OCR Text |
Show EMBARRASSED BY THE IRISH QUESTION. With all the other great strains j which are upon Great Britain, the Irish jj question continues to demand atten- ; lion, and the English papers are urg- ,ing action calculated to restore a I friendly relationship with the Emer- t aid Isle. The London Observer, with I keen understanding, points out how ' the estrangement is handicapping the British empire in the great war. "Ireland ianot the Achilles' heel of rthe Empire in the present struggle, but for all political purposes it Is a !i idlseased spot which cannot be allowed I I10 fester white government confesses I Utself Impotent to attempt a remedy. From- the new administrations, despite Khe unduly conventional Unonists ele-j! ele-j! pient It contains, the country firmly I 'expects healing statesmanship. We 1 leay this very earnestly, because ev- iery day proves more clear)y that in tiuyjrfsh. Question were dealing not jj rwith a domestic Issue which can be j indefinitely adjourned without sensi ble detriment to our arms and pro-j pro-j found , moral jjejudice -tut our jause, t - S l, . - . . wt . - but with one of the most urgent of all war questions. "Serving at an age which might well exempt him from military toil and danger, but entitles him to ad Jress on terms of moral equality at (he least any minister on the treasury trea-sury bench and any aiidieneo In the country, that gallant and lovable Irishman, Irish-man, Major Willie Redmond, made in the House of Commons the other nighi a speech which not only moved all hearts, but, still better, stirred manv minds to fresh purpose. In that speech, as staunch and heartening in the common com-mon OfUiM ai COUld bo made by any soldier of the Allies, he told how men of the Ore. n and men of the Orange are lighting and dying together, pouring pour-ing out blood of the same color and showing the common courage of the laud that bore them. Many an Orangeman Orange-man and many a Nationalist who has fallen has had In mind as earthly sight fnded away a vision or home among the same villages, the same fields. It is tragic beyond telling that their peoplp at home should be divided divid-ed by the old political feuds and that while men of the Green and Orange fight with equal loyalty Tor a common cause at the front, their own country is rent asunder. If we reflect on this we shall perceive that there are lew things sadder in the whole of history. In all the long pain of Ireland's centuries cen-turies despite the immense amount that has been done by practical measures mea-sures during the last fifty years to mend ancient wrongs, here is now the iron thai enters most sharply to the quick of the soul. "Yet, still, Ireland is perversely Irritated Ir-ritated by such minor things as the attempt to keep for London on a technical tech-nical plea the pictures that Sir Hugh Lane, by the testimony of his own sister meant to go to Dublin. And still to take larger things all the good that Nationalist Irishmen do for the common cause is overlooked or little markpd by the malign stupidity of common politicians, while every positive pos-itive misdeed of the Sinn Felners. ev- iirv . 'imI I : i, r. f ,,i , je indifference shown by the perplexed and sullen part of the population is magnified and cried up as though there were nothing to be set against it. "This is a miserable situation which every politician worth his salt ought to resolve to improve, no matter what the difficulties. We have learned this week that in Australia Mr. Hugh-is' proposal for conscription was just beaten by the casting-vote of the Irish Nationalist electors, though these at the beginning of the struggle were enthusiastic as any. In the United States Irish feeling since the Sinn Fein troubles and the fiasco of the subsequent sub-sequent attempt at settlement, has poured a good deal of cold water into the wine of pro-Ally sentiment The same advprse factor will work in other oth-er connections If nothing is done." |