THE
EDITED BY EOlN MAC NEILL. Vol. 2.
'No. 27
(New Series.)
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There 11.e 1·er was a time when it was rnure lieedfu l for the Irish Vo lunteers to press on with the work of a rming, training, perfecting ~rnd extend in g their organisat ion. l\ow more than e ver the Volunteers are Ire land's reliance , .Lf we were under a ~ at.ional Government, with :tll the reso urces of the country at its call and with yea rs to 1.Juilcl up a system of ;\atio1nl defence, it might Ix: all 1·e ry well to de·l1ate and hold out for the most perfect things that any country e1·er had for .its p rotection . The ·mos t [> rfect thing now is the thing that can be Jone best nO\r, and the thing that can·t be done is ·JE110 good. * * H ow ma ny men lll · your company haYe no arms ? If you ha »e only "- half corn pan y, how mauy of them b;ixe no arms? If you are only a scouting sect ion, how many of you ba\·e no arms? Find tbat out at once, and then let every man tltat ltas no arms be provided at once witlt tlte best weapons tltat can be got at once , Those weapons may ha 1·e to be discardeu next week or next year .if ·better can be got then, \\That matter? ·><
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The bes t an.ilable 11·eapon may be a magazine rifle with uayonet, a rifle without a bayonet, a bayone t without a rifle, an automatic pistol, a common revohe r, an old 98 p ike, and anything from that down to a pointed stick or a catapul t, provided it can be h<tndled so as to put the 111;:111 on tbe other side out of action , While you are waiting for a present of a machine gun with ammunition' for a whole campaign, get the thing you can ge t now; and exe rcise you rself with it till you feel sure that you ca n 111 ake the other man afra id of you, ·Jf
We are now in the longes t clays of the year . Thi s is the time for studying the country and practis in g field work. . Tra in your eye to the country , v\Tbetber you a re walking the road, ridi ng a bicycle, or trave lling by train, you can a lw;iys he obse n·ing, nlw;iys noting the possil >iliLi cs , Th ere is nnl ~1 sin gle nntur::il nr
SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1915. artificial feature of the country round you that is not full of meaning in the matte r of Nationnl Defence , Your road may lead for miles between high stone walls or may be an open streak a.cross a treeless moo rland, Each case ha~ its own lessons a nd its own possibilit ies . By making your mind familiar with these, you '..vill acquire readiness and freedom from confusion afterwards, ·><
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Wha t are the nearest companies , half companies, or scout ing sections on each side of you ? Wh:i t a re your arrangements for keeping in continual touch with them? How fa r do you co-operate with the m in field train in g? The OJ.>portunities for training in rn rious ways are boundless, a nd the last th ing that should !be hea rd from Volunteers in any place is that they are slack for want of ·something to do or something to learn. ·><
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Pu\;lic opinion is begirn1ing to make itself heard against conscrip tion, and not too soon nor too plainly, lt has long been the doctrine of certain peopl e that puul ic opinion should ne1·er express itself except through certain authorised mouthpieces , This would be all Yery well if the mouthpieces were infallibl e, but the notion of infallibl e mouthpieces has been blown to bits recently . There is no t1uestion that the 11·hole public opin ion of Ireland is dead again~t · conscription, . The only people in Ireland that want conscr iption are the ol cl County Club warriors that the war has no use for, and the Diviclenders that a re content to see e1·erything conscrilbed except their dividends,
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I t is rathe:i: amusi ng to see certain "::\ ationalist " guides going abo ut the countr y threatenin.g conscript ion. The Yery words in which they threaten it are a pla in admission that they kno1v the p eop le are sti'ongly opposed to iL What then do they mea1i by threatening it ? They claim to be Horne Rulers, and some of them bold on to the view that Home .Rule is a le gislative fact, Since the Irish· people are opposed to conscr ip tion, those who threaten th em with consrription thrrat.rn them with ~
Price One Penny. <lirect violation of every principle of H ome Rule , Nice H ome Rulers these tbreateners are , Home Rule would have !been ours before now if some people who call themselves Home Rulers were not the \'eriest sla1·cs of the othvr sort of rul e, Who bu t a 11atiYe slave or a fo reign tyrant could threaten any peopl e with measures to which that people is firmly opposed ? ·JE-
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There is one pledge to which the Irish people can and will hold Mr. Asqu ith and bis colleagues , old and new, the pledge tha L Ireland's sha re in this or any future war wi\J be the Free Gif r of a Free People . We th a nk M·r, Asquith for that word . Let it not i"' forgotten . It is worth a million of hung up statutes , It is a. complete charter of international rela tions, A free people we are determ ined to be, and our g ifts will b e fr ee , not forced, The princ iple takes in more than conscriptlori, ·X·
I had a chat, an hou r Lefore 1Ynt1ng thi s, with a Dublin professional man who does nut agree with me all round about current affa irs, He said qu ite freely, however, that my views about the Home Rule situation were entire \y vindicated , We went on to ta lk about ·the future , _ H e could only see a d ismal prospect of crushing taxation, At the end of the ::\ apoleonic war, England was triumphant and the strongest power in the worlcL R es ult, an enormous increase in ' the English .\ationa: D ebt, and a large share of that debt saclulcd on Ireland, in sl;iamel ess violation of the ])ledges by whi ch the Act of Linion was carried . The most of that debt is st.ill debt , and for a whole century Ireland bas been be:irin;j "Ireland's share -" All this time, England has been growing in population and pros pe rity, while .Ire land's pop ul ation has been reduced to o ne fourth of what it ought to be, her industri es and commerce have been destroyed, and she has been forced to pay an almost incredible tribute in rent and taxes to the Predominant Partner, If that has .been the result of the triu mph over Napoleon, wh at result is to be cxpcc tcrl From t.he p re,cnt c~pc ndilurc, \1·hi "b