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Vol. 1. No. 40
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Satur~ay. ~Nov·ernber
supporter of a. recruiting resolution renders them immune from service as recruits. · Anyhow ,the fact remains that 1);1e...great ,q uestion. at ~he . nioment isReCrnits or No ':'~ecfui~: .
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Effort and Reward.
7, 1914
"ery great. They are essaying a. highly novel role .among a people whose politic'a l education has rarely strayed beyond the c-?mI:!li~~ee·toom aDd , ·the , mass meeti,ng." ~.rhe l.ast ",sentence. is quite ' char.act.ex:istic, · and is ' probab:y a fair average of English opinion of Irishmen. - "Those ignorant Irish-too ignorant .to enlist."
potentialities for evil of the oroP ~ ,is .I>~~ .• be4tg.' so~vn :are so. g~eat that is opportune once' and for all ·~ to· ~ve ' " t I the position clearer than ever, to show TIut · in nno·ther sen~ence the same ar·. the 'Iine of division, let~ng the national instinct a!?po·r uon rohe censure and ap· tiele g ives one reason, at all events, why pLanse. · ~ecruiting has been, c·f course,. Ireland is aghast at the ree·ruiting carn. Of course 1U . an ' artic-le . ' ridiculed out of existence in Ireland, btlt palgn. p.I eadlIlg iJ a !,arge . and . responsible sec· for recruits u-e can scarcelyb~lieve that tien .' of the +fish .· .,'G"lT)le app.rove i: was not- 'n slip of. the. pen; ' a'n ~ d' , . . .• 't }, .. . . ,. , - ' . . , . c.'. .. . . ~";Il:. ~~g ', recmhs".,.;:. 0" .,' ~:l.Il~ .•. mg' ju~ilation 'ove.., .th,e PNtic1,1la r ", . they ' .. ("..anI!qt " afterwar:ds ' bl~e, ' of .its ' old ;'wai<o~y '''. the ·- C~lt · i;' gone witP. .(.~overn.men~ .,. lor tak~n~ ' wliat.,· v:engea:~e " , '.oiheriVjse "·~t ' 'Y~~e . s~iel~· . . . - - ..• ' , ' , . ~ . e-ver lfre'ps ',may b~ :-ec;cssWY' 1.0 sec1,lre {nd i'sl;w,t; ' parti~ul~!l.Y;.· ~s'~'lr;, ~dipha$.ises· .those recruits. 'the contrary, if the · the at:itude ~{the. ca:thoii~ "'Bishops <o( overwhelming i'najori:y of ' Irishmen are, . Ir0 !and. It s.ays: "Nationalist Ireland
Grine With' a :' Ven1teance. "
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On
as ' ;they undoubtedly are, a.garl}st rec~uitin g , then the last · pretences of constitu· tional Government should' ensure that any recru~ts from Ire41nd are the fr~e gifts of a free people, as ¥r Asquith sarcastically described thc offer of Irish aid foc the The meanest ·and most malevolent enemy of Irish nationality h~ ever been the London Times and The Times, knowing as it does Mr. Redmond's influence in Ireland, appreciates hi~ difficulties. The Times knows that Mr. Redmond, -like every other Irish leader, carried the country with him in spit~ of the fact that no depths of. infamy were left unplum1:·ed :by The 1)mes and jour. --<>nals like it to thwart his leadership. Years of malignity, in which the Pigott The great question at issue ·b etween the forge ries were merely cliaracteristic inci· two ibodies of Volunteers in Irelaild is dentals, failed to wean Ireland from the whether Ireland s.hould send fur'..her re- leadership of Mr. Redmond and his preoruits to t!:le British. Army or not. The decessors, Knowing all that The Times Voh1l".teers who support· the Provisional must know that when Mr. Redmond canCommittee, and th ey a re the great ma- not get Ireland to swing into line, as they jori~y, belie,e that .apart altogether from ad..'Ilit that he cannot, they should give the national ethic.s of the question, . Ire- up the task as hopeless. Here is their land has. sent more than he r share of men comment on the situation: "vVe have into the ranks of the E n glish Army. The refrained hitherto from commenting on Voiunteers supporting the newly.formed the progre9S of ,Mr. Redmond's recruiting commit':ee, .OCt the other h~LDd, have ·en·- campaign in Ireland, because it was clear dorsed the formatio n of an "Irish Bri- el".o)lgh that the N a;~ionalist leader had gade," and while r-efrai;:.ing themselves c ommitted himself to ·a difficult ta sk and from goinm on active sen ice in the con- was entitled to time and sympathy. \. Let tinental sba..11JJb1es, they have encouraged us at once and gratefully acknowledge their brother I ris...'l:men to take the shilling tha~ h e and his friends have done their and under:ake th e hardships and undergo !best to redeem their promises. They have the risks of wa,r. Iil the after.season of l.ahoured manfully to induce th eir people a....~ ~.ge ,vheri eyerythin,g fin-tional w.&s to, enlist in the Arl)1Y, to convince the:n done b y proxy it is' n<2tur...1.I, if not quite that ' the StbCCess <;>I the Allies is as much logical, that they !O'hould assume that an Irish as a British interest, and t o pre:tehing ·a doctrin e r e:noves th.e neces- I swing the irish democracy into line with sitycf • praetising its tenets, and ' t hat the rest of th~ United . Kingdom. But being an l\1 .P ., or eyen the propos,er or their difficulties are, a...11d must remain,
From'the Outpost Recruiting in Ireland.
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moreo\'er is predominantly ·agricultUral, has been drained : illy emigration of men of a military age, and aheady in. proportion to its population, furnishes 'the Reguiar Ar~Y' with more soldiers than ' any other part of the kin.gdom. The field left ovel.' for Mr. Redmond is therefore both stubborn , and restricted, th-e more so as the Hierarchy has not yet seen fit to bless his laho~rs.'! All this we have pointed out repeatedly; that IreLand ' has been made a purely agricultural countn'in English trade interests, and misgov~ ment has drained it of the men oi a military ago/ and forced, proportionately, more of its population into the Regular Army tha.n a.'1Y other part of the British Empire. Englj~h misgo.v ernment, for wh ich fhe Timt's always stood, accom. plished all these in England's interest, and if these facts milit:l.te against England to.:d3Y it is merely a. pr·oof that you can· not L,,,'e your loaf and eat it. ~
Enlist or Else-! Of course The Times makes i~ clear that the number of recruits from Ireland large of small does . not really matter. All th at The Times was thinking of when delivering itself of ~his b~llowing blunder was the future relationship be· tweea Irela.nd and England,. and it makes it clear that it wifl be heartily sorry if there is .any alienation of sym. p.athy fr om Ireland as a. result of the fai iure to fulfil th e recruiting expectations wh:oh they say the Irish leaderS led the Go,e,nment to expec ~ ·of them. Sooner than see 'Home Rule in danger they ask the Government to suppress pr:acticaIiy, every journal in Ireland unbought by Du·b li;J. C2.stIe. And for what i s of "no
Price, Id.
military importance" they ask the Government to take steps beside which the action of past Governments, acting on The Time.~' advice, and oreating endless trouble for i~self and Ireland, were model s . of easy.geing tolerance. It is '~b:at-1he ',advice . is ;. int ended rather towards political .capital for ~he Tories than as a sane contribution to thlt policy of the preo;ent governmenta.l office holders and to precipitate a misis, beside which past unheavals in Ireland were iniignificant. . ~~
The Need of Men. But we agree with the cuticle in that the number of recruits \vh kh Ireland will offer as a s.a rofice i, no·t at present of prime military importance. For at the preS"J1t moment there are t ens of thousands of troops in Ireland, m'iny of them . so~cliers. . T h e· Governmet;tt ..has· ,;Mr. 1{edm.onds. gum;antet; thil~· .in' '. eyent·. cif th ei.r reinov~.1, from . Ireland' ·to the fightin~ line the Volhnteers \,t·lu protect" ~he shcor-es ; o~ 'ITehnd from in\'3siori .:oy ' a·n ~·eri'emv::· . And -.that gu·arinfee. unli~ tile ~{)tIie;r, .j}:t:s ;. not he en questioned by the" nien ' of Iielal;d ' who firSt estab' lished tpe Volun~.ers as ' a military organi,sation .and not as a pcr'l..'11buhtin.g dehat"ing society, or A D1ov ~hle pci.litical- meeting. In .England, too. there are seven or eight milli.on English;rvln who are, ' we-pr.esume interested in th~ fU':ure of their country, and might sacrifice th eir present employment. perhaps even tHejudice the existenoe of Enghnd 's tra-de supremacy bv figh-:ing for instead of singing of " The Flag Th.,.t 'Kever- Comes Down."
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New Forces. The splendid loyal:y. of &'}uth Africa has been the theme of every English lea.. der.writer, and ' indeed the population of the whole Continent is re!!:m:!ed as ready to die for the Empire. M>my tho u sands of them have some ex~rience in fighting, .an.d . out .pf a pOpuh~lon of over forty mIllions there shcnld be .at least five million soldiers 'lVaihh1.e. C~.nada., too theme of statesmen ond emigrat.ion agents with a popUlation of oyer seven millions should contri!:'uten bo n: one rnilli.on to defend their co.equ:?1 r ights within the Empire. and Australia a half million, at the least.
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The Great Reserve. But with thi s fo rce of many mitliops resources of the far·f1ung Britioo Ehlpire would only be hr03K'hed, not exhausted. Time has done its part, ·and the growth ·of civilisation in Europe since Ohathaln's impassioned eloquence in protesting ag:linst the use of Indian troops in civilised w'iIfare h'ls olaced beneath the control of conscie:Jtions statesmen still greater reserves. A lr",;ul v Indian troops are at the front, and India is loyal More than lo val, we <tre told, for English correspondents tell of the indignant repudiation by the Ind.;:.tns a: oresent at the .fron: .of any ~mputation that they are . citizens of' t he EI1'Dire. having equal ,ights' 11'ith the English. 'Tb'ere are 0ver three hundred millio:Js people in India, aDd twentv.five million soldiers might not j'e t oo high a figure to sD€C'uhte as her shar.e twards the 'l':unt~n"lnce of her rights . :'le::t.nwhile The Times says that Ireland has cc-ntribrlted proportion. ~,te !y more me::! to the army than any .. o:her porticlll of the Emp ire, and w ith all these vast reserves it gro;ws quite n asty.tempered because the I n sh people say" No recruits from Ireland." ~he