Evening Star Newspaper, March 27, 1921, Page 37

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL ARTICLES he Sundiy 3 EDITORIAL SECTION AL Society News Part, 2—1& Pages T . Friends of England Aghast; Her Enemies Pleased at Reign of Terror. Two Countries Are Utterly Unable to Understand Conflicting Views. ' BY SIR PHILIP GIBBS. HERE 1s no doubt whatever that the present condition of Jreland, with almost dafly reports of murders, embushes, attacks on police bar- racks end military reprisals amounting to & relgn of terror, is doing more harm to the decent 4 reputation of England in the ¢ i + Their first incredulity werid than any other action Which arouses hatred or criticism among England’s ememies or friends. Even our friends—and it must ‘lomu!mv-hmnot rany just now, in apite of all our sacrifice and efforts in the war— wmnd ft hard to defend our conduct in Ireland or to reconcile it with thet professed love of liberty for the small nations and all mankind by which we called our men to arms. and proclaimed the terms of peaca. Through the medium of Irish » propaganda, skillfully organized and widely circulated, they read ef the passionate claim of the Irish people for the right of na~ tionality denfed and repressed by & British government which has Nelped to create many new nations in Europe, inciuding Poland, Ju- goslavia, Czechoslovakia and Ar- menia. . They read of an organized system of military and police coercion by which the Irish people are denied the usual rights of civil law; for- bidden to hoM inquests on fellow citisens shot by sollders or police- men; subjected to arrest on sus- D-q by day and week by week they' read of outragecus things @one'“By &*body of men called “Rlack-and-Tans.” who have been recruited from the ranks of unem- played soldiers, some of them --.a by years of callous of human’ Iife and w{’b the populstion among o they have been Sent to ®order.” These men, with - t official sanction and of the evidence m tneriminate the English govergment—have, it is alleged, committed acts of atrocity only comparable to the German work in Belgium in the early days of 1914, shoottiig, flogzing and torturing Frial 7 eitisens, burning their houses, sheps and' factories, run- ning amudk in their streets While they fire indiscriminately, raiding their homes in the dead of night, entering their churches when they &0 in the act of worship, hazling men ent and shooting them in cold Bisod. . Those things are not read un- moved by .the friends of England is over- Derne by epparent weight of evi- dence and by repetition, and they are aghast at the reign of anarchy which England has made in her sister Ireland. “How is it,” they ask, “that the English, who are not a brutal peo- ple, whose men (as the war proved) are generally kind-heart- ed, even to their enemies; who for centurles have led the way to civil progress in Europe, should lose their moral qualities and betray thefr best ideals. in the case of Ireland? We cannot under- stand” ¢ ¢ ® So speak our friends in America, in France and in other countries, as I know by letters I receive. Even the French people, who are not soft in putting down rebellion, who are not tolerant of political revolt, are scandalized by the English treatment of Ireland. From one Frenchman who served with our armies in the war on the western front T have had a letter in which he explains his perplexity about Ireland, and adds a post- script In which he sums up his tpdignation In one savage little sentence. “Your government dis- gusts us™ *x x % If our friends talk like that, what of our ememies? They find this Irish business to their liking. It provides them with one more proof of the incurable abomination of England. “John Bull,” they say, “always was and always will be a hypocrite and a bully. For cen- turies he has prated about liberty while he has thrust his fist into the face of all rivals, trodden down the native races of his colonial and captured territories, increased and held his empire by brute force, ex- ercised the most cynical diplomatic policy, and done all things in the names of righteousness and God. His present terrorism in Ireland is only one more proof of his tradi- tional brutality, and does not sur- prise us in the least™ That, in a mild way, is the verdict of Eng- land’s enemies in, every part of the world to which Irish propaganda reaches. But what of England's view of this state of affairs in Treland? What does the- average English- man, not tied to the policy of the coalition government, or to any definite party which has to defend or attack that policy, think of the Irish problem as it has developed since the war? T think it would be well both for England’s friends and England's enemies.to know that, and it is my purpose in this arti- cle to attempt an explanation of the average English attitude. . * %% % First of all, it is necessary to leave out of account the extreme views held by minorities on one side and the other. There is a minority of men in England who are always ready to belleve the worst of their own country and of their own government, not, as a rule, through any lack of patriot- ism, but generally through an ex- cess of sensibility. They so hate the idea of tyranny and injustice on the part of England that they are apt to resent the use of any WASHINGTON, D. O, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 2I, 192L kind of force for the suppression of crime or for the maintenance of order, even when the security of the state Is menaced. In the case of Ireland they admit everything on the Irish side and see only the soul of a people strug- gling for life against brutal op- pression and using heroic means against great odds on behalf of liberty. They do not condemn the murder of policemen. They do not call it murder. They grant the full claim to an Irish republic. The policy of reprisals fills them with anguish and rage. They are gen- erous, sensitive, romantic, unprac- tical souls, with whom I confess I have much in sympathy, though some old ancestor of mine, or some hard experience of life, enables me, I think, to see a stgin of weakness in them. They are the “intellectuals™ of Englana, the little intellectuals re- cruited from the ranks of novel- ists, painters, pocts, social reform- ers, theoretical socialists and revo- lutionary rebels, who are desper- ately anxious to see a reconcilia- tion of peoples in Europe, to abol- ish war, to get a riove on toward a closer brotherhood of man, and theéy are utterly incapable of con- trolling the forces of violence which are surging about them. * % ¥ ¥ On the other side of the Irish quarrel is the old type of English- man, hard In his imperialism, nar- row in his Protestantism, reaction- ary against eny effort of change or progress, sure that the English- man of his own type is the noblest effort of God, disliking all aliens, including Irish, Welsh and Scots, and a firm believer in ‘“resolute rule” with machine guns and tanks for all rebellious people, such as native races, and workingmen who want more wages. He was the defender of the Amritsar massacre. He is all for shooting down the unemployed if they make them- selves annoying. He would like to see a rounding up of all social- ists, labor leaders and intellectual theorists, like H, G. Wells, who are endeavoring to change the old structure of English life with its heaven-sent prerogatives of great landed estates for the “good” fam- ilies, high profits for the capital- ists, and low wages for the work- ing class. His ideas on Ireland are clear and sharp. “The Irish people,” he says, “are just savages, and they must be dealt with as such. Shoot 'em’ down wholesale if they won't obey English law. Reprisals? Certainly; and plenty of them. Let our men have a free hand and teach 'em what's what! If necessary, conquer Ireland again, and do it .nperly this time. The best thing Jould be to sink the whole damned island.” * wug ¥ That type of man is to be found in many places and classes of English life. You may find him in sporting clubs down Pall Mall and St James' et; on the race ocourse at Epsom, where he is keeping a “book"; in, the crowd that goes to see: & prize fight, in the menor housp’ of a couyntry squire, sometimeg {n the rectory of a country parish. But his type is'0ld-fashioned and dwindling away, gEven before the war it was passing, and when the war came his old-fashioned opin- ions were heard with laughter at mess tables wlhiers ‘young officers who had been thinking hard aboyt many problems of 1ifé and death; the cause of the war and the hopes of the werld, were not taking the old chap's blusterings as the last word in the way ef wisdom. But he still exists, and” writes letters to the Morning Post, which is pub- lished exclusively for his class and ideas. He is also in the coalition government, and in the house of commons, where he fumes and frets over the weakness of the ministers and their compromise with the forces of disorder. He SIR PHILIP GIBBS. the trenches. Sixty- of lies.” American press. snorted with laughter over any allusion to the hunger strike of Mayor MacSwiney, and he became purple in the face with rage when the policy of reprisals Was chal- lenged by Mr. Asquith. * %X X ¥ Those are the two extremes of thought in England, but, as I have said, they are both minorities and do not in my opinion represent the great body of moderate English- men who are anxious to know the truth and to fiud out some kind of reasonable solution to the Irish problem. The average Englishman, as I meet him in tramcars, tea shops and other places of middle- class circumstances, is mightily perplexed about the Irish trouble. Frankly, he does not understand the Irish temperament nor see any kind of solution of the Irish problem. For onme thing, he cannot bring himself to believe that the Irish have a real hatred of England and the English. He sees no adequate reason for hatred, and argues that the Irish with whom he comes in President Harding Plans to Make Federal Service More Attractive BY N. . MESSENGER. RESIDENT HARDING is inter- esting himself personally and the members of his cabinet in a policy expected to have far- reaching effect in fmproving the gen- eral government service and hearten- ing to increased endeavor the hun- dreds of thousands of governmental employes. Ultimately it is calculated to stimulate interest in government employment and to hold out the promise of a career to those entering it. President Harding is deeply in earnest about this new policy. Nowadays about the only hope of a career to one.entering the govern- ment service is in receiving training which will make the employe valu- ble to some large industrial, finan- al or business concern which will 1ift him or her out of the service at an adequate and attractive salary. President Harding and his cabinet, all of whom are In sympathy with him, hold that the business of the United - States government is a going concern of such magnitude and importance as to warrant the best talent available. But they realize that it cannot be retained unless it is better paid and better treated * * The securing of better pay in this era of economy. will require time and patience. but reforms in theatment of employes, in hoding out possibilities of promotions and in creating careers for Ungle Sam's cmploy an b ,-undertaken readily, and they will be admitied thil & widely prevailing idea of the government service is that it is permeated with dry rot and dull routine. pression is stimulated by speeches in Congress at_every session by certain Returned to Old Post By President Harding OBADIAH GARDNER Of Maine, democrat, whose “resigma- was “accepte: inistration, hax bee; International Joi; estdent Harding to succeed Wil- Lism B. Wilson, former Secretary of Labor, L That im- of is much statesmen who delight in holding up the government clerks as models of apathy and indifference toward their work. The charge is frequently made that private concerns could get more work at leas expense than Uncle Sam obtains . from his army of employes. If that charge is true this adminis- tration proposes to find. the cause of the condition and remedy it. * ok K k- It is probably true, &lso, that the popular impression of this service is that when one enters it. he or she be- comes.a mere cog in a wheel, a part of a vast system of machinery in which there is no human element of recognizition of merit or reward of industry and eficiency. This admin- istration proposes to follow a course em- ployes which will dissipate that idea. Teamwork by Congress, it is recog- nized, will be necessary to make com- plete success, but there is evidence that sympathy with the policy will be found in Congress. That body, which supplies the ap- propriations to pay the government workers and imposes the taxes to produce the money for the payrolls, interested in putting the government work on a business basis and “getting results.” The administration’s ides of making the public service attractive as fur- nishing u possible carcer forg salary and wage earners looks to the secur- ing of increased efficiency- as well by President Wilson, 88 possessing elgments- of- humanie treatment of ~ government . | i tarianism and philanthrophy. It is held that, given an outlook for pro- motion and shown a path which laads to & good salary, Tt is obvious fhat|' men and women will take more in- terest in their work and give a 'larger return, especially if they find that they are being treated as human beings the while and not as a com- modity. The subject should be of interest to every man and woman in the land when they consider how intimately the government work bears upon their own interests and daily life. While a proportion of the government work is routine, the great volume of it is “live” and current in character. In point of fact, Uncle Sam's business is the largest going concern in the United States and deals with more people than all the trusts put together. * % x Now comes another big question for' discussion in Congress—to deal with or not to deal with soviet Russia? Although in fact it is & question largely for executive disposal, it is bound to be commented upon in .Con- gress, cspecially in the Senate, where there is greater freedom of debate and where, if a formal treaty is made, the subject will be up on the floor in its own right. Officials and congressmen comment- ed on the soviet proponents being “out of luck” in the timing of their appeal for recognition as well as the phrasing of it. They. observed that Continued on Thind Pagey ) ILIP GIBBS needs no introduction to the American public. buring the world war his dispatches from the British front appeared inleading newspapers throughout the country. Many correspondents reported from the fighting front, but it was Philip Gibbs who visualized the soul of suffering humanity to the English-speaking world back of He has just concluded a second visit to America, and his wildly enthusiastic reception on the lecture platform was a repetition of the enthusiasm with which he was received on his first visit. He has spoken to overflowing audiepces on Ireland. His absolute truthfulness, fairness and sincerity have won to his defense even Father Duffy,of the “Fighting -ninth,” an admitted Sinn Feiner, who declared publicly that Gibbs is the man who “brought back truth to a world Philip Gibbs is not a pmpagind:st for any wuntty—-hz is a propagandist only for the truth. This series of two articles on actual conditions in Ireland is more illuminating than anything that has appeared in the contact in London or elsewhere are nice people, with a sense of humor and not at all murderous in their instincts. He likes most of thelr men and all their women, as far as he knows them, and he believes firm- 1y, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that Sinn Fein and its “wild men” are only a minority of extremists who do not at all rep- resent the great body of Irish peo- ple, and that, therefore, their vio- lence is artificially engineered, and, it defeated by English resolu- tion, would be followed by a re- newal of friendship between our two peoples, provided Ireland were given a generous measure of horhe rule. He is beginning to admit, how- ever, that thers are some quallties in the Irish character which baffle him. His remembrance of old novels by Charles Lever, Samuel Lover and other writers, as well as the stage type of Irishman tradjtional for a long time in England, still holds his imagination with the fig- ure of a breezy, laughing, devil- may-care, romantic soul who help- ed to win most of Enkland's bat- tles and was loyal to the flag. Now recent experiences have taught him that there is something wrong in that picture. He finds an unexpected cruelty iIn the Irish people, the crueity of the peasant mind brooding over old grievances, unforgiving, relentless in the pur- suit of vengeance. Where he ex- pected weakness he finds surpris- ing strength—most obstinate re- sistance to English ‘“reason.” Where he looked for sentiment, especially in the war with Ger- many, he finds the hardest realism, a most selfish refusal of allegiance, and, worst of all, black treachery to 0ld England In her hour of need. What is the meaning of that? “What the devil,” he asks, plaint- ively, “is the matter with these people?” It must be remembered that the average Englishman knows very little of Irish history. He does not read it in his school books; he does not find it in his newspapers. He has not seen, as I have before the war, young men and girls in Dub- lin standing on orange boxes in side streets on a Saturday night, reciting old ballads about the bat- tle of the Boyne, the massacre of Limerick, and other episodes of tragedy which are "kept green in the memory of the people. He knows very little of the way in ‘which Irish industries were delib- erately killed by Castlereagh— Cutthroat Castlereagh, as they call him—nor of the frightful famines which decimated the country be- cause of that policy, mor of the tragic evictions under English or Anglo-Irish landlords, which made thousands of families homeless and foodless, nor of the penal laws which mgde martyrs of their priests and tried to kill a people’s faith, nor of the executions and Jailing of Irish patriots through many centuries of resistance to English rule. * ¥ X % The average Englishman has not read much of that and does mot know that it is the intellectual food upon which the Irish feed from early childhood, 8o that the remembrance of all that history is black in their souls and a flame of passion in their hearts. Vaguely the ordinary English- man knows and admits that Eng- land in the old days was ‘“rather rough” on Ireland—he is unaware that even as recently as 1880 there were the evictions and terrorism of Clanricarde—and, generously, as it seems o him, he wishes to make amends. made amends by the Wyndham land acts, which enabled the peas- ants to buy their land with Eng- lish credit, and for the life of him he cannot understand why the Irish hark back to the past and re- fuse to recognize that England is a good friend. He does not realize that any- thing England does for Ireland, or has done or will do, is not received with gratitude as a favor, or as a generous act, but is regarded as a long-delayed concession forced from us and as dust in the balance compared with half a thousand years of tyranny, robbery and bru- tality. He does mot understand that the claim for national inde- pendence hAs never been abandon- ed for all that time, and that though the spark burns dim in times of misery, it flames up again and spreads as it has now spread again, like a prairie fire through- out those island people, with their frightful remembrance of history, their cherished faith, their undying pride. The averagé Englishman, of whom I -was one, was shocked to his inmost soul by the rebellion of 1916. I shall never forget when that dreadful news came to us on the western front. We had been He thinks he hes’. e Anarchy in Ireland: An Unbiased Account of It Ireland, Brooding Injustice, Pictured as Unforgiving and Unreasonable. English, in Turn, Remember Collusion of Irish With Germans in 1916. through a ghastly winter when the Germans held all the good po- sitions against us on the ridges in Flanders, while we were in the flats and swamps at a time when we were still weak in artillery, that they pounded our men with shell fire and we could answer back but feebly. Day after day, night after night, our men were blown to bits, our casualty lis lengthened with the names of our noble youths, and we knew that the Germans were hardly touched in strength, while on other fronts they were winning stupendous victories and England's life was menaced. so At that very time the Irish tried to stab us in the back—did stab us in the back. Young officers of ours, and of theirs, on leave Dublin, were shot down, some- times without arms in their hands. Young Irish boyvs sniped English soldiers from the roofs, though some of our officers would not give the word of command to fire back on them, as I know, because of the youth of those lads. There was proof since, admitted without shame, that the Irish leaders were in negotiation with the Germans for active help. They expected German ships to arrive with arms and ammunition. and with fight- ing men. They were willing to get any kind of German help in order to defeat England in her time of peril. Count Plunkett, I am told, went in disguise to Germany to negotiate this aid. Casement in Germany was acting on his own initiative, tortured by his con- stience and by his fears. When that news came to us it seemed at first incredible, and then unforgivable. It is still hard to forget er forgive by any En- glishman. and by some Irishmen. An Irish general said to me: “I can never go back to Ireland, never! I can never take off my hat to an Irishman again.” There were tears in his eyes as he spoke. * % % % in The average Englishman does not know the Irish defense of that act of rebellion, and, if he knew, would not admit a word of it. I kno'w and will set it out with fair- ness. The Sinn Feiner says: “We would have fought for you if you had guaranteed our national claims. We would have fought for you if you had let us fight under our own flag and in our own Irfsh brigades. The nationalist leaders (wrongly, as we now think) ar- ranged a scheme of recruiting— which was turned down by your war office. Hundreds of thousands of young Irishmen (stupidly, as ‘we now believe) did volunteer and were drafted, mot in their own brigade, as a rule, but in English battalions, and died in heaps to save the liberty of England while strengthening England's tyranny in Ireland. Gradually we saw this. England's fight for liberty was not to be our liberty. What was hap- pening in Ulster? The Ulster volunteers who had been allows arm inst us in 1914 were s kept back in Ulster, while our men were being massacred in Gallipoli and France. They stood solid as a menace to southern Ireland, with preferential treatment and secret help from England. Very well! We began to recruit our own vol- unteers. At first there were two groups—John Redmond's, designed for the help of England. and James Connolly’s, for the liberty of Ire- land. A split took place, led by Connolly. Presently the Redmond men drifted over to Connolly side—for Ireland and not for gland * * * % “Then we thought we saw our chance of cto England was hard pressed. Germany seemed certain of wvictory. It was Tre- land’s chance of liberty. There were divided counsels—some want- ing to wait until we were stronger. Pierce was overborne by the spirit of Connolly. But the arrangements were faulty, and the affair was a tactical mistake. At first the peo- ple of Dublin were against us. They cursed us for our foolhard act. After three days, when the ‘rebels’ as England called them, were hard pressed and losing and being killed in large numbers, the people were all for us. They were set on fire by the heroism of those boys, and the spirit of Ireland, the soul of Ireland, was stirred to its depths by pity. by pride, by the old call of nationality, and then by an undying hatred of England, when Gen. Maxwell began his bloody as- sizes, executed James Connolly and fifteen others and swept into the prisons, with unnecessary brutali- ties and horrors, three thousand young Irish lads. After that Sinn Fein was established in every Irish home outside Protestant Ulster, and the whole people are dedi- cated anew to the liberty of their nation.” * ¥ ¥ Xx Those are, as far as T remember them, the exact words of one of the intellectual leaders of Sinn Fein, who told them to me no longer than @ night before these lines were written. It is clear. therefore, that Sinn Pein was seeking German aid and that the rebellion of 1916 was A deliberate effort to drag England down to ruin. To an Englishman, however sympathetic toward Ireland, as I am, that is a terrible revelation, a most tragic and heartbreaking knowledge, because it shows that the Irish people are so divorced from all ties of sentiment with us that they desire our downfall and prefer alliance with our deadliest enemies to any fellowship with us. (Copyright, 1921, by Harper & Bros. Pullished by arrangement with the Mc- Clure Newspaper Synlicate.) [This is the first of two articles by Sir Phillp Gibbs on “The An- archy in Ireland.” The second ar- ticle will be published im the Editorial Section of next Sunday’s Star.] Plan for Reduction of Armaments May Hit Chemical and Dye Plants BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. rrance and the United States and ISARMAMENT—or rather a|Other nations, will contend that there reduction in which probably will be dis- cussed at a conference of the ‘powers called by President Hard- ing, may take a wider scope than the mere reduction in the size of armies and navies. Information reaching this country is to the effect that the Brit- ish government is proceeding on the assumption that President Harding is going to call such a cdnference and is making a program for submission to the powers. A new definition of disarmament may be called for at such a confer- ence, which will look further than big guns, battleships and numbers of trained men. It is likely to em- brace, it is said, the means of waging war which cannot be created over night, but which are developed in time of peace. Of Course this applies to navies, but it does not stop ther The chemical works and dye factories, which can be turned over night into plants for the manufacture of ex- plosives. are one of the great poten- tial agencies of war in these days. Then there are the airplanes, bullt in great numbers ostensibly for commer- clal purposes, which may be con- verted into war planes. for dropping explosives upon enemy territory. * ko ok It is expected that the British, and; | armament— | can be no real disarmament so long as_countries possess chemical plants far in excess of their domestic and proportionate export needs. American chemical experts, it is said, will be asked to support the contention of the British in this matter. For years before the great war Ger- many developed her chemical works and dye factories. They were sub- sidized by the government. When, it was declared, in the twinkling of an eye these great plants gave over the manufacture of dyes and other chemi- cals uséd in the peaceful arts and took to making high explosives, in fact they were the backbone of the supplies. of explosives used by the ocentral powers and later of the poi- son gasses which they turned loose upon the allies. Under the treaty of Versallles the allled and associated powers are &iven the right of disarmament over Garm-ny It is now proposed to use this power to curtail the German activities with regard to the produc- tion of chemicals, including dyes. in competition with the German dye ‘When the United States found itself shut off from the source industry. Noted Author and Lecturer * X k % It _is easy to see that, besides curtailing Germany’s potential war strength, such a course would have a direct influence upon the dye in- dustries in such countries as Great Britain and the United States. The 'dye Industries of thess two. coun- DR. JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL, ncu'lfiy selected to be the mext pre: of Yale University. Dr. Angel wn dean of the university faculties, He was pres- American Psychological Association in 1906. In 1914 he was professor at the University of Chi ident of tl exchange - uflhm—-»‘bfldfim ‘DY | trioa-have beoa -struggling - for life ' Paris. (I o Head Yale University of its supply of dyestuffs after www outbreak of the war in 1914, and the seas had been closed to German commerce, American manufacturers undertook to produce dyes here. Their efforts met with no little suc- cess. But when hostilities ceased, | then the dye industry in this coun- | try. and that in Great Britain, saw | ruin staring them in the face. if the market was to be flooded again with cheap German dyes. An attempt wag made to put through a law raising a high protective tariff wall against foreign dyes. and providing for the import of these dyes only on certaim conditions. But this failed of enacte ment. In Great Britain a law wa® put through to protect the home industry. * % % % But now it is proposed to handle the dye industry situation from ane other angle. Dye plants in excess of the needs of the country in which they are maintained and in excess of the proportionate export require- ments of the country. are to be banned, ifithe propesed definition of disarmament is adopted. So far as Germany i concerned, the proponents of this plamw would leave only suf- ficient cal works operating in that country to care for internal needs and to supply the colors need- ed by the allies under the dye repa- ration clauses of the treaty. Other factories would be dismantled us potential war machines. At the same time the number of airplanes would T (Continued on Third Fage) =