much more competent than Sir Horace Plunkett, even after a year's careful investigation, to give an opinion on such a subject. Any such opinion on the part of any one would be largely a piece of guesswork and con- jecture. What I say about Sir Horace Plunkett's opinion applies equally well to similar opinions expressed by Mr. T. P. O'Connor and Mr. Jo Devlin, which have been cabled over and published in the papers owned by a notorious Pro-German. The latest slogan, uttered by Mr. Devlin, "England has won the war and lost the Peace," is simply ridiculous.
It is very difficult to determine just what portion of the Irish element in our population are actual Sinn Feiners, but it is fair to say that they probably number not more than ten per cent., although they claim to be thirty per cent. of our people. All the membership of the "Friends of Irish Freedom" is founded on the A.O.H. Now when the United States entered the war the membership of that Secessionist body, according to its President, was 250,000. And if we conclude that such membership has grown ten times, it is clearly demonstrated that their membership would form little more than two per cent. of the population of thiS Republic. Just before we entered the war this organization was strongly Pro-German. At their annual National Convention in Boston in July, 1916, after the sinking of the `Lusitania,' within a year before the United States cast its lot with the Allies, they passed without a dissenting voice the following resolutions "England's achievements against Ireland have been marked by crimes against civilization such as never have been sur- passed even by England in the long record of murder that stains her history. The fraternal understanding which unites the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the German-American Alliance receives our unqualified endorsement. This unity of effort and all matters of a public nature intended to circum- vent the efforts of England to secure. an Anglo-American Alliance have been productive of very seccessfill results. The congratulations of those of as who live under the flag of the United States are extended to our German-American fellow- citizens upon the conquests won by the Fatherland, and we assure them of our unshaken confidence that the German Empire will crush England, aid in the liberation of Ireland, and be a real defender of small nations."
It shows what contemptible sneaks, hypocrites, and Pharisees these Irish-American Sinn Feiners are, that men like Cardinal O'Connell and Francis P. Walsh, hearty supporters of these resolutions, now arrogantly claim that Ireland's so-called freedom shall be assured by the Peace Conference. They fought for Germany in this country against the Allies, as long as they dared to, but now, when the Huns are crushed, they falsely pose among the victors. They come not with clean hands but with the dirtiest possible of paws to the Conference, like an adulterous husband who demands an acquittal for the murder of his wife and her paramour.
All the best people of my acquaintance are utterly disgusted that these three so-called Irish Race Commissioners should ever have been allowed passports to visit Paris, or should have been permitted by the Lloyd George Government to visit Ireland. It was very much like casting pearls before swine, and they were sure to abuse such privileges, as they promptly did. The Sinn Fein Irishman in this country, as in Ireland, has no sense of honour or decency, no sense of ethical obligation, and no love for the truth.
I desire to treat Sir Horace Plunkett with proper respect, for he is a well'meaning man who has done much for Ireland. But he impresses people in this country with the feeling that his judgment in public affairs is very poor, and his bump of common-sense needs considerable development. He foolishly attacks the policy towards Ireland which the most intelligent people in this votmtry, like ex-President Taft, heartily support— viz., that " the Irish question" is entirely an internal question for your Government to decide, without any advice from us, like the Philippine question, or the 'question of negro suffrage in the South, within our sovereignty. Sir Horace Plunkett and all others like him dishonour Abraham Lincoln When he gives such adviee.as he gives in that letter. Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War said, in. most peremptory tones to England and Continental Europe, "Hands off," although the Southern Confederacy numbered one-third of our population and were able to hold the other two-thirds of the Republic at bay for four years. The United Kingdom has a far better right on the
Irish question to say to the United States, " Hands off," when your picayune rebellion represents one-twentieth of you! population, and is led not by a British citizen, but by a worth- less leader who is either a citizen of Mexico or the United States.
Still even more abominable is Sir Horace Plunkett'i advice about giving Ireland the status" of the Dominion of
Canada. That would gratify the fondest wishes of those accursed Sinn Fein traitors, and such an offer to the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War at the hands of Abraham Lincoln would have been eagerly seized by Jefferson Davis. Thoughtful men in America who see and admire Canada, especially after her heroic conduct during the war, fully recognize the significance of those noble lines, " Daughter am I in my mother's house, but mistress in my own." No one who believes in justice and loyal patriotism could ever think with anything but horror and disgust of a plan to give to the priest-ridden, treacherous majority if Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, the men who have associated the name of Maynooth with imperishably shame and disgrace, the well-deserved position of an independent State in that noble British Commonwealth of self-governing States.
Finally, do not take the passing of the so-called Gallagher Resolution seriously. While it was at once both a disgrace to the United States and an insult to England, it most not be taken as honest expression, at all, of any large section of the American people. It was the pure product of chicanery. political blackmail, bull-dozing, and intimidation of the mo't venomous kind. It was passed three months after it was introduced, at five o'clock in the morning on the last day of a dying Congress. One of the worst of the Sinn Fein Irishmen in Congress let the cat out of the bag when, like a veritable slave-driver, he snapped the whip over the heads of his fellow- Congressmen and said : "There is dynamite for all of you if this resolution is not passed." Another one, who had voted for it under compulsion, said : "It is easier to do that than to fight a lot of furious Irishmen who have their knives out for you on election day." The whole thing was the result of a secret campaign carried on for months under the supervision of Cornelius Lynch, who, after his expulsion from Ireland, was promptly made secretary in this country of the " Friends of Irish Freedom."
The hypocrisy and Pharisaism of any citizen of this country who supports the Gallagher Resolution is easily seen by any one who does honest thinking for a moment. It squarely contravenes the doctrine of Lincoln's Gettysburg address and the Monroe Doctrine. The Irish Sinn Feiner, either in Ireland or the United States, is never troubled by compunctious of conscience or ethical consistency. The ordinary rule of his life is a variant of the famous words of the Dred Scott decision. In the altered form they run like this, ' No one else has any rights which an Irish Sinn Feiner is bound to respect.'—I am,
Sir, &c., GEORGE L. Fox. New Haven, Conn.
[Mr. Fox writes with vigorous indignation as well as with knowledge. Let our readers remember, however, that he cannot be called " a Black Protestant," " an Ascendancy Ulsterman," or "an anti-Irish Irishman." He is a citizen of the United States with some three hundred years of American ancestry. He writes as he feels, not like the Politician who speaks and acts as he fancies or fears other people feel.—En. Spectator.]
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