TWO THOUSAND SHILLINGS URGENTLY NEEDED T H E slump which puts men on short time in Coventry

hits us also. Our fighting fund shrinks. Few have the means to give a sizeable donation.

Yet our printing and distributing costs continually rise as monopoly prices of paper still soar.

Yet the very time when it is hardest to maintain it is the time when a paper like this is most needed.

The most cynical betrayal in Irish history is being planned in high places under the cloak of so-called Republicanism.

This is the time when you must have the truth, when you cannot afford to rely on the capitalist press sold body and soul to the money-bags.

Therefore we are asking for small sums from EVERYBODY.

SEND N O W !

M O C R A T (Incorporating "Irish Freedom")

New Series No. 5 1 MARCH, 1949 Price 3d.

SELL-OUT PLANS READY Commissioner Offers Brooke

'Present Powers' Dublin letter

U.S. DIKTAT ON IRISH

AGRICULTURE from Paul O'Higgins

T H E Irish Farmers' Federation has ' sent a deputation to Mr. J. E.

Garrigan, chief of the E.G.A. Mission to Ireland, to ask him whether funds set aside by the Irish Government under Marshall Aid, can be loaned to Irish farmers to facilitate re-equip-ment in agriculture. It is a sad com-ment when essential re-equipment of Irish agriculture requires American permission.

The present government is doing its best to make us still more dependent on the U.S. for economic aid. Instead of endeavouring to become as nearly self-sufficient as possible so far as wheat for instance is concerned, there were 61,233 acres fewer under wheat last year than in 1947, a 10.6 per cent, de-crease. This has the result of making us more in need of dollars for wheat than ever.

Difficulties Our economic difficulties lie in the fact

that we have not got the dollars we need for goods from America. The solution is to seek alternative non-dollar sources. This the Government has not done. Instead it has signed an agreement with the U.S., under which it is true we receive the much needed dollars. This same agreement has bound us to spend those dollars not on what we need but on such commodities as the U.S. has a surplus of, and requires to dump on other countries.

Up to December 31st. 1948, Marshall Aid authorisations to Ireland totalled 51,600,000 dollars. The biggest single item was for a luxury, expenditure on which could well be reduced, i.e., 400,000 dollars was spent on tobacco. 7,900,000 dollars went on bread grains; here we could be less dependant than we are if we even maintained our wheat

(Continued on Pa«B Eight . Cot. OlM)

Our Political Correspondent T H E Costello Government is ready to put Ireland at Britain's • disposal and to maintain "the present powers" of the

Stormont pogromists and Gerrymanderers, in return for a face-saving bogus National Unity, involving only the transfer of the "reserved powers" to Dublin.

In return for the reserved powers, in a "wave of generous cordiality," and feeling the truth that "when your neighbour's house is on fire your own is imperilled," it would ofler Britain and America all the facilities they want for their proposed robber war against the East.

These facts were revealed in a public s tatement issued by the London High ComYnissioner's office.

Slander S l a n d e r i n g t h e peace-loving ci t izens of

t h e I n t e r - P a r t y "Republ ic ," t h e s ta te-dec l a red :

"The people of Eire are anxious to see the defences of the Atlantic countries perfected," welcomed American leader-ship, and "would like their country to be a s trong link in the democratic chain." Never the less t he s t a t e m e n t a d m i t t e d

t h e oppos i t ion of t h e vas t m a j o r i t y to im-m e d i a t e uncond i t i ona l a c c e p t a n c e of t he imper ia l i s t w a r pact , v .h ich would pro-vide i m p e r i a l i s m with b a s e s in I re land , a n d involve t h e conscr ip t ion of Irishmen i n to t he B r i t i s h Army, by s a y i n g that a G o v e r n m e n t w h i c h t h u s c a p i t u l a t e d would be "in d a n g e r of r e p u d i a t i o n b y i ts own people."

Coming cap-in-hand to Britain to save their cushy Government jobs from the in-dignation of the people, the tnter-Party-ites now declare that only t h e "reserved powers" are at stave, and t h a t all the exist ing powers of the Orange cabal would remain untouched.

Some sect ions of British capital have sfaown s igns of wishing to s e t t l e on these

terms, but the vast majority believe that Coijtello's reference to the house on fire, indicates that he will make fresh conces-sions if they present a strong face. They believe that Costello will come into the pact without a price once the fire gets a little warmer.

British Agents ? Questions are being asked about the

activities of British agents in Catholic circles. Who inspired the articles m the "Catholic Herald" and "Tablet"? Some are suggest ing a parallel with Balfour's attempt to get Vatican support against the Land League.

T h e Connol ly Associa t ion h a s dec lared t h a t n a t i o n a l u n i t y is a r igh t , a n d n o t a sub jec t fo r a d i r ty b a r g a i n .

M* JK* A.m MANIFESTO

IN view of the deliberate attempt to misrepresent the situation arising

from the repeal of the External Rela-tions Act, the Army Council of Oglaigh na h-Eireann considers it desirable to issue a slatement defining clearly the actual position.

BY an Act of the British Parlia-ment passed at Westminster in

1920, in the deliberate absence- of the entire Irish representation — and through the acceptance of the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty, the Irish Republic, proclaimed in arms Easter 1916—and ratified in 1919 by the clected representatives of the people of all Ireland — was prevented from functioning, and in its stead two Partition Parliaments were set up to govern Ireland.

T H U S Ireland was forcibly pairti-' tioned by England and has re-

mained partitioned since. Any attempt to give the Twenty-six (ounty area a new status by representing it as "the Republic of Ireland" does not and cannot alter this fundamental fact.

T71NGLAND still retains direct con-' J trol over six counties of Irish

territory, and maintains within that area an army of occupation. While that position remains Republicans cannot concede the claim that Ire-land's centuries-old struggle for free-dom is ended.

I N the circumstances those owing ' allegiance to the Republic cannot, without sacrifice of their principles, give allegiance to either of the Parti-tion institutions created by Britain, or recognise that the Repeal of the Ex-ternal Relations Act is anything better than a political manoeuvre to mislead the Irish people into the belief that the freedom of Ireland has been achieved.

WHILE any sod of Irish territory remains occupied by the army

of a foreign country, it cannot be truthfully stated that the RepnMie of Ireland has been restored and so it remains the doty of all Republicans to continue their efforts to rid Ireland of the last vestiges of foreign rale.

Issued by the- Army Council, Oglaigh na h-Eireann.

January, 1949. [We publish the above in order to

' show that we are not alone in de-nouncing an absurd hoax.—Ed. I

YOUGHAL FACTORY IS NEXT TO CLOSE DOWN T V T H I L E Cork Ci ty doctors wrestle with

t h e inc reas ing tuberculbsfe d u e to u n e m p l o y m e n t a n d u n d e r - n o u r i s h m e n t , the d e a t h - r a t e hav ing risen f r o m 13.7 to 16.9 per t h o u s a n d in t he I n t e r - P a r t y Govern-ment ' s first year , Cork C h a m b e r of Com-merce h a i l s w i th welcome t h e M a r s h a l l p l a n w h i c h is t he cause of t he unemploy-m e n t .

L a t e s t f a c t o r y to a n n o u n c e c los ing down is ex-City T.D. Dwyer ' s "Seaf ie ld Fabr i c s , " a t Yougha l . T w o h u n d r e d m o r e c i t izens m u s t pay the i r v is i t s to t h e Youg-h a l E m p l o y m e n t E x c h a n g e . O w n e r of t h e f a c t o r y is a di rector of Sunbeam-Wolsey ' C o r k ) .

The Chamber of Commerce worthies held that "We have employees who enjoy

ON ST. PATRICK'S DAY Come at 8 p.m. to the SHDURLAND ARMS

Shirland Avenue MAIDA VALE, W.9 GRAND SOCIAL

Tickets 2/-from

.-, . • -. , I r , ,,! . CONNOtLY ASSOCIATION, 374 Grays fcm Ro«d, tyc.l

from J A M E S S A V A G E

;a s o m e w h a t h i g h e r s t a n d a r d t h a n m a n y o thers . " T h e y a re employed by firms which a r e "highly subsidised." Recent-advance i n wages g r a n t e d to Counci l workers a d d e d Id. to t he ra t es . "F i rms i u t he c i ty ," said . the employers , " a r e s t rugg l ing fo r existence a g a i n s t the d u a l problem of severe control a n d d e m a n d f o r h igher wages ."

The C h a m b e r c o n g r a t u l a t e d t he Gov-e r n m e n t on engag ing t h e services of s u c h a " recognised au thor i ty on t r a n s p o r t " a s t he sacked E n g l i s h d i rec tor of t he n e w na t iona l i sed G.W.R., Sir J o h n Milne. T h e y hoped h is adv ice would be a c t e d upon.

As was repor ted in t h e " I r i s h Demo-c ra t " las t m o n t h , this a d v i c e was : "Sack men, cu t wages . "

Patriots W h e n t h e businessmen ' s c o u n c i l

touched upon international affairs they deplored the "disunity a n d strife" i n China a n d Palestine, and trusted tha t England, the United States and France would keep a "bold ivs well us a strong ttont." T h e result -might e v e n be "pcace a n d goodwill among men" a n d the con* tinued j p a q e f o l expteitwtiou of the peopd of a divided Ireland.

« L

THE IRISH DEMOCRAT March, 1949

MUINEADH NA STAIRE

4 G seo am' dhiaidh aistriu ar thosach caibidile a h-flon den leabhar ud

"Labour in Irish History" do scriobh Seumas 0 conghaiie. Mar bhrollach don chaibidil ta an abairt iomraidhte aige a cuirtear i leith Napoleon, "Cad is stair ann acht finn-sceul nach mbreagnui-ghean aon ughdar?" agus annsan leanann se air:

Riamh agus choidhche is beag meas a bfii ag lucht poilitidheachta ar lucht oibre na h-Eireann. D'a chomhartha san, na biodh iongantas na n-iongantas ar einne a radh gur gadh le scribhneoir a chuspoir do mhiniu sar a dtugaidh se fe stair lucht oibre na h-Eireann do leiriu, agus an muineadh a bhaineas leis an stair sin do chur i dtuigsint (le treoir do thabhairt an la ata indiu ann do ghluaiseacht lucht oibre na tire). Da mbeadh spiorad na staire dilis d' a dhuthchas fein—se sin le radh da leirigheadh se fior-scath liteardha na n-aoiseanna a dhugann se cunntas cruinn ortha, mar dhoigh dhe—ni bheadh moran sa stair tar eis an tsaoghail thar aithris na h-eagcora d'fhuiling lucht oibre, agus aithris an chasain ghairbh do thai-Stealadar, oir is tad bunaite adhbhal-mhor an chinidh dhaonna. Acht ni h-amhiaidh ata, Tugann an stair de ghnath drochide don lucht oibre, fe mar a thugas slionadoiri na poilitidheachta drochide don fhear oibre—se sin le radh, tugaid tarcuisne don fhear oibre nuair a gheii-leann se gan caismirt d'a chinneamhain; am ar bith a dtaisbeanann se gur mian leis leathtrom na poilitidheachta no leath-trom a iurisleachta do chur dhe, is scorn agus is grain leo e, agus deanaid brea-gaireacht mheabhlach fe. Agus ni taise do thir na h-Eireann e. Riamh agus choitfhche 'siad na. maighistri—na buic mhora—a scriobh stair na h-Eireann; agus is ar maithe leo fein do scriobhadar i.

Anois agus airis le linn staire freac-nairclghe na h-Eireann bhi cuis na n-iseal i gceist; uaireanta eile dob' eigean do lucht poilitidheachta in Eirinn na haoise seo tracht ar an aindeise d'fhuiling lucht Oibre na tire. Acht fairior! ni fiuntach an cuspoir a bhi le na nimtheachtao. Mar ami cogaidh amhain in aghaidh namhad poilitidheachta iseadh do bainti usaid as aindejse na noibrightheoiri; ni creidti chor ar bith sa chroidhe istigh gur bhain aon leath-c'huma le geigheann lucht oibre na h-Eireann.

M. d'ANDUN.

RUSSIA ASKS FOR RECORDED IRISH FOLK MUSIC

"IRISH DEMOCRAT" REPORTER "HE Irish—U.S.S.R. Society has been invited to send a collection of

Irish folk-music records to Moscow, it was reported in Dublin. A resolution calling for the opening of has been passed unanimously.

When f r a t e r n a l de legates f rom the Irish-U.S.S.R. Society a t t e n d e d congresses for f r i endsh ip with t he U.S.S.R. in Edin-burgh and London, inv i ta t ions were re-ceived to be represented a t similar con-gresses in E a s t e r n Europe.

A request f rom the Society for Cultural Relat ions with Foreign Count r ies in Mos-cow. for recordings of I r i sh folk music was being fulfilled.

Resolution At the th i rd annua l genera l meeting of

the members of the Irish-U.S.S.R. Society, held in Dublin, a resolut ion was passed declaring t h a t the society was convinced that the Soviet Government and peoples desiied and are str iving for peaceful re-lations with the rest of t he world.

The non-existence of diplomatic rela-tions between Ireland a n d the U.S.S.R. and many other countries, a n d the conse-quent barr iers to t rade a n d to the inter-change of informat ion on cultural mat-

L E T T IE I C S

relations between the two countries

t e r s was deplored. The society declares t h a t positive ac t ion is called for by all who wish to r e f u t e t h e s t a tements of war-mongers who p r o p a g a t e the idea t h a t war aga ins t U.S.S.R. or inevitable, is necessai"

Workers' League At the first of a series of outdoor

public meetings organised by the rapidly growing Ir ish Workers ' League, the league cha i rman (engineer Denis Walshe) demanded t h a t t h e Costello G o v e r n m e n t cease flirting w i t h imperialism as ex-pressed in M a r s h a l l and T r u m a n policies.

' The Workers ' League," said Mr. Walshe . "s tands for the unity a n d inde-pendence of I r e l and , and a rising s tan-d a r d of living for t he people."

Mr. Walshe accused the Government of hav ing failed to t ake a clear line with r ega rd to unity or independence.

Emigration Mr. McCarthy a t t acked Mr. Morrissey's

recent s t a tement t h a t if the e m i g r a n t s h a d worked as h a r d at home as they did abroad there would have been no need for t h e m to emigrate .

! 6 « M M W f l K M M B S t c e f l r a a e c i s t c i c

V/HEN IN LONDON

STOP AT THE

O A S I S H O T E L

NORFOLK SQUARE

PADDINGTON STATION

'Phone: PADdington 5442

Readers of "Irish Democrat" arc-assured of a special welcome.

Prop., BEN OWENS

ft f§ (SiS

jm f§

i l i s

fa h1

1 INTERNATIONAL | BOOKSHOP = 20 Church Lane, Belfast

SELLS THE

1 DEMOCRAT'

BRICKBATS - AND THANKS IN your f irs t Editorial you s tar t off by

saying "Unity aga ins t Brooke'' and later "Unite the People," bu t it doesn't sound m u c h like unity to me. Then I read the art icles on pages 4 a n d 5 of the same issue: in one you say, r ega rd ing the visit of Messrs. Duffy and Connolly to Belfast, in order to s t a r t b ranches of the Ir ish Labour Par ty , or as you call i t the "South-ern Labour Party," " th i s may be the means of winning cheap popular i ty in the South," a n d then you go on to launch a personal a t t ack on the men who were really doing their best a g a i n s t fierce oppo-sition, not alone in the To ry and Right-wing camps, but also in the so-called Northern I re land Pro-Par t i t ion Labour Party. Lit t le did I th ink t h a t the "Ir ish Democrat" would be on the i r side. I was glad to see in the I r i sh morning papers tha t the journey to the N o r t h was succes-ful in nc small measure.

NO IRISH NEED APPLY From

BIRMINGHAM trade unionists are in-dignant over the action of certain

large cycle manufacturers whose person-nel department is asking applicants are they Irish.

An affirmative answer means no job. One firm Is even preventing Irishmen

from entering the gate to apply for work. The restrictions apply to both male and

feiriale labour.

Slump The Midlands is the most prosperous

part of Britain, but s igns are not wanting that the long-feared, long-awaited slump

PAT O'BRIEN is beginning. The employers wish to be able to play off Ir ish aga ins t Brit ish workers in order to smash the Trade Union Movement .

Splitting tactics of this kind have fre-quently preceded fierce onslaughts upon wages and conditions, and Birmingham trade Unionists with memories of the past are demanding action to prevent any and all discrimination on racial or religious grounds.

Another motive is alleged to be the desire to "get even" with Eire for declar-ing the Republic, by threatening her with the export of unemployment.

West London Connolly Association

SIX LECTURES "Under the Bonner of Connolly"

MARCH 3rd Lecturer: PAT DOOLEY "Irish Labour and the Workers' Republic."

MARCH 24th Lecturer: DESMOND GREAVES "Ireland in the English Revolution 1649"

APRIL 7th Lecturer to be announced 'Ireland's straggle in song and ballad"

APRIL 21st Lecturer: LESLIE DAIKEN "Ireland and the Russian Revolution"

MAY 5th Lecturer: P. J. CLANCY "Why we oppose British Imperialism"

MAY 19th Lecturer: DESMOND GREAVES Lectures will be given at the

WORKINGMEN'S CLUB. Paddington Green (Newwt Undenrnjund, EdgvJare Ht»d)

Alternate THURSDAYS, at 8 p.m. sharp

Personal Attack O n page four, you publish an ar t ic le by

Bob Stewart, "Labour is Uni ted," in which he men t ions Messrs, Morgan Phil-lips and Wenelle of the British Labour P a r t y visiting Be l fas t . But I did not see any scathing persona l at tack on t h e m or the i r Party, as on t he representat ives of t h e Ir ish Labour P a r t y . Mr. S tewar t con-cludes his piece by saying, "They (North-ern Labour P a r t y > do not see the un i ty of I re land as an immed ia t e issue."

I am sure t h a t " I r i sh Democrat" r eade r s who have the un i ty of Ireland under a Labour and Socialist Government a t h e a r t will be able to draw their own conclusions f r o m Mr. S tewar t ' s "Labour is un i t ed" article. In an en l igh ten ing article "Nor th I re land votes on Par t i t ion ' ' ("Daily Wor-ker," Feb. 10th, 1949), Mr. Pat Drvine, a f t e r giving ex t r ac t s f rom speeches by Mr. Harold Wilson a n d Mr. Chuter Ede, to the i r loyal f r i ends in the North, s u m s up t h e situation ap t ly when he says, "The Northern I re land Labour Par ty in its Elec-tion Manifesto of J a n u a r y 31st merely dot ted the i's a n d crossed the t 's of th is Br i t i sh policy."

Before I end w i t h ' the brickbats, there is one more large one to the Editor, for de-voting one whole page of the "Democra t " to P a t Dooley's apologia" for the Hunga r -ian Government ' s case against Card ina l Mindszenty. W o u l d n ' t it be bet ter to de-vote more space to ma t t e r s relat ing to Ire-land and work for t he freedom of our own country first? W h e n we get t ha t f reedom, it will be t ime enough then to in te res t ourselves in o t h e r countries' af fa i rs . Do t h e Ir ish always have to fight the o ther fellow's battle, a s we are noted so well for doing?

Bouquet May I conclude with a special bouquet

for the article by "Labour Youth" and quote some of his words. "Prove to the workers of the North that the workers of the South are the same type of people as themselves, struggling against the same evil—capitalism, and towards the same goal—socialism."

So let us hope that the day is not far off when we will have a strong Irish La-bour Party, embracing the whole of the Republic of Ireland and bringing with it equality and comparative prosperity to an exploited people, and let us also hope that it will get fair treatment and fair criticism in the pages of the "Irish Democrat" and not to have some of Its members slurred as "looking for cheap popularity." I hope that you will find a little space to ventilate my grievances.

G E R A L D HARR INGTON London, S.E.

~f*7"OULD you pass on my thanks o Pa t » ' Dooley for t he in te res t his ar t ic le

on Cardinal Mindszenty has created. We become unduly ready, due to the quan-tity of p ropaganda produced, to accept the wri t ten word as the wr i t t en t ru th . How fa r th is is true, can best be realised by speaking to the " m a n in khaki" on the fu ro re created by Mindszenty ' s trial. T h e sentence passed on t he cardinal is too o f ten judged to be t he resul t of a semi-barbar ic a t t i tude on t h e part of Eas t e rn States . Indeed the re is present in the minds of the "gullible m a n y " a re-projec-t ion of the Bolshevik bogey of tine 20's; which officialdom n u r t u r e s and fosters in an endeavour to confuse the issues in ques-tion.

My best wishes to your pap:1;' in i ts ef for ts to awaken an intel l igent in* v e s t in all problems affect ing I re land.

C. O'D.

1WELL remember my fa the r tei'.ing t he story of the Knock long Soviet Cream-

ery, but I must say I h a d taken i; as no more t h a n a story unt i l I saw t r e refer-ence to it in your co lumns in your Feb-rua ry issue. If wha t you say is correct t he t rue history of I r e l and has yet to be wri t ten. I would be g lad if you could tell me where I could f ind a published account of the incident. [The incident was repor ted in the "Free-

man ' s Journal ," May, 1920, but no fu l l account was ever published. The I r i sh Democrat ," hopes to published the fu l l s tory f rom Sean O ' H a g a n the ac tua l manage r of the Soviet C r e a m e r y . - E d . 1

S E U M A S OG. LONDON.

""PHIS is just to say that I often read t- the "Irish Democrat." Ireland to-day

possesses a weak economy—is backward industrially and, in an agricultural sense. When the time comes (as it surely will) the ideas of James Connolly and the things he stood for will be put into prac-tice and the new Socialist Republic will give its citizens something to work for— Security and pride in their national achievements.

James Connolly was a realist who knew that only the workers of Ireland could give Iceland her salvation. He never flinched from his faith in ult imate Socialism for the whole country. He believed that one day the workers would unite and take complete power. Connolly explained to the workers, had confidence in them Are we going to prove worthy of this great Irish leader ?

N.L.

PLEASE S E N D ME THE "IflfSH DEMOCRAT " POR TWELVE MONTHS. I enclose P;0. far I/-

Name

Address

(Wrttc In Block CapHftte)

Pint to M m * r r . I r M i O w t w m t , " f n I t t t M , L w i m , W.C.I

March, 1949 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT 3

IRISH DEMOCRAT 374 GRAYS INN ROAD,

LONDON, W.C.I

All communications to be addressed to the Editor, DESMOND GREAVES.

Telephone No. Ter. 3906. RATE—Twelve Months 4/-

S i x Months 2/-

THIRD OF THE WORLD IS NOW fLEFT'

UNITE THE PEOPLE

r p m . present talk of Civil War in Ireland is itolish, irresponsible and pernicious.

Why should Irishmen, already divided by imperialist force and trickery, oblige imperialism still further bv shooting and bombing each other? If British imperial-ism cannot rule Ireland it would prefer it a desert. Nothing would delight it more tiian to see Irishmen voluntarily wrecking their own country and making it an economic de-pendency for another generation.

Who started this talk? It was the Tory ruling (lats of the six-counties, anxious to commit British policy more deeply to hold-ing the North at all costs, anxious to ex-tinguish what little sense of fair-play remains in the right-wing Labour Govern-ment.

The natural, correct, and reasonable de-mand for British Labour to make is the im-mediate withdrawal of all British troops from the six-counties. T.he object of all friends of Ireland in Britain should be to win the Labour movement for this demand. The Orangemen want to make this impos-sible by repeating 1914.

But the twenty-six county politicians who fell neatly into the trap—a trap designed to perpetuate the split between the people of North and South—bear a grave responsi-bility too. How easy to talk! Yet those who talk gaily of invading the North and killing the Northern workers would be the last people on earth to unite the people against imperialism, least of all to fight it them-selves. I hey are the very people w ho are backing Britain and America in their insane war plans.

Perhaps they do not mean it? Then they are making Brooke a gift. But if they speak with the object of out-bidding the threats and swashbuckling of the Orange drum-heaters, they should light these people in a way that injures the guilty not the innocent.

The limit of Costello's objectives is now a divided Ireland under Dublin rule, with Brooke's clique of reactionaries possessing "their present powers" to injure the people. Ireland thus "glued" together would be com-pletely at the disposal of the Anglo-Americar. war-mongers. De Valera would now be content with two counties to go on with, and then he, too, might join the pact. And for tJiis people would risk plunging the country into ruinous civil war!

The way to unite Ireland is to unite the people, beginning with the working-class. But this can only be done on the basis of fighting for their interests. Workers North and Sooth have the same interests. There-fore, no force is needed and persuasion will suffice. But once the workers have expressed themselves if the imperialists or their capitalist agents in Ireland obstruct the people's will to unity, then, if need be, let force be used, against the obstructors of the people's will.

But never let Ireland become another Paraguay, where Britain and America struggled with ten women to every man in the population.

Ireland's path lies away from either Imperialism, free, democratic and united.

J N 1927 I watched British soldiers march over Westminster Bridge in London, en

route for China. Their orders were to tup-press China's struggle for liberty as the Black and Tans and the Sherwood Foresters were ordered to do in Ireland in 1916 and 1921.

The Tans and the Foresters failed and history records only a temporary success attending Ihe efforts of their misguided brothers in China for the heart of every lover of freedom to-day rejoices in the victory of the Chinese people who have won freedom and independence.

Eleven long years of civil war were fought before victory crowned their arms. Over £800 million were given by the Americans alone to aid Chiang Kai Shek in his battle against the Chinese people struggling for elementary democracy. I n defeat this "austere" man, flees with

three million ounces of gold; for when the show-down comes, these "patriotic" capital-ists, 1 eave nothing to chance. In alt countries they shamelessly rob their country of every negotiable and transportable asset . . . as the King of Spain did in the 1930's when he saw the democratic results of ihe local elections.

Ij^ROM his hide-out in Formosa, Chiang Kai Shek now sullenly awaits the

desired Third World War which, like many another dethroned "monarch," he mis-guidedly believes will effect his restoration.

The imperialist powers stand paralysed with shock, British imperialism, which in 1842 forced a shameful war upon ihe Chinese to force them to buy opium, thereby securing an "agreement" to use five of China's ports; and who in 1900 suppressed in blood the Boxer Rising and looted the Emperor's Summer Palace of its treasures—this same "power," now impotent in senility, mumbles its "regrets" at the turn of events in China and waving the banner of "Business as Usual," begs for the crumbs of China's foreign trade.

This great Chinese victory has been won by the people alone. Not one newspaper of repute has dared attribute its success to "Russian intervention."

" / CHINA'S Communists," says the capital-^ ' ist Observer in London, "captured the

peasants not through terror . . . but because they implemented Sun (Yat Sen's) maxim: Land to him that tills it."

Of Chiang Kai Shek's departing forces the newspaper added: "Outside their own circles there are few who greatly mourn their going. There are none among the poor." In a pregnant comment on the "Three Principles of Sun Yat Sen's un-finished revolution—nationalism, democracy

I r i s U r w i n ' s L e t t e r

and the people's livelihood," the Observer said:

"The Kuomintang (Chiang Kai Shek's forces) seemed to care only for the first" . . a warning to those in Ireland who seek to implement only the "nationalist" section of the Republican Democratic programme of 1919 and who now betray even i h a t principle for the sake of Marshall dollars and the spurious "benefits" dangled before them by the authors of the Northern Defence Pact.

The new democracy of China is not yet Socialism. Capitalist forms of economy will remain some time until the goal of indus-trialism has been achieved by the people. All democratic parties will shortly gather

by

P. DOOLEY to form a National Assembly to proclaim a People's Republic and establish a Coalition government.

• r l ' ,HIS milestone^ will be recorded as the greatest since the defeat of Fascism in

1945'and comparable in scope and effect to the Russian Revolution of 1917. More t h a n 491 million people and nearly 4,457,000 square miles of territory have just been prised free from the grasping claw of world imperialism.

The staggering fact must now be faced that nine countries with a total popula-tion of 758. million—over one third of the world's population, covering one quarter of the globe—have, since 1917, fought and conquered capitalism and feudalism and withdrawn themselves for ever from the orbit of imperialism. Over 564 mil-lion have accomplished this since 1945 . . so the Irish can take heart. These 758 million exclude the peoples of

India. Burma and Malaya, the Arabs, Egyptians and the Jews: all of whose peoples are now in the throes of mighty social changes which spell doom to t h a t foreign exploiting minority which seeks to hold back their material and cultural advancement.

' T H E shif t in economic and political power J- of the freed peoples in the East is

strengthened enormously by the Chinese victory. Freed from their feudal overlords and their foreign exploiters, the Chinese are already preparing industrial and agri-cultural advances as revolutionary as those already effected in their liberated territories.

The ripples of this social ferment have al-ready been felt outside China in the increase from 4 to 36 Communist M.P.s in the recent

Japanese elections thereby adding another wrinkle to the furrowed brow of U.S. General MacArthur, now busily preparing Japan as an American arsenal for the Third World War. as his counterpart, General Clay, is doing in the German Ruhr .

I F, despite the peoples longing for peace, J- war is unloosed by the Western imperial-ists, they must now be prepared to face the unbreakable unity of one in three of the whole of humanity—an unbroken line stretching from the Danube to the Yangtze river; the hostility of the 19 Middle East nations which have bluntly renounced their former role as the chopping block for imperialism; the racial hostility of millions of negroes and the class divided populations in their own capitalist countries in the West. These are fac ts the warmongers dare not ignore. To do so would be to write their own epitaph.

Class divisions in the West are proved by the fact that Communism has its roots in millions of families in France, where the Communist Party has long been the largest political Party, and in Catholic Italy, where, despite every threat, both lay and clerical, eight million Catholics voted Communist in the last elections. The undoubted world appeal of Commun-

ism has recently been attested by the Bishop of Birmingham, who said: "The spiritual basis of Communism is lofty humanism. I t s leaders have steadily pur-sued a social policy which has carried it successfully over half the world, as it has lessened the hardships of the poor and spread the advantages of education."

T N Ireland prelates and politicians com-bine to exorcise its ghostly spectre

which they th ink they see in every worker's demand for better conditions. In Britain, however, the Irish are not immune from their query: "What is this Communism the bishops talk about so much? There must be something in it to win the allegiance of millions the world over; something which brings successes no others seem capable of accomplishing."

Truly in their different ways the workers of the world are oil the move, recognising, in the words of Connolly, t ha t :

" . . . the world for the workers can only be realised by the people of each country siezing upon their own country and wresting it by one means or another from the h a n d s of the present rulers or proprietors and restoring it with all its powers and potentialities to the people who inhabit it and labour upon it." The Chinese people have now done this.

Who dare prophesy that the Irish will ignore this message of their own leader, James Connolly?

I S A W N E W F r a g i l e , J a n u a r y

P O L A N D TMAGINE a country where the losses

among the civilian population during the war were greater than the Brit ish and American losses put together; where the population has decreased from 37 to 24 million, and where only five per cent, of the pre-war Jewish population remains. Imagine a country devasted by six years of German occupation -whole towns and villages rased to the ground—and then

HAMMERSMITH POLL A BY-ELECTION in a strong Irish area

such as Hammersmith is of interest as testing both Labour and anti-Partition policy within Britain.

The Labour candidate was returned on an increased pell but with hte majority over his Tory opponent halved.

From the Labour standpoint this must give food for searching self-examination. A general (lection is coming. How many doubtful constituencies will swing it the majority in the whole country Is halved? Unlike proportional representation the British system gives a big swing-over of seats for a small swing-over of votes.

Labour leaders can surely not afford to ignore the possibility of the Irish vote losing its strong pro-Labour bias, especially in view of the tact tha t the Communist Party, so Tar the only Party which has declared itself against Partition. Is reported to be putting forward candidates.

/ \N the other hand it is clear that the " ' advice given by the anti-Partition League leaders to vote Tory was not widely followed. This Is understandable since the electorate was being asked to vote against those who refuse to end Partition in favour of those who put It there.

It would take some clever argument to

persuade the average Irish worker t h a t he should vote against Labour's many badly needed reforms because neither Government nor opposition were for ending the border. The two parties being equally bad in their a t t i tude to Ireland, the worker would vote on economic policy or abstain.

There is a way out of this difficulty. That way is for the progressive elements within the Labour and Trade Union movements to explain and explain within that movement the need for a united Ireland, and for the immediate withdrawal of British troops. Full use should be made of the many trained speakers of the Connolly Association who will lecture to Trade Union branches on request, to help win the Labour movement for Irish unity and independence.

/ the other hand the anti-Partit ion " ' League must remember tha t Irish workers are workers as well as Irish. Their class instincts are powerful and are a great power for national good. Let the League abandon Its anti-working-class, pro-Tory pro-Imperialist standpoint, and instead of merely getting vast showy gatherings, which of course are useful In their way. It will set Into motion the people who will fight for removing the Border without wanting all Ireland chained In return.

fought over by two gigantic armies. Imagine a capital city looking some-

thing like the immediate surroundings of St. Paul's Cathedral—a capital city where three years ago there was neither water nor electic light. Imagine a coun-try which before the war was content to spend only two-and-a-half per cent, of the national income on education and which during the war lost nearly half its uni-versity and secondary school teachers. Imagine a country 50 years behind the times, robbed, ruined and orphaned—and you have Poland as the Germans left her in 1945.

r pO-DAY, wherever you turn in Warsaw you can see ruiijs—but you see them

through the scaffolding of new buildings. The country is changing—not re-building the old, unequal order, but a newer and juster. Instead of a million children without any schooling at all, and all but five per cent, finishing with elementary school -every child in Poland to-day is getting the same chance of a complete education, and half the students entering the universities now come from peasants' and workers' families.

Instead of an idle, semi-fuedal aristo-cracy on the one hand, and millions of poor peasants on the other, struggling to scratch a living from the exhausted over-cultivated soil of a couple of narrow-strip fields, with never a penny to spare for better seed or more up-to-date implements; instead of four million Jews deprived or many elementary rights and periodically exposed to discrimination and persecu-tion; Instead of a self-appointed arbitrary government — instead of all this the Poles now enjoy for the first time a government democratically elected by citizens whose political and personal rights are guaran-

teed by the constitution, regardless of race, religion or social standing. The worker is not only guaranteed work at a good wage, but his social security is taken care of, too: paid holidays, paid sick leave with the best of medical attention and the use of sanatoria once the happy hunting ground of the rich, theatres and other opportunities of cultural l ife at a price he can pay.

\S /"AGES are not high in present-day " Poland, and in spite of difficult con-

ditions of work in damaged factories and mines the working morale of Poland is un» equalled. T h e visitor from less well-favoured parts of Europe is immediately struck by the free market—butter, eggs, bacon, cream—all the things we have long been denied—but all at high and appar-ently uncontrolled prices. "It doesn't seem quite fair," you murmur doubtfully over your whipped cream and coffee, but there is an answer for the tenderest conscience. The worker is not called upon to supply his family at these prices; he himself gets a good daily meal in the canteen, and on the strength of his worker's card he gets the basic rations for himself and his family at very low prices indeed.

Then rents are low—especially in bat-tered Warsaw, where living conditions are crowded even by blitz standards. Textiles and boots and shoes are very scarce and very much in demand, but here again the worker gets first pick. After meeting all his household expenses and providing something for the recreation of his family, the Polish worker to-day can still put away about a tenth of his wages—not for the rainy day which no Socialist country ex-pects, but for all those little things he never could do more than dream of be-fore.

n Si

\\

I

% •

Biggest Racket in 25 Years

BIUTISH Labour Party organiser, Mr. Johnson, has called the

Northern Ireland Election the biggest rackei "in his twenty-five years political experience." He declares that the way the seats have been carved up makes it impossible to obtain a free expression of the will of the people. The Government can be returned to power by a minority of the voters. In Belfast, 98,000 votes were cast for the Government and 94,000 against them but the Unionists get the vast majority of the seats.

from B O B S T E W A R T

YET the Rev. Robert Moore, Minis-ter of Agriculture, stated at the

annual meeting of the North Derry Unionist Association that "they were not going to be jerrymandered, hum-bugged or coerced from their position." Gerrymandered was a strange word for the Rev. ltobert to use. There are three constituencies in the county of Derry. North, Mid and South. The honest geographer would have placed the constituencies so that they would correspond to the North, Middle and South of the county, but the result of such a geographer's wish would prob-ably have been a Nationalist majority in South and Middle, and a reduced Unionist majority in North.

BUT it was dishonest politicians who set the boundaries of the

constituencies and mid-Derry being a mountainous area and a Nationalist stronghold, they decided that in the interests of the Nationalist movement of mid-Derry, a number of National-ists who geographically reside in North Derry should be attached to thear brethren in mid-Derry, and that a number of Unionist supporters resid-ing geographically in an area of mid-Derry should be joined to South Derry. The resulting map shows mid-Derry with a peculiar bulge in its North-West, and South Derry expand-ing northwards and then westwards In its North-East corner, so that part of South Derry lies between North and Mid-Derry.

Tbe North Antrim Labour Party has passed a resolution calling on the Executive Committee of the Northern Ireland Labour Party to approach the British Labour Government with the request that steps be taken to hold a genuine plebiscite.

U S

THE ELECTI THE NORTHERN ELECTION LEAVES UNIONISM TEMPORARILY CONFIRMED

IN ITS STRONGHOLD, BUT PERMANENTLY SHAKEN ELSEWHERE, EVEN THE BRITISH PRESS HAS CARRIED ONE OR TWO TRUTHFUL STATEMENTS, FORCED BY T H E BLATANCY OF THE WHOLE FRAUD.

Here was an election fought in rigged constituencies, on a years-old register, and on false slogans bearing no relation to the people's needs. In every street a few names were left off the register. Children were intimidated at school. Opposition bill-posters had bottles thrown at them. Labour meetings had to be abandoned, thanks to police-protected hooliganism. And despite the use of identity cards there were many accusations of impersonation. y E T . as a shrewd old Scotsman remarked, Brooke won his election not

b e c a u s e h e r e s u r r e c t e d t h e d e a d , I t h a s b e e n sa id t h a t t h e U n i o n i s t s t h a t t h e y d i d n ' t n e e d o n e .

""IVTITH impudence hard to equal they " billposted the achievements of the

Labour Government , against which their representatives a t Westminster , in their moments of clarity, vote wi th clock-like regularity. "Look what you'll lose if the Border goes," said they. T h e y did not mention w h a t would be lost if t he present drive of the Bri t ish Labour Government towards economic crisis a n d war is allowed to cont inue.

There are 37,000 unemployed. Thousands t ramp in vain on house-hunts. Marshall plan res t r ic t ions are s tarving the ship-yards of steel. Marshall p lan economies are beginning to cut l inen production. Marshall wa r menaces the whole struc-ture of social security. These evils can only be aver ted through a s t ruggle against capitalism, aga ins t British Imperialism in particular. B u t Brooke had no need to talk about this . Time enough to worry when he was found out—after the elec-tion.

The Nor the rn people want jobs, houses, peace and f reedom. But Brooke has de-ceived enough of them into th inking t ha t they will get them from Bri ta in .

To do t h i s he must blacken and slander the South. And here unfor tuna te ly the Costello Government provides ammuni-tion, though not in the crude way usually thought. Costello does not openly back Britain. B u t he openly backs British world policy. He backs the Marshal l plan, and though he will not yet join the Atlantic pact , he puts his blessing on its purposes. H e thus fails to convince the thinking P ro t e s t an t who mus t see in union with the S o u t h an escape f r o m the dilem-mas of Br i t i sh policy, but f e a r s a possible loss of cer ta in immediate privileges.

but because he deceived the living. had no policy. It is equally true

COSTELLO, of course, h a d a r ight to intervene in the election, j u s t as Attlee

had no r ight . Connolly and Duffy had a r igh t also. And Morgan Phil l ips had none. Neither Costello's sweeping ges ture a t the church gates, nor the Labour men ' s imita-tive counter-blast, could impress anybody but those who were Nationalist already. I t was no t t h e act of intervention, but the basis of it. T h e whole lot of t hem are sold u p to t he hi l t to Marshall politics. They may twist themselves into whatever poli-tical contort ions they like, bu t they can-not f ight Br i ta in by backing Br i t i sh policy, and they will never win people away from Bri ta in by supporting Br i ta in wi th reser-vations.

So Unionism, blessed by t h e Labour Government , swallowed the Labour Party. Nationalism, imbued with t h e policy of the deal with imperialism, fai led to detach support f r om imperialism. T h e principal casualty was Labour—and Brooke won.

The undemocrat ic na ture of t he election was one fac tor leading to Brooke's victory. Another was the deception of t h e people. A third, a n d one which needs pondering, was the disuni ty of the opposition.

T h e Nat ional is ts alone a r e no t strong enough to win a democratic election, let alone a f r a u d u l e n t one. Be l fas t alone, on the o ther h a n d , has its t housands of un-employed, its thousands of shipyard, en-gineering a n d linen workers, whose daily lives are one long struggle aga ins t the Unionist bosses. The Belfas t worker has t h e hear t of a lion. After vot ing Unionist one week lie will risk his job the next for a t rade union principle, a sacked shop steward or a wages' trick. T h e fundamen-tal question which faces these two sections

is how to unite. Th i s election unfortun-ately saw the growth of disunity. T ^ H E main force of Labour (like its J - Southern coun te rpa r t in 1922) wants

a plebiscite, a n d meanwhile "accepts the consti tut ional position." This is the policy on which Getgood lost. T h e Brooke Gov-e rnmen t said this election WAS a plebis-ci te (like Collins long before t hem also). So why vote for Getgood ? People didn't.

T h e greater pa r t of official Labour mem-bership is Pro tes tan t and working class.

It is the organ of those with whom Nationalists must work out a programme of unity. To help th is desirable end Con-nolly a n d Duffy appeared in Belfast and split away the Catholic and Nationalist wing.

T y H E N I was in Bel fas t I asked about * ' t h e fu tu re of t he united new Labour

Party, and was told by a prominent official tha t it has no hope of diverting the Pro tes tan ts from official Labour. On t h e contrary it will fight t h e Nationalist "gom-been men" of Derry a n d elsewhere. And as if to presage its f u t u r e on its existing basis, Beatt ie lost h i s seat also.

Only McCulloch presented the real •issues. His huge mass meetings (unfor tun-lately not in his own constituency) were [ t h e only assemblies where Protes tant a n d (Catholic rubbed shoulders. He told t h e I people t h a t the advan tages they hope to Iget e i ther from imperial is t Britain or ex-iBlueshir t Costello can in fact only be got [ f rom a united democratic, and finally ISocialist, Ireland.

The Gerrymandered Results BELFAST

Dock. —T. L. Cole <U>, 3.674: H. Downey (Lab), 3,390. Unionist m a j o r i t y 284. Unionist gain.

Clifton. —S. H. Hail-Thompson (U), 10.715: O. J. Keane (Ind. Lab.), 2,107. Unionist majority, 8,608. No change .

Cromac.—J. M. Sinclair U>, 10,152; J . A. Donnelly (Eire Lab.i, 2.170. Union-ist majority, 7,982. No change.

Duncairn.—W. G r a n t (U), 10,979; J. Morrow (Lab.), 2,230. Unionist ma jo r i t y 8,749. No change.

Bloomfieid. —Lord Glentoran (U.), 14.058; T. W. Boyd (Lab.), 1,386; W. H. M'Cullough (Comm.), 623 Unionis t major i ty , 12,672. No change.

Old Park—W. J . Morgan (U), 9,599; R. Getgood (Lab.), 6,656. Unionist m a j 2,943. Unionist gain.

St. Anne's—J. E. Warnock (U), 15,312; R. Thompson (Lab.), 4,811. Unionist majority, 10,501. No change.

Willowfteld.—H. Midgley (U.), 11,304; W. Leeburn (Lab.), 1,611. Unionist m a j . 9,693. No change.

Pottinger.—Dr. S. Rodgers (U), 6,262; J . Beat t ie (Ind. Lab.), 3,693. Unionist major i ty , 2,569. Unionist gain.

Victoria—R. B. Alexander (U), 11,330; D. W. Bleakley (Lab.), 2,423. Unionist major i ty . 8,907. No change.

COUNTY DOWN North. — T . Baillie (U), 13,626: S.

Napier (Lab.) , 1,956. Unionist majority, 11,670. No change.

South.—J. Connellan (Nat.) , 9,478 ; R. J. R. Harcour t <U.), 4,032. Nationalist majority, 5,446. No change.

East.—A. B. D. Faulkner (U.). 8,132; E. K. M 'Grady (Nat.), 5,480. Unionist majori ty, 2,652. No change,

Iveagh.—w. B. Maginess, K.C (U.), 9,708; J . P. Ferguson (Ind. U.), 2,150. Unionist majori ty, 7,558. No change.

MOurne.—j. McSparran, K.C (Nat.), 7,462; N. Gordon (U), 6,020. Nationalist majority, 1,442. No change.

COUNTY ANTR IM Antrim.—H. Minford iU.), 11.580; W.

J. Gregg (Lab), 2,363. Unionist major i ty 9,217. No change.

COUNTY A R M A G H North.—Mrs. D. M'Nab (U.), 9,705; J .

M'Alinden (Nat.), 5,099. Unionist maj . 4,606. No change.

South.—M. Conlon (Nat.) , 10,868; I G. Hawthorne (U.), 3,365. Nationalist majority, 7,503. No change.

COUNTY F E R M A N A G H Enniskillen—E. C. Ferguson (U.),

5,706; W. Blake (Nat.), 4,729. Unionist

majori ty , 977. No change. Lisnaskea — Sir Basil Brooke (U.),

5,593; J. Carron (Nat.), 4,173. Unionis t major i ty , 1,420 No change.

South.—C. A. Healy (Nat.), 6,680; F. G. Pat terson (U.), 2,596. Nat ional is t major i ty , 4,084.

COUNTY TYRONE East.—J. F. S tewar t (Nat.), 7,443; S.

Miller (U.), 6,122. Nationalist ma jor i tv , 1,321. No change .

Mid—E. V. M'Cullagh (Nat.), 8,113; R . A. Campbell (U.), 4,018. Nat ional is t major i ty , 4,095. No change.

North.—T. Lyons (U.), 8,017; B. V. M"Bride (Nat.), 6,728. Unionist m a j . 1,289. No change.

South.—W. F. M'Coy, K.C.<*U.), 8,855; J . Slevin (Nat.), 5,630. Unionist maj . , 3,225. No change.

West—R. H. O Connor (Nat.), 7,859; T. McClay (U.), 5,396. Nationalist m a j . 2,463. No change.

COUNTY LONDONDERRY Londonderry—The Rev. J . G . Mac-

Manaway (U.), 9,153; Alderman F . E. M'Carroll (Nat.), 5,794. Unionist maj . , 3,359. No change.

South—Mrs. D. Parker (U.), 9,193; T. B. Agnew (Nat.) , 5,909. Unionist m a j . 3,284. No change.

and afterwards A N election of this kind did not,

a little tiny bit. The Unionists] huge majority will not help them six-county economy, the coming sluil ment of their own supporters.

But if the defeated armies of Labour a n d Nationalism use their defeat to " lea rn well'' and the inevitable disillu-s ionment is led into the r igh t channels of action, this will be t he last trick'election.

T h e election was, of course, Britain's reply to the demand for I r i sh Unity. The ru lers of the six-counties a re Bri t ish capi-tal ists , the owners of t he banks, the ship-yards and mills. They make too much prof i t out of the occupation to wish to give u p the Six Counties. More important stilli the North is a pe rmanen t foothold in Ireland f rom which the Bri t ish Army dominates the whole country.

MERICA is t ry ing to create a n alii-

d could not, take matters forward ill have a hollow victory. Their solve the problems of the lop-sided

IP, and the inevitable disillusion-

Britain t h a t she should give up her I special position in the North so t ha t the | whole country could be organised as one 'single offensive base against Europe. In-stead of defending Bri ta in , Ireland under American control, could even a t t ack Britain. The role of t he island is to be reversed.

Bri ta in 's policy is favourable to the war

T ) U T the Northern capital ists who were likely to give up the i r absolute con-

trol, even though in r e tu rn they would get control of the South, objected. Costello went to t he U.SA. Eire got its own loans from America and the bogus Republic was declared, taking Eire outside the Imperia l Preference scheme. American opinion swung towards a united Ireland u n d e r direct American influence, and De Valera offered to "compensate" those who left t h e Six Counties" for England. Pressure on Brooke intensified, and the election was held in order to make it appear tha t t h e opposition of the nor thern capitalists to shar ing the i r power with other capital ists

AT

. v Russ ia and the new democracies, and some of her politicians have suggested to

LABOUR GOES DOWN FIGHTING The results of the Six-County elec-

tions have come as a hard but not unexpected blow to progressive Irish opinion.

Briefly, Labour has been kicked out of Stormont (with exceptions of Diamond (Falls) and Hahna (Cen-tral, returned unopposed), the Unionists have increased their majority, and the anti-Partitionists while polling well in the Catholic areas have made no impression on the Protestant workers and small farmers.

Sir Basil Brooke used every dirty weapon in the Orange arsenal to win his victory. Gerrymandering, personation, and an out-of-date electoral register made it impossible to get ft fair vote while mob hooliganism and the deliberate fanning of religious hysteria were everywhere used to intimidate Catholic and Labour voters. Protestant working-men and women who would norm-ally have judged the candidates on their poUcjr and not on their particular brand of Ocangelsm, were so confused by the hysterical beating of drums and the whip-ping tip of all kinds of primitive religious pawttnr that they fell into the carefully prepared Unionist trap, and voted for their claw enemies.

BUT unscrupulous as were Unionist tactics, they would not have succeeded

but lor the blunder made by their National-l y and Labour opponents.

•me Nationalists pursued their old, narrow, sectarian policy of fighting solely on the constitutional and religious Issue, and'tfwe abetted In their stupidity by Coe-telfe a*d de Valera who have done every-tfttw to Inflame the suspicions at the Kwtfcffn Protestants that tfwf were In

' Of being dragged In und<* a purely in which Protectants would

an<l have done npUtfng show tbfit a Halted, imfepitoSeat Ireland in fe i t weH- be mote prosperous ami demo-amtlz than a divided, Imperialist-dominated

THE Tory Press campaign in Britain in favour of "loyal" Ulster, and the hypo-

critical Bevin-Attlee policy of pretending that Partition is an internal Irish affair while maintaining British troops in Northern Ireland and keeping the reserved powers for Westminster were other power-ful factors which tipped the balance in

and Billy McCullough, the sole Communist candidate, lost his deposit in Bloomsfleld.

IT is difficult to make an accurate com-parison with Labour's total poli in 1945 as

so many constituencies have been changed some old parties have disappeared (eg., Commonwealth Labour), and other new ones been formed (e.g., Ind. Labour), and

By FLANN CAMPBELL favour of Brooke. Bevin's continuance of Tory policy towards Ireland is just one more aspect of his general Imperialist and anti-democratic atUtude towards the world.

But heavy as were the odds in favour of reaction the progressive forces would have done much better but for their own internal dissensions. The Six-County Labour move-ment like Its counterpart in Eire, is split and divided in a way that seems incompre-hensible to most Socialists. There are now two Labour Parties In the South, two (or is it three?) in the North, and so many con-flicting views on major issues of policy that it is no wonder that the average worker in Belfast is confused.

And further, to make confusion thrice confounded on the eve of the election, Mr. Morgan Phillips, secretary of the British Labour Party, arrived from Lon-don with a proposal that the Six-County Labour Party should become a regional section of British Labour, while Messrs. Luke Duffy and Roddy Connolly arrived almost simultaneously from Dublin with tbe contrary proposal thai it should be-come an integral section of Eire labour.

THE worst feature of the results was the almost complete elimination of Labour

as a Parliamentary group. All the progress made In 1846 was lost, and even veterans like Beattie lost their seats. The latter who had held Pottinger for 24 jfears dropped 1,1(9 votes from the last election, while Bob Getgood who had won Oldpark in 1M6 with a majority of 2.4*» only polled 0,666 votes to his Tory opponent's-8.W9 on this occasion. Hugh Downey lost the paodomin-antly working-class constituency of Dock,

many candidates were returned unopposed but generally there seems to have been a fall of about 35 per cent, in the Labour vote and a corresponding rise of 35 per cent. In the Unionist vote. Here are the 1949 and 1945 figures for the contested Belfast constituencies:

1943 Dock Lab. 3985 Clifton Lab. 4458 Cromac Comm. 4130 Duncairn Lab. 4874 Bloomfleld Comm. 6803 Old Park Lab. 8829 St. Anne's Lab. 7674 Wlllowfleld Lab. 1082 Pottinger Ind. Lab. 4852 Victoria Lab. 4342

Total 1949

50,029

Dock Clifton Cromac Dyncalrn Bloomfleld

Old Park 8t. Anne's Wlllowfleld Pottinger Victoria

Lab. 3390 Ind. Lab. 2107 Eire Lab. 2170

Lab. 2230 Lab. 1386

Comm. 623 Lab. 6656 Lab. 4811 Lab. 1611

Ind. Lab. 3693 Lab. 2423

Tot^l 31,100 The hard core of 3«,04K> Labour voters

will he a n tmmpmtji* MM* when the struggle sharpens In Uu> Industrial field, and the ^wrkwrs threatened stamp in the shtp-bttibUaf ana ihjon industries.

Nationalists, who did not contest the Bel-fast seats, polled well in many rural constituencies. Conlon topped the poll in S. Armagh, Conellan in S. Down, O'Connor in W. Tyrone, M'Cullagh in mid-Tyrone, J. F. Stewart In E. Tyrone, and Cahlr Healy in S. Fermanagh,

I n fact , the Nat ional i s t s won a n overall victory in Fermanagh and Tyrone, and it has been argued that no logical • argument exists why these anti-Partition: counties should be forced to remain under Stormont rule.

What is the amwer to this general picture of confusion, division, and defeat of the Left in Northern Ireland? Not, surety, that the progressive forces should throw up their hands in despair and accept the unnatural division of their country as permanent, or abandon th« Protestant workers as a hopeless rang; o< obscurantists who can never be won from their allegiance to Unionism. Irish Labour, now at Its lowest ebb for

mony^ears, must do some hard thinking if it is to retrieve Its fortunes and build an organisation capable of winning political power and creating Socialism.

ONCE it has accepted the basic ideals of peace, independence, and ultimate na-

tional unity combined with an unrelenting struggle on social issues such as work, wapes and houses then it can afford to vary >u

tactics according to local circumstancc-s. But opportunism of this kind advocated

by Norton in associating with Blueshlrts or of the kind advocated by some backward Six County Labour leaders who are prepared to compromise with Imperialism only leads the workers deeper and deeper into the mire of bewilderment, disillusion and apathy.

As a sound policy Is developed in the course of the struggle against domestic capi-talism and foreign Imperialism—anil it <™1

arise inevitably In the conrsc of th» struggle—so a united mass movement will built capable at resisting external age"*1

slon, defeating reaction, and creattnt; ft sodarl order which will bring -peare, <uiW aj»d prosperity to the Irish people.

alliance, but she does not want to lose her privileges. America cares less about [Britain's privileges, but does not wish to offend the most important member of her bloc. Between the two powers, who are "conspiring separately against each other and together against the people" Costello's Inter-Party Government is engaged in a series of manoeuvres.

Twenty-Six County capitalism depends I on Britain for an export market and on America for certain imports. It is also bound closely to British capitalism through the banks and British invest-ments in Ireland, as well as by Irish in-vestment in the British Empire, which is however also controlled effectively by British banks. These facts mean that any capitalist Government in the South will be satisfied with something less than com-plete independence, even though it

| fights for unity.

Britain's first manoeuvre was the Attlee I visit of last August which seems to have I aimed at securing a form of "unity within

the empire." British capital shares con-trol of the South with Irish capital. In return for entering the "Western Union" war bloc under Britain's wing, Britain was willing to share rule in the North also.

was really t he deep loyalty of the people to the Bri t ish Crown.

The horse-fair bargaining over t h e people's f u t u r e went on a f t e r the election as before. DeValera cut down his demand to the immediate cession of the two counties leaving the rest till later. Cos-tello offered the Northern Tory bigots "all the powers they a t present possess" (which means giving Britain these powers within Ireland) but asked for t h e reserved powers which, including finance, foreign policy and defence, would m a k e possible t he organisation of the war basJk

Then followed the s t a t ement t ha t if t h e reserved powers were t ransferred ( the border remaining) I re land would come into the Atlantic pact aga ins t the Eas t . The people were to be bartered away to imperialism.

T I / - O R S T of all. following Brooke's irre-* ' sponsible statements to his "sol-

diers," Southern publicists began to speak erf civil war. The idea begins to take root among the masses. Yet what would such a war be fought to decide ? Whether the Irish people are to be sold to imperialism one way or another. Thus British and American capital fought each other in Paraguay and Bolivia, for seven long

G 2 5 2 S 57)

Clancy tells Attlee

FULFIL YOUR PROMISES IN a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr.

Attlee, P. J. Clancy, on behalf of the "Irish Democrat" and the Connolly Association, has called for the Implemen-tation of Labour Party Conference pledges to take steps to bring to an end the unnatural division of Ireland.

Replying to the contention that the British Government could not tolerate any coercion of the people of Northern Ireland it is pointed out that British coercion has been a fact over thirty years.

"On behalf of the Executive C«m-mlttee of the Connolly Association and the Editorial Committee of the 'Irish Democrat,'" the letter proceeds, "per-mit me to draw your attention to the conduct of the recent election In Northern Iretanrf, m 4 to aak your Government to-press for a new election basedt upon proportional representation

and the ending of the undemocratic gerrymandering system." The letter recalls that Mr. Jack Beattie

with other candidates were prevented from holding meeting* by Orange mobs. The only action of the police was to close down their meetings. Polling booths were placed In Orange areas .where people were afraid to be seen voting. Oranges with razor blades projecting from them were thrown at Labour and Nationalist candi-dates. The electoral register was com-pletely out of date.

"With this undemocratic conduct," the statement concludes, "we have no hesitation in saying that the m a l t s of this election do not truly represent the win of the Northern Ireland people." The Association ha**ls» requested the

NattanU Council far Civil Liberties to make a fresh Investigation into condi-tions In the Six OmaUftfi.

t iSMwriv. ' r a B a B B S B ^ g g s s g B a s s s ^ f f i B g a a f e a s a ^ ^ ^ i i

years, wi thout a single Br i t i sh or Ameri-can soldier firing a shot. An Ireland smoking w i t h self-destruction would pos-sibly suit some people, bu t no t the Irish people, who have already f o u g h t one civil war to p lease capitalism.

Rash ta lk begins when people see no way out. B u t there is a way out, in the unity of t h e people. F i r s t the Labour Movement in Britain should press for the complete withdrawal of all Br i t i sh troops from the Six Counties a n d a n end to the policy of bolstering up th i s reactionary Ruritania. B u t the way to do this is not to vote To ry but to persuade Labour, especially t r a d e unionism.

Second in the Six Counties there is needed a minimum programme based upon the s truggle against imperialism for the needs of the people, jobs, homes and peace.

T^ IN ALLY, there is needed the creation of t he missing link, t he strong inde-

pending working-class par ty in the South. Such a movement could t r ans fo rm the South f rom a bogey to scare t he Northern Protestant, in to a magnet to draw him.

I ts policy could run along the following lines. F i r s t the recognition of the U.S.S.R., membership of U.N.O. and the raising of I r i sh National demands on the floor of U.N.O. Second, the opening up of diplomatic a n d trade relat ions with the new democracies which could supply so much which Britain supplies now. On the

PAROCHIAL ISSUE

T \ E LA BEDOYERE, writing in the "Catholic Herald" (February 12th,

1939) referring to Partition, says: "It seems to me that these last elections go to prove that nothing has been gained by the present method of raising the question . . . it would, we are convinced, have been far wiser to leave the constitutional ques-tion where it had so long remained dor-mant, to have taken the opportunity of the defence of the West against the anti-God East . . . and to persuade the North that in a new found intimacy and common defence, the old issues of separation and conflicting loyalties had largely lost their raison d'etre."

The "Tablet" is more frank. "Eire," it says, "is so very much less exposed to the Soviet threat that it is able to Indulge in the illusions of neutrality with more com-placency. . . ."

Refusal After referring to Eire's refusal to join

the so-called Atlantic Pact unless Parti-tion was ended, the "Tablet" tartly de-clares: "It should be sufficiently clear that Eire is not really doing a favour to the other Powers by reaching agreement with them over Atlantic Defence." And raps Eire on the knuckles because she cannot see that "her own grievances are quite dis-tinct from the interest in the defence of the West which Eire shares with the rest

•of Europe. The "Tablet" goes on to say that such

an attitude Is helping Communism, say-ing: "The great hope of the Communists lies in stimulating parochial quarrels of this kind . . . Eire is creating a bad Im-pression in Amerioa as well a s in Britain by bringing u p in Oris connection « n issue which ftos nothing to do with the Atlantic Pact. I f . BURKE

basis of this trade, an end to exclusive trade treaties with Britain which tie Ire-land to British economy. Refuse to enter any war blocs whatever.

In order to c a n y over such a sound for-eign policy into home affairs there would be needed bills to clip the wings of the bankers and capitalists, control of invest-ment and compulsory investment in special development areas to give work and create needed products. Simultaneously there should be an immediate improvement of all wages, but especially agricultural wages, the extension of social services end education.

In order to develop the maximum initia-tive among the people there would be needed complete democracy, the removal of the undemocratic clauses in the 1937 constitution, abolition of the censorship, complete freedom of conscience in all things.

Then on the basis of these improve-ments appeal over the heads of the Stor-mont Junta to the people of the North. Indeed appeal to them at once and invite them to join in the struggle to bring about these things.

This three-fold policy, the three-pronged attack, in Britain, in the North and in the South, can bring about the unity of Ire-land under conditions which guarantee its independence, and is the only read to the Workers' Republic which Connolly en-visaged.

Press Comments cc

iOMMENTING on the results of the Six County elections, the "Manchester

Guardian" wrote: "The Northern'Ireland elections have not shown anything that was not known before. Sir Basil Brooke is an astute politician; he had never any fear of the result, but he chose to,rush the election on a stale register. He ha? ex-exploited British loyalty to Ulster for his own . Party ends."

Referring to the Eire Government's actions during th& election, the "^Guardian" went on: "Mr. Costello's Government has, to keep alive, to outdo Mr. de Valera's crude bellicose nationalism, and the Nor-thern Irish Labour Party, the party that tried to introduce something other than religious bigotry into Ulster affairs has been almost snuffed out."

* # # In Holland, where the Catholics and

Protestants are united in one nation, the Protestant paper "Utrechts Niewblad" said: "Eire and Ulster have not yet been able to find a way towards reasonable agreement on their mutual relations:" This Dutch paper considered it -possible that all British financial, economic and defence powers could be transferred to Dublin, but at the same time maintaining the Six Counties' Parliamentary privi-leges. The "Utrechts Niewblad" sugges-ted that during the interim period (when powers were being transferred from Lon-don to Belfast) "United Nations or.U.S. troops might replace Britain's "Ulster garrison."

* * • The Right-Wing Social Democrat "Wie-

ner Arbeiter-Zaitung," in a full-page article on "The Border In the Emerald Isle/' com-ments that "Between the two alternatives of London or Dublin the tiny North Irish Labouf Party to wobMtag." This is how It appears to Fritz'Ungard, an Austrian liv-ing' tn ~Brtfsst.

(

6 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT March, 1949

WHEN T H E S A L M O N COME U P FROM T H E

SEA ON T H E I R WAY T O L O U G H M A E V E FOR T H E SPAWNING, THERE A R E TIMES W H E N THE R I V E R O F T H E SAME NAME IS SO T H I C K W I T H THEM T H A T T H E Y CAN HARDLY SLIP P A S T ONE ANOTHER.

—for many a good priest, having fulfilled his duties and changed into his walking clothes, will join his friends in Peter Doyle's back room. Arra, what harm is there in that?

T EAVE the bona fide travellers enjoying -L' their pints or jorums of malt and set back to the salmon in the River Maeve. The circumstances of the preserve—an alien ex-ploiter cruelly sending the fish to make filthy lucre in a foreign market for to spend in God knows what sort of sin and dissipa-tion—the circumstances, I say, are an open and frank invitation to poaching. They call it "snatching" locally — because of the

favourite trick used

A Short Story Looking over "the Bridge, a man

cannot see the bottom for fish-— although on each side, above and below it, the clear stream is seldom more than three or at the most four feet deep.

When the sun shines on a fine June or July day you will nearly always see idle folks leaning over the Bridge in a state of fascina-tion watching the endless procession of moving, darting and at times j u m p i n g great salmon in tha i famous river which, as you know,, gets its name from the cele-brated Queen Maeve, a woman as good as any half-dozen men you could pick in Ireland outside Connacht.

In our own times English visitors (who, God help them, come over to Eire for a feed) collect on that Bridge and. after first doubt-ing whether they see right, continue to gaze bewildered and amazed at the multitude of grand fish: for it is a sight to make mouths water—it, so to speak, conjuring up dishes of salmon with more poetry in them than there is in the living, intent fish twenty feet below. The Irish collect there too and stare at the salmon, but there is a different look in their eyes, for they think otherwise about the fish. The reason is that those salmon are a close preserve, not of some local Irish-man but of a foreigner—an Englishman at that—who, by some remarkable piece of legal jiggery-pokery retains what in the old days of English rule were family fishing-rights in the river. That is bad enough, God knows. To aggravate and insult the natives still more, the Englishman sells his fish not to the townsfolk or even in Dublin, but sends them abroad to the more profitable London market, where they are sold at a great gain and then eaten by privileged profiteers who don't deserve even a mackerel. The local people look over the Bridge often in a state of Suppressed rage, considering that those salmon belong to them not only by right of Inheritance but by every law of God and Nature. This accounts for the fact that while you will hear English visitors or other strangers giving voice to cries of wonder and astonishment, the only remark you are likely to hear from the locals (unless you are in their confidence) is a quiet "Yes certainly, 'tis a grand sight to be sure!" And the divil a word more.

The Bridge is a favourite place for the townsfolk to walk to, especially after 12 o'clock Mass of a nice dry Sunday. Then the girls stroll out to show their figures and finery as they get an appetite for their din-ners. The men go there, too, for the same purpose, or to work up a thirst before they give the mystical knocks and the day's password and be graciously admitted by the side door into Peter Doyle's excellent public house. Then they face up to B pint or so of his foaming stout, now blessed and hallowed with a special Sabbath flavour by virtue of being sold for holy consumption at a time when the law says that all pubs in the country must be closed to drinkers, however, droughtful, excepting they be "bona fide travellers." This accounts for the national habit of one-half of the population of Eire turning itself into a mysterious corps of stationary bona fide travellers on the fifty-two" Snndays of the year. Tt is also a fair example of how the Irish show in private their public disapproval of a grinding, oppressive, and abominable piece of legisla-tion—one capable of causing Incalculable suffering unless it be met in this courageous way. The LAW thus gives stout its special Sunday flavour. Everybody benefits includ-ing'the National Exchequer and the church

in the catch. Snatch-ing salmon from the Englishman's preserve on the River Maeve, f a r from being a

crime, is a moral duty to any God-fearing townsman tha t way inclined. For there ican be no disguising the fact that the Irish enjoy a plate of nice salmon just as much as any profiteer in London. And that 's the long and short of it. If there was no salmon-snatching from the River Maeve. the natives would never taste a bite of the abundance of succulent dishes which swim past their very doorsteps.

Snatching salmon, though great sport, is

mortals so palatable and healthful a bever-

r p H E N he might say: "Although I often J- though* so before. I never knew for

certain until I went over to England to work during the war and read it there on placards and posters and in the advertisements in the papers that stout is good for the health. And, Holy Jesus, if we don't look after our bloody health ourselves, who's to blame if we fall sick and maybe drop dead!"—on which he would look round the company humorous indignation and a sort of chal-lenging glance in his kindly blue eyes.

"How much do you want for a salmon these days Cormac?" a well-known town councillor asked him on one of these occa-sions.

"Thirty shillings a fish whatever its size. You chance your luck," replied the Snatcher.

"Good enough," said the town councillor, "can I have the next?"

"I'm very sorry. Mr. MacManus, not the next nor the one after that. The first," ex-plained the Snatcher, "I have promised to Dr but maybe I oughtn't to mention his name . . . anyway, he's the man who sub-scribed five pounds towards the last fine I had to pay for snatching. I think you know who I mean." The town councillor nodded assent. "And the second goes to Father Mai-

SNATCHER' <r TOOLE a risky business and demands not only con-sumate skill and resource but swiftness of foot, cunning and a fair amount of moral courage. The penalties of the Law fall heavily on any salmon-snatcher who is un-fortunate enough to be caught. The towns-folk who buy, eat and enjoy the snatches will, to be sure, club together loyally and pay whatever fines are imposed by the court, but a persistent victim is sent to - prison—a terrible disaster for any decent man and a catastrophe for such as Cormac O'Toole who, at the time of which I 'm talking, had an ailing wife and three small children. The case of Snatcher O'Toole a year or so back was enough to make the Twelve Pins shed rivers of tears. 'Tis said that the fairies on Maeve's Hill went into mourning the day poor Cormac went to jail and never danced till he came out.

A decenter man than the far-famed Snatcher O'Toole never smoked a pipe of tobacco nor lowered a pint of double-X stout. Quiet and soft-spoken he is, with never an ill word dropping from his tongue, the Snatcher was driven by what they call eco-nomic circumstances — unemployment — to regard the withdrawal of salmon from the Englishman's preserve on the River Maeve as the only possible way of earning a bite for himself and family. If he succeeded in get-ting a couple of fish a week, this was a better living than any he could earn by harder sort of \york, such as loading or unloading ships, deep sea fishing, farm-labouring or carting spuds. But it is not every day or every week that a snatch is possible. Civil Guards and spies hired by the Englishman are always on the look-out to prevent people from taking advantage of God's own bounty by an exercise of their natural rights. Everybody in the town likes the Snatcher, and all felt very sorry about his sick wife and the poor children who might have starved had he not been a man of courage and resource. Be-sides, he brought them salmon which he sole} at a reasonable price: this he could do, not paying the £3 a day to fish—and, as I said, the local people like salmon and can eat it with as much pleasure as anybody sit-ting back in a posh London hotel or restaurant. Cormac OToole's vices were innocent enough, God knows: for the most part they consisted in his sitting on an egg-box' next to a barrel in Peter Doyle's bar behind the grocer's shop, an elegant pint of double-X stout nicely within arm's reach. He would sit there quietly for long stretches between snatches, taking an occasional little sup of stout—after, that is, he had drunk about one-third of his first glass of the day, whiph operation was almost a religious ceremony' and done in one swallow with eyes half closed in ecstasy. The initial generous quaff ended with a resounding smack of the llp>sr on which he slowly and deliberately wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said a bog-Latin grace tinder his breath, thanking the Almighty Provider for his beneficence in granting to us poor, sinful

Shaw DISCIPLE'

EUROPEAN THEATRE FESTIVAL: 1860-1912

Bernard 'THE DEVIL'S

will be presented by

ST. JUDE'S DRAMA GROUP at the

Toynbee Hall Theatre, Commercial Rd., E.l (BIS 0022) S A J V R D A Y , M A R C H 1 2 t h , 2 . 3 0 p . m .

achai of the Dominicans, who's my holy confessor. The third is yours, sir, and it won't be long before ye have it, because this very morning I caught the two promised ones and I 'm just waiting to deliver them now. If it is not raining this evening, I'll be out again. And if 'tis raining, then I'll try-Sunday morning when they're all in at High Mass—that's a good time—but I must find out from my friends what the Civic Guards will be doing before I risk it. Twice now they've fined me. If I'm caught too soon a t h i r d time I'll be locked up and no mis-take, and then God help my poor wife and them three little chil-dren."

Sympathy went up for Snatcher O'Toole as he spoke. A couple of pints more and he took his leave to deliver the salmon to Dr. "X" and Father Malachai.

IT was at the snatch on the Sunday morniag that the tragedy happened.

Myself and a couple of the boys and nobody else were near the Bridge, not looking over as we well might have been, but just leaning against a wall smoking and talking philoso-phy, when we saw the Snatcher shoot out like a bullet from behind a tree onto the Bridge, lower a line and in less than half a minute up came a lovely salmon—I'll swear it was fifteen pounds if it was an ounce. You should just see how the Snatcher worked! Every second his eyes went round to see if anybody dangerous was watching, and up, up he pulled the fish, did something to it which finished its kicking and in it went under his coat. Then, to our surprise, he made off Vith a jump leaving his line be-hind him, leapt over the wall beside the Bridge and like a flash of Shannon elec-tricity he was off running like a hare down the little path which borders the river. Away from the salmon preserve he went and dis-appeared like a leprechaun into the air. All this happened in not more than two or three minutes—so quick tha t it made us realise what a good man at his job was Snatcher O'Toole. We said a prayer for his safety.

But they caught him. Next morning the Snatcher was up before the court and his solicitor told him beforehand tha t it would go hard with him: "You know, Cormtffc my boy," said he, "we used to be able to cod the English when they ran this country. We could tell them the tale and get away with St. But, merciful God, we can't cod these chaps who are our own people and know what we're thinking. I'll do my best for you, but don't blame me if the result is against you. This is your third time in this present season. I'll do my best, I'll do my best!"

r PHE solicitor did his best but it was no use. The court heard the evidence of

two strange men who were not townsmen but a couple of blackguards from Dublin— the dirty Jackeens—hired by the damned Englishmen and set to spy upon locals who might be Inclined to snatch a salmon. They watched the snatch the morning before in-stead of going to their placc of worship like Christians, but, to give them their due, what they said In the witness box was the gospel truth. They had even timed the snatch, as they said under examination, "for the pur-poses of record"—whatever the ' hell that means. Nor Was the magistrate a townsman but another official importee from Dublin, nor were the two Civil Guards from our part of the country but a pair of savages (they tell me) from the County Donegal. That's what they call Justice and govern-ment In Eire!

Why, a man hasn't a dog's chance in

salmon-snatching and, if he does itself often get away with it, there's mostly luck in his escape. On this occasion the magistrate was a particularly venomous looking snake of the sort that Saint Patrick failed to chase out of Ireland. He asked few questions and Jackeen snoopers (referred to by Sergeant when he heard the testimony of the two O'Meara of the Civil Guard as 'upholders of the law'!) he asked poor Cormac O'Toole had he anything to say for himself, and why-did he persist in snatching salmon like this?

The Snatcher drew himself up proudly in the dock and looked that magistrate vali-antly in the face. Clearing his throat he spoke these words: "I could get no sort of work at all, sir. I tried hard again and again and, when I found it no use, could I see my sick wife and three small childer starving before my eyes while the River Maeve out there is clogged thick with salmon to tempt all the saints that ever strode this earth? I consider that my wife and childer have as much right—or far more—to a share n them salmon than any exploiting foreigner who uses Irish Law to corner and monopo-lise what is our right and send the fish away to feed rich men and weemen in London who don't give a damn for any of us here. If you send me to jail, it's not me who'll be the sufferer but me poor wife and childer that ' l l starve unless somebody looks after them through kindness and Christian charity."

The Snatcher's voice had begun strong but ended almost i n a whisper. 'Twas enough to melt a heart of gra-nite, and I began to think that Cormac

himself was a better man to talk in a court of law than the university-educated lawyer who did his case.

T \ 7 H A T do ye think the magistrate said in ' » reply to that noble speech of Snatcher

O'Toole, a speech that'll go down in the long history of the River Maeve and its multi-tudes of fine salmon?

He put on his specs and looked over them at the Snatcher and said: "You ought m have thought sooner than this of your sick

by

Calin O' Dubh wife and children and of the consequences of being caught stealing salmon from property protected by laws approved by the parliament and people of this free country. You are fined twenty pounds and I send you to prison for six months hard labour."

The Snatcher was heard to say: "May you roast in hell's flames throughout eternity, you bloody owld . . . " I'd rather not repeat the word he used, but it was a strong one.

So they took him away and he did his six months with hard labour in jail. Father Malachai, Doctor "X," the town councillor and a few others paid the fine, as is the custom.

Did that stop the snatching of salmon? I t did not! The people who live near the River Maeve

are a brave people and it would take more than laws to convince them that it is wrong to ate a snatched fish—and especially one from the jiggery-pokery preserve of a cynical and unspiritual foreign exploiter who, God help him, seems to have been born with a tin can for a soul.

After Snatcher O'Toole came out of jail the big shots of the town who have the power to give regular jobs would not employ him. They said they could not employ a "jailbird." So, in addition to penalising him with six months hard labour, nearly killing his wife with worry, and driving it home by punishing the childer as well, them high and mighty folks who go to Mass all dreSsed up in their motor-cars—they went further and refused to allow him to earn what they con-sider to be an honest living!

in of

W E were discussing this injustice * • Peter Doyle's pub over glasses

national beverage. The final word was with the Snatcher. He took a sup of stout, wiped his mouth and said: "It's up to as all 10 stick together and get as much fish as we can out of yon river. We'll all have to be-come snatchers or these bloody people will consider that they have won a moral victory over us! Over US!" — and he raised his voice as I've seldom heard him and then lowered it—"The only thing about it is that I'm afraid we'll have to raise the price of salmon locally . . . "

He looked at the town councillor as if to enquire what he thought of that. The town councillor replied: "We'll pay the price—any price. Tis now a matter of principle!"

"I thought so," said brave Cormac O'Toole, "just give me a week or so to get me bearings and I'll be back on the job. There's nothing for it now for me but to become $ full-time professional snatcher. It's an ex-citing life and great sport. As for the risks, why if everybody is backing me, there's no work I'd like better."

He has been at it ever since and his luck holds..

Two months ago he and his family moved into a new hoase and his wife is now bl? with another child.

BOOKS AND FILMS e d i t e d b y ANNE KELLY

Gaelic Mists Poetry, Ireland No. 4: A Special

Issue Devoted to Irish Transla-tions (Trumpet Books, 15 Ade-laide Street, Cork: 2/-)

I RELAND'S editors are always good for a J paradox, but this little periodical springs a new one on us. Courageously it invited six Irish writers, who take their bilingualism seriously, to submit "transla-tions" after, or from, original Gaelic poems. Then Mr. Sean O'Faolain. a critic" who never beats about the bush, was asked to comment on the practice of bardic ju-jitsu miscalled "translation." The result is a bomb-shell essay by Mr. O'Faolain.. which totally demolishes their whole juggling team, and knocks flat their act, shamrock-spangles and all.

The pioneer corps of translators,, first and second battalions (see "Course of Irish Verse" by Robert Farrain, reviewed in our issue of December, 1948). as Mr. O'Faolain points out. were busy "exploring the Gaelic world that was, then, still living . . . That Gaelic note, thought and emotion, is 10-dav a cliche. It is worse when a modern em-ploys it: it is sentimentality. Anybody thinking about life in terms of a Gaelic-spcakiug peasantry, in this year of Satan, 1949. is sleep-walking."

Nevertheless, some, like Ophelia, walk with poise. You would rightly expect tha t fine craftsmen in words like Blanaid Sal-keld, Donagh MacDonagh or Miles na Copalcen could hardly fail to "turn to favour and to prettiness" any Gaelic poem worthy of their mettle. But others do creak and grunt from the exercise, and thereby seem to prove that the contortions are not worth the strain induced by the effort of translation back into modern English, of a fullv-fashioned Gaelic piece.

We are being invited, argues Mr. O'Fao-lain, "to take the translation instead of the original or to enjoy the translator's virtuos-itv rather than the poem as a poem . . . to force Gaelic technique into poetry in English is a sign of an extravagant absorption tha t is all of a piece with the general 'hanging-on-to-the-past,' illustrated by 18th and 19th century translation, instead of 20th-century creation: a brain-spun thing . . no more."

If the essayist wished to support his iconoclasm by instances of grunting and shuffling among the team, he need only cite the archaisms, the glaring forced-rhymes, the uncomfortable poetic inversions, and the absurd "turn titty, turn titty" or "tiddle-dee-pop" rhythms in Tennysonian English which sprinkle these pages. Let us be fair' —and quote a few of these:

"Step very kindly hither, and we will leave this place."

"Where the yells of pursuit pierce ring-ing and clear . . . "

"It sprouted like a beard and me des-troyed . . . "

"To eat of butter could I ne'er contrive thereafter . . . "

"Steal off ere the break of day . . ." "A kingdom of sun, where men were

free . . . Beside the quite, peaceful sea." Well, as regards the last line quoted, if

this translating game makes it necessary to tell us that when a courting couple is stretching "underneath wild boughs," those branches would be "swaying above" them, I have greater respect for the skill of a good paper-hanger matching up wallpaper on the job!

Mild and bitter will never pass for real Guinness, and transformation into English jingles will never satisfy those who like their Gaelic neat. Leslie Daiken

I t ' s T h a t M i s t A g a i n "\<f I S T o n t h e W a t B r s " (Michael Joseph),

JT1 9/gd. is by F. L. Green, the film version of whose novel, "Odd Man Out" was such a deserved success. Already, resting on a reputatioh built up by a chain of cinefnat-ically-treited, fast-moving, yet thoughtful novels such as "The Night of the Fire," "On the Edge of the Sea," and many others, a new work by this author is always an exciting event. TN "Mist on the Waters," Green returns to •A the setting of "Odd Man Out"— Northern Ireland. Here, unfortunately, nearly all resemblance ceases. Technically, Green has progressed, still possessing the ability to offer a compressed plot and con-vincing secondary Characters. But his choice of theme is hackneyed. A crime is committed, has been or is to be committed, and from then cm everything centres upon amateur psycho-analytic soul-probings of the unhappy victim. When allied to broader moral considerations, as in that great Russian novel, "Crime and Punish-ment," this can make fascinating reading. But concentrated upon worthless actions— in this case a rather unpleasant piece of blackmailing—the final effect is depressing.

Nevertheless, there is fine writing in the book particularly in the portrayal of the narrowing ring of public suspicion and investigation. It is in the metaphysical Rrcjarrtngs and beatings of breasts that the author somehow fails to convince.

In a word, it is too- literary, but this said, let me add fri a whtepf-r. "Mist on the Waters" should be n * d , for it Is at least interesting and this is more than can be' said of many Writers.

A l e c Digges

REJECTED REALITIES T W E N T Y years ago. as a very "green" A and cub reporter. I was sent to a

Northumberland mining village to "cover" a pit strike.

Sitting in a collier's kitchen I was shown starvation wage chits and told of the turnip sandwiches which frequently substituted for pit face meals in short pay weeks.

Eager to tell a shocked world I rushc-d back to the office and wrote an "epic." Jam-ming down my copy upon the "reject" spike, the News Editor said sardonically: "Ain't news kid—you'll learn." I did, and duly paid the penalty of continued disagreement for, with very few, honourable exceptions, the "success boys" of journalism are not news purveyors but news fantasists.

In their daily penny dream worlds, a cos-mos is pruned to policy pat terns; the dun-coloured facts of life parade in "Cinderella" or "Princc Charming" fancy dress, while "human interest," professionally translated means "it is sensational or scandalous?"

Neither Mike Gold nor the late Egon Kisch would have been accepted on London's Street of Ink, so I unhesitatingly commend their writings to your serious attention.

These gifted Jewish writers—the first a New Yorker, the other a Czech—open great glowing windows upon the realities rejected by their more prosperous brothers.

They are significant because they are in minority agreement with a distinguished English typographer, Alfred Bastien, who has described the true function of printing in the following memorable words:

"The great typographical system had come to flash its blazing message to the ends of the world and fling apart the por-tals of ignorance and superstition which had held the mind of man captive through countless generations.

"The bitterness of the struggle between the knowledge-hungry peoples and the hierarchy who saw their despotism doomed by the new light, furnishes an eloquent chronicle of human conflict and martyr zeal. Translators, scholars, printers, and booksellers were hunted, scourged and burned at the stake; but the flood gates of enlightenment were wide open for ever." Men like Mike Gold and Egon Kisch

deserve our gratitude because, with the aid of equally courageous publishers and printers, they help keep those "flood-gates of enlightenment" partially open in a cor-rupt society.

For too long in Britain, Ireland and America, their works have been available only on scattered library shelves, and it is good news to report renewed publication of two books representing some of their finest \vork:

JEWS WITHOUT MONEY, Mike Gold, (R. Searl) 10/6.

TALES FROM SEVEN GHETTOS, E. E. Kisch (Anscombe), 9 -. With a passion-spangled vigour reminis-

cent of our own Sean O'Casey, Mike Gold —born and bred in the skyscraper tene-ments of New York—explodes a myth on every page, commencing with his foreword:

"The great mass of Jews in the world to-day are not millionaire bankers but paupers and workers. I have told in my book a tale of Jewish poverty in one ghetto, that of New York. The same story can be told of a hundred other ghettbes scattered over all the world. For centur-ies the Jew has lived in this universal ghetto. Yiddish literature is saturated with the ghetto melancholy and poverty . . Jewish bankers are Fascists; Jewish work-ers are radicals; the historic class division is true among Jews as with evefy Other race."

In this book not poor Jews alone, but humanity itself strides the pages—suffering, maltreated, prejudice-blinkered, but great-hearted, laughter-loving and indomitable.

In a score of vivid vignettes the story of Mike's childhood is unrolled amid a gallery of unforgettable characters—Mike's golden-hearted mother who won a one-woman rent strike; Dr. Solow who prescribed a trade union cure for a coughing sick man: "You slave too many hours in your lousy sweat-shop; you get too little pav; you need food and rest brother. That's what's wrong with you. Join a labour anion." |

Mike's temperamental "conservative pauper" father; Louis the One-Eyed Gang-ster, Lord of the Tenement Roof Top; Mary-Sugar Bum; the Umbrella Store Saint; petty politicians; gold-crazed business men and the Irish and Jewish horse drivers, "citizens of the two leading persecuted and erratic small nations of the world" who, between jobs, "fought, philosophised and drank buckets of beer together in the sun-light."

The job hunt taught Mike his first lesson in proletarian wisdom: "There can be no freedom in the world while men must beg for jobs"; and fortunately for us. an East Side soap-box speaker completed his educa-tion. Mike stepped up from the sidewalk as rebel and fighter.

He did not possess Egon Kisch's extra-ordinary gift of tongues, but these two men stand shoulder to shoulder in the inter-national fruits of their robust writings.

It is unfortunate that the present welcome volume ol Kiscb's writings— adequately translated by his friend Edith Bone—docs not contain a biographical foreword by the translator, for Kisch, in his life, equally as in his superb "reportage" art . exemplifies the inescapable fertilising victories of integrity and courage.

Here is the reporter who would neither be silcnced nor deterred from his life task of fishing for truth "at the bottom of a dark well." Newspapers closed their doors; governments drove him forth. Forced to flee from Prague in the Nazi terror, he was shamefully refused admittance by Britain. .

Australia, too, tried to prevent him from landing but he outwitted the authorities by jumping from the ship to the quay. He broke his leg in the attempt, and the con-sequent storm of protest forced a reversal of the deportation order.

Society forced him to become the "Wandering Jew," but the legend of his courage, and the brilliance of his scalpel pen licked the vengeful men of power who sought to destroy both the man and his work. In his years of exile across the con-tinents he proved that the humanist is everywhere at home for wherever he goes the steadfast light of his vision irradiates the surrounding darkness.

Mike Gold described one vast ghetto— New York. Egon Kisch takes you through the grim portals of seven, and although many pages of this remarkable book bear the impress of a man in a hurry, no single page is bereft of quality. Kisch, mighty historian of the present, is dead, but his work lives and triumphs into the future.

Anne Kelly

SAILOR ON HORSEBACK T17"HEN Jack London took his own life in

* » 1916, he was only forty, yet what a wealth of experience, adventure and achievement he had packed into his short life!

Brought up in a California home where poverty and unemployment were constant features of his youth, son of a wandering Irish astrologer he never saw, London made a tremendous effort to lift himself up by his own boot-straps. What this meant in terms of will-power and intensive self-education he later described in "Martin Eden."

London was determined not to be caught in the trap and finish his days as a broken "work-beast." Oyster pirate, tramp, Klon-dike pioneer, factory worker, he was all of these by turn, but all his spare hours were given over to the quest for knowledge that would equip him to earn his living -as n writer. The path was hard, and he did not begin publishing his work until he was twenty-fonr, but within a few years he had established himself as probably the highest paid and most famous writer of his day.

His capacity for work was enormous. In sixteen years, during which he drove him-self to complete his daily stint of 1,000 words, he turned out fifty books—complete novels, collections of short stories and articles, three plays, half a dozen works of autobiography and sociology, together with

a mass of ephemeral journalistic work. Much of it was inferior stuff, best forgotten now, hastily dashed oil to earn money to» maintain friends, relatives, scroungers and young writers to whom he gave generous. support, or 10 squander on his pet schemes of yachts, ranches and a huge private mansion. In his best vears, London was spending at the rate of 100.000 dollars a year—more than he earned, and he seemed always to be racing against time and debtors.

London was flamboyant, gallant and irresponsible enough: his name and exploits made good newspaper copy, yet too much attention has been devoted Jo his personal life and not enough to the abiding import-ance of his best and more serious work.

Riches, drink and isolation from the workers out of whom he had sprung—these brought about his tragic downfall, but his faults and excesses should not be allowed to obscure the fact tha t in his best work ne did more than most of his contemporaries to spread and popularise the teachings of scientific socialism among workers in America, Britain and Ireland.

• 'Jack's four intellectual grandparents Darwin, Spencer. Marx and Nietzsche," writes Irving .Stone in his sympathetic and workmanlike biography Sailor on Horse-back, row reissued in Britain (Bodley Head 10/6). Indeed, a strangely assorted quartet! But London's mind was big enough to ab-sorb them all, even if he could not entirely reconcile their contradictions. Undoubtedly Marx was the dominating influence in his philosophy, and fundamentally, London was a forthright revolutionary socialist with a remarkable ability to expound scientific socialism in simple everyday terms.

Much has been written about his incon-. sistent acceptance of Nietzschean ideas of the "blond-beastly" superman and Anglo-Saxon racial superiority, yet London did not swallow these concepts uncritically and at times he could rise to fine heights of working-class internationalism. Neverthe-less, it cannot be denied that his "lust for life" manifested itself in a peculiar fascination for the cruelties of Nature "red in tooth and claw."

His great merit was that he passed beyond mere sympathy for the "underdog" to a clear understanding of the class struggle. This is nowhere more clearly revealed ;han-in his remarkable prophetic story of the rise of Fascism, "The Iron Heel," easily his best novel and one of the few now available in cheap pocket editions. Then there are half a dozen articles, still meaningful for to-day, an indispensable part of a socialist education.

His essays on "The Class Struggle." "Revolution," "The Tramp" and "The Scab" are among those which cry aloud for reprinting—along with his harrowing tale of child labour, "The Apostate," and his power-ful parable 011 co-operation, "The Strength of the Strong." More than a year ago a New York publisher rescued these examples of London from their undeserved oblivion, pre-facing them with an excellent introduction by Dr. Philip Foner, the Americafi labour historian. This book surely deserves an English edition.

Then there are such grand tales as "Martin Eden," The Valley of the Moon," and half a dozen of his best short stories dealing with the Labour struggle, as well as that penetrating sociological survey of Lon-don's East End, "People of the Abyss."

Pew writers have produced as much of permanent value and social significance as did fiery Jack London in his sixteen years of intensive literary endeavour—and even when he was earning huge sums from hack writing he still devoted much of his time to lecturing on socialism, writing unpaid re-views and articles for the socialist Press, defending the victims of unconstitutional anti-Labour violence and, as always, was ever ready to lend a hand or a dollar to those in need.

Perhaps his life was best ended when it was. He was already on the downgrade and would never have regained his earlier heights of literary brilliance and political clarity, but his weaknesses pall into Insignificance beside the greatness of his contribution to the cause of socialism.

Alan Leonard.

PENGUINS AND VITAMINS The Secret Land (M.G.M.) | F you did not know before, you will know I after seeing this film, that Americans

do everything bigger and better than any-one else. What Captain Scott, with a 20-years-old Scottish whaler, 33 men, and a few horses and dogs, did in 1911, the Ameri-cans did far far better in 1948. With an Icebreaker, three (or more) Bhlps and a fleet of helicopters, 2,000 men and several trfams of dogs. Captain Byrd achieved mu«h

'more. They flew beyond the South Pole, tftcy chartered the coast of the entire don-1 !>icnt. They .did it for humanity!

The film is fn WhnieOlour aba the photo-graphy is beautiful. It certainly is a thril-ling and wonderful expedition, and tl)e shots of the Polar landscape are lovely beyond imagination. f

There Li humour, too, in the penguins'

antics, and In the competition for the best, biggest and bushiest beard and the beard with most sex appeal.

And to show you how humane the Ameri-cans are they give all the dogs vitatnin pills dally to withstand the cold, and when they capture -a pcngnlr to take home, they give him vitamin pills too—to withstand the heat. t h e Hi«ory 6f Mr. Polly

(Two Cities) J HAD always regarded H. G. Wells' "Mr.

Polly" as a bit of an Irishman though it Is plainly stated that he was born and bred lfr Loiidon. Something about him. his habit of day dreaming, his utter disregard

'of * tlitie, hls ' Wvt of Vtods ipr words sake, seem to savour of that Celtic twilight of the fc*tern'Me. .

There was something Irish, too, in the way

he planned to cut his throat and perish in the flames of his burning shop, only to make a spectacular roof rescue of an old lady, and end up the hero of the town. Most Irish of all. just to vanish—not to California or Peru—but to a little backwater, where as ferryman and odd-Job man he helps the Fat Woman to run a pub and make teas and "omlets."

But John Mills' "Mr. Polly" is no Irish-man. He is altogether softer metal; too soft by half.

Nevertheless there arc high spots in the film. There Is a funeral feast to end all funeral feasts, a fight with the wicked Uncle Jim which manages to he both comic ihd dramatic, and above all the Tat Woman of Meg* Jenkins. "My sort" says fcfr. Polly. Everyman's Rort.

E . F i n n e m o r e

8 THE IRISH DEMOCRAT March, 1949

BISHOP OF GALWAY SAYS

6 You Compliment Me p E N T L E M E N ,

In your issue of December, 1948. you pay me the compliment, of devoting a whole page to a reply to m y recent stric-tures u p o n t h e Connolly Association and the " I r i sh Democrat." But most of tha t space is devoted to replying to strictures I never made ; and no space a t all is given to answer t he principal c h a r g e I had laid against you.

I did not b lame you for providing ameni-ties for t he benefit of I r i sh boys and girls in England. I did not b lame you for ad-vocating the release of I r i sh prisoners. But I mainta ined t ha t you were doing these things for a n ulterior purpose, namely, to win recrui ts for Communism.

I did no t—as you suggest—make any derogatoi-y remarks about the fa i th or morals of our Irish emigran ts in England. By devoting a full column of your open letter to me to references to a t tacks on Irish emig ran t s you convey the impression that I was guilty of one. T h a t is en-tirely wrong, as your readers would have seen if ycu published my remarks.

HAVING wasted your space on replying to imaginary charges you carefully

avoid all ment ion of the pr incipal accusa-tion laid by me against you. I t is t ha t you are among those subsidiary Communist organisations against which the Brit ish Trade Union Congress warned all workers.

You da re not openly avow your Com-munist affiliations and objectives—because you know t h a t would immediately con-demn you in. t he eyes of I r i sh Catholic workers. You have to lput on the disguise of being u l t ra patriots a n d defenders of Irish workers, in order to indoctrinate unwary minds with the Communis t Party line. My principal charge is t h a t you are trying to make recruits for Russian Com-munism. You have not answered tha t charge.

In fact your open letter provides evid-ences of Communist animus. Why do you become so angry at the suppor t given to Christ ian Democrats in t h e last I tal ian election, when it is quite obvious -that the struggle was one between Democracy and Communism ?

Evidently because you regret the re-sounding defeat of the Communist Party. You signalise the eight millions—mostly Catholics according to you—who voted for the Communist Party. And you signalise them for demonstrating that Catholics are not bound to obey "Papal policies relating to politics or social reform."

Surely you cannot be so ignorant as to assert that Catholics a re not bound to obey the Pope when he condemns divorce, godless education, Socialism and Com-munism. If you pretend that these matters are not part of Christian moral teaching, that they are purely politics, you thereby demonstrate that you are guided not by Catholic truth but by Communist propa-ganda.

BUT I observe that you do claim the l ight t o defend your "Socialist beliefs."

May I point out to you that Pius X I in the Encyclical "Quadragesimo Anno" de-

clared tha t "Socialist beliefs" a re incom-patible with Catholic fai th. If your ob-ject is to indoctr inate our I r ish Catholic boys and girls wi th Socialist beliefs then be honest and call your paper t he "Irish Socialist."

I see tha t you now deny t h a t your paper denounced Irish neutra l i ty and called upon the Irish people to come into the war. To re fu te your denial it is suffi-cient to take u p any Issue of the "Irish Democrat" f rom January, 1945, on : under t he heading "World Comment" month a f te r month you extolled the Allied cause and did everything a newspaper could to persuade your Irish readers to support tha t cause actively. You represented the war as primarily and above all a war against Fascism which should have the support of all democrats and t r ade union-ists.

iN January, 1945, your paper changed its name f rom "Ir ish Freedom" to "Irish

Democrat"'; but it is the same paper . In the liles of I r i sh Freedom for 1940-43 it can be clearly seen how the editorial atti-tude to the way changed its t une immedi-ately Russia changed sides f r o m Germany to England. " I r i sh Freedom" followed the Communis t P a r t y line, and in 1941 sud-denly discovered Hitler was a Fascis t : ap-parently he h a d not been a Fascis t a t all during the two years when Russia was his ally—1939-41.

Yours faithfully, MICHAEL BROWNE,

Bishop of Galway. Mount St. Mary's,

Galway.

We Reply TV/fY LORD BISHOP,

Thank you for your letter. In your original a t tack upon the exiles, you de-clared t ha t a f t e r joining the Connolly As-sociation ". . . it is established t h a t mem-bers of these clubs soon cease to go to the Sacraments and to Mass." Would you de-scribe those as "derogatory remarks" about the f a i t h and morals of our exiles ?

We also note that you now say you did "not blame us" for providing amenities

"for Irish boys, and girls in Britain, nor for advocating the release of the prisoners. Thank you for the admission. We regret, however, that to perform these "corporal works of mercy" is, in your opinion, "to recruit for Communism." Does that poli-tical judgment apply also to those in Ire-land who seek to improve the conditions of Irish workers ?

We recall your lordship's hostility to the efforts of those wtio sought to pro-vide hot school meals for Ireland's hun-gry children ; a modest but worthy pro-posal which your lordship denounced as: "The thin end of the Communist wedge."

T^ VERY organisation has certain objec-' J tives it strives to realise. The objects

of the Connolly Association are the pro-tection of the living standards of our exiles in Britain and the spreading of the

U.S. DIKTAT j >

—Continued from Page One acreage of two years ago. Other large items went on cattle food; here we could reduce our dependance on the U.S. if home produc-tion were stimulated. Right the way down the list, with the exception of certain kinds of machinery and petroleum, we are receiv-ing goods, which we can either produce our-selves, or obtain from non-dollar sources.

Inquiry Needed There has been considerable public

comment in Dublin on the fact that an article in the "Irish Independent" forecast clearly the Government's intention to acquire public transport in Ireland, three days before the Government had made pub-lic its attitude to the transport system. Fol-lowing the article in the "Irish Independent" the value of Common Stock in the C.I.K. rose 30 per cent, in a few days. While there was a spate of speculative buying the Government remained silent; it was only on February 5th, four days after the publica-tion of the article, that the Committee of the Stock Exchange announced in the Press that It had acceded to the Government's re-quest to suspend dealing in Transport Stock.

CMMI* was aafced In the DaU wtekttM- * r m i l l MtUnr w» a » tatftfry late wlmi M M U be a prima. ( M b caw M leakage W inftwaallan, be n«MM thai

did not reply when asked how he could know the full facts without an inquiry.

Partition It Is now reasonably certain that the

United States has consulted the Irish Government with a view to gaining their participation in a North Atlantic war al-liance. Members of the Government, from Dillon to MacBride, have declared that the only obstacle to Ireland's joining such a pact is the maintenance of Partition. The likelihood that the UJS. is endeavouring to Bccure the ending of Partition, in order to enable them to use a unfted island as a war base, is given substance in a statement by the Northern Premier, Sir Basil Brooke, who said recently that "the Irish Goverhment has committed Itself to the exercise of re-lentless pressure, through international channels, in the liope of forcing the British Government to take some steps that would compel Ulster to unite with Southern Ireland."

Socialist teachings of James Connolly; teachings which include the nat ional well-being, improvement of workers' con-dit ions and the struggle of the Ir ish people for a free, united, democratic I r i sh Re-public.

It appears that these worthy measures are ones to which even Communists may subscribe but not a bishop, if that be so, the Irish people, true to their tradi-tions, will not be held back by the disap-proval of a bishop. If, as you say, "Socialism is incompatible

with Catholic fa i th"—a s ta tement we re-ject—why has not J a m e s Connolly and the Br i t i sh Labour Par ty with its thousands of Cathol ic rank and file and its Catholic ministers, with "Socialism" as t h a t Par ty ' s declared objective, been denounced by the Church ? Is it because, now t h a t Labour is in power, t he Church is pre-pared to accommodate itself to all de fac to Governments , as it did to G e r m a n and I t a l i an Fascism?

Dare the Church force the political choice upon British Catholics of either leaving the Labour Party or leaving the Catholic Church ? T h e Church does no t force such a choice

upon them for reasons your lordship unders tands ; the Church being wiser t han your lordship who, quite improperly, seeks to force all political questions in to the mould of hierarchical approval despite the pers is tent refusal of millions of Catholic laymen (as in Ireland, I taly and France , etc.) to concede t h a t claim. Where would I r ish Republicanism have been to-day had t h a t claim not been decisively rejected ?

When will our Catholic bishops realise that the pulpit is not the place for poli-tics ? And why is it that these clerical incursions into politics consist largely of attacks upon those wOo seek to create the kingdom of God upon earth and never upon those guilty of creating poverty, unemployment, emigration or the preparations for a third world war. W h e n we hear these evils condemned,

how much easier will it be to believe those who claim they are more concerned with "morals" than with "politics."

T f NTIL then, we mus t go on organising the Ir ish workers for their defence

aga ins t exploitation under the capi tal is t sys tem which your lordship persistently refuses to condemn. In doing so, our r anks will be open to all I r i shmen who will work for t h a t end, whether they be Communis t oi' Catholic, for are they not all "equal in the s ight of God" ?

All arc welcome to help in the work your lordship should be doing for your flock. To neither Catholic nor Communist will we refuse our hand, nor impute to them the base motives your lordship alleges against our exiles, i.e., that to defend Irishmen against the rapacity of the capi-talist system, and to fight for the free-dom of our country is merely a cover for winning "recruits for Communism."

To your lordship, therefore, we are content to leave the task of dividing and excluding a la Brooke, while we concen-trate upon uniting the Irish In defence of their land, their bread, and their liberty.

A 7 OUR statement t ha t we were "• • • among those subsidiary Com-

munist organisations against which the British Trade Union Congress warned all workers" is untrue. Characteristically, you offer no proof for there is none to offer. You prefer the technique described in our reply to you in December, when we said: "The tactic employed followed the monotonous pattern throughout the ages; fix the label, continually repeat the accu-sation and let Time reap the harvest."

In our December -statement we also declared your statement that " . . . we denounced Irish neutrality and called UIMWt th» Irish people to come into the war" as "absolutely untrue," and we challenged you "to produca a single authorised statement to support your claim." Significantly, your lordship failed to prodaaa a line supporting your dishonest charge. «

NEXT MONTH IRISH DEMOCRAT commences publication of excerpt* from

June* Connolly'* Labour, nationality and Religion

SEND THIS AMD THE NEXT ISSUES HOME TO IRELAND!

H O W I T A R O S E SEVERAL Irish newspapers recently

broke their self-imposed silence regarding the activities of the Con-nolly Association and "Irish Demo-crat" to publicise an attack upon us by the Most Rev. Dr. Browne, Bishop of Galway.

The Bishop, unsure whether we were a Club or an Association, so de-fective was the information upon which he based his attack, declared that we:

" . . profess to be ultra-patriotic, . • . profess gTeat interest in the Irish prisoners, partition and social reform . . . profess to be ultra-nationalist and to be working in the Irish cause . . . " and that we attacked the Marshall Plan. His Lordship also stated that we

"denounced Irish neutrality and called upon the Irish people to come into the war." Rounding off his attack de-livered at a safe distance, His Lord-ship said we were "pro-Communist agencies." apparently because we ad-here consistently to the Socialist teachings of that great Irishman, James Connolly, whose teachings His Lordship and his fellow bishops have done their best to distort and suppress in Ireland.

In our issue of December, 1918 (copies of which are still available), we replied to the charges made by His Lordship, challenging him to produce a single authorised statement in sup-port of his claims.

His Lordship now honours us with a reply—the first we have been able to extract from our elusive detractors who usually prefer the sanctity of the pulpit or the seclusiun of the editorial chair from which to cast their "thunderbolts."

Unlike our detractors who refuse to publish a word of our replies—or even a truthful version of the statements upon which they base their attacks— we gladly publish in full the reply sent to us by the Bishop of Galway.

We have nothing to fear from such publication and nothing to retract. We believe such public discussion to be fruitful to both sides and we invite our readers to send their eommcnis.

Instead, you refer i wi thout even speci-fying a passage) to the repor ts of one of our contr ibutors as evidence of our policy. This pract ice of subst i tut ing the report of a contr ibutor for the considered state-ments of editorial and conference policy is one condemned even by the Catholic "S tandard" (September 13th, 1946).

At the national conference of the Con-nolly Association in September, 1943, t he resolution .on Neutrality r ead :

"Among sections of the British public there exists confusion on the subject of Irish neutrality. Every Irishman will assert the inalienable right of Eire to decide its own national policy. This is an elementary right of any self-govern-ing State. At the same time, all will deny with Mr. de Valera that neutrality implies the slightest sympathy with Fascism or means anything but an ex-pression of national independence.''

WE repeat that the attitude of the "Irish Democrat" and the Connolly

Association (as its conference decisions attest and which you resolutely refuse to study) was to respect Irish neutrality, while ceaselessly calling upon the Irish Government to adhere to Ireland's demo-cratic heritage, declare itself against the ideology of Fascism, and lift the rigid Government-imposed censorship upon all discussion of this subject to enable a free people to exercise its democratic right to determine its attitude to Fascism as a political or economic system.

Since your lordship criticises those who express opposition to Fascism as a politi-cal crecd, we ask you this question:

If you were against the cause for which half the world was fighting, and for which 250,000 Irishmen fought to help save, whioh side did you support in that conflict 1 There was only one othar side—Fascism; the sMa your lordship so earnestly supported during the Spanish Civil War. While meticulously respecting Irish

neutrality, WE joined in sympathy with those millions of Catholic laymen throughout the world who, wtth the late Cardinal Hinsley, opposed Fascism as a bestial cr^ed, destructive alike of liberty and religion. And we are sorry to be un-able to Include your lordship among its opponents.

Executive Committee Connolly Association and E d i t o r i a l Board, "iriafc Democrat"

mh Printed

(T.O.) ftipley •ley, Perbysi $74 Gray* I n n

Social Ltd. by

i'.Xondton,