John Redmond's Last Years Part 10

"We asked for no terms and we got none. We did not object to go under the War Office. We did not make speeches calculated to humbug or deceive while we meant to do nothing."

On September 15th Government announced its intentions. Both Bills were to be placed on the Statute Book, but their operation deferred till the end of twelve months, or, if the war were not then over, till the end of the war. During the suspensory period Government would introduce an Amending Bill. Mr. Asquith made a flattering reference to Sir Edward Carson's action in appealing to his organization for recruits, and admitted that "it might be said that the Ulstermen had been put at a disadvantage by the loyal and patriotic action which they had undertaken."--This meant that their preparations for resistance to Mr.

Asquith's Government were disorganized.--He proceeded to promise that they should never have need of such preparations; they should get all the preparations aimed at without having to use them.

"I say, speaking again on behalf of the Government, that in our view, under the conditions which now exist--we must all recognize the atmosphere which this great patriotic spirit has created in the country--the employment of force, any kind of force, for what you call the coercion of Ulster, is an absolutely unthinkable thing. So far as I am concerned, and so far as my colleagues are concerned--I speak for them, for I know their unanimous feeling--that is a thing we would never countenance or consent to."

This utterance has dominated the situation from that day to this. Ulster had organized to rebel, sooner than come under an Irish Parliament; and had refrained from rebellion because the Great War was in progress. For this reason Ulster should never be coerced, no matter what might happen.

Sir Edward Carson's line of action had secured an enormous concession: he might have gone back to his people and said, "We have won." But he was strong enough to represent it as a new outrage, which they for the sake of loyalty must in the hour of common danger submit to endure. By this course, risky for himself, he vastly improved their position in all future negotiation.--After a violent speech from Mr. Bonar Law the Tory party walked out of the House in a body.

Redmond rose at once. He denounced the view that Ireland had gained an advantage, or desired to gain one. The Prime Minister had at every stage a.s.sured him that the Bill would be put on the Statute Book in that session, and therefore it was unjust to say that his loyalty was only conditional; he had asked for nothing that was not won in advance. Now, instead of an Act to become immediately operative, Ireland received one with at least a year's delay. Yet this moratorium did not seem to him unreasonable.

"When everybody is preoccupied by the war and when everyone is endeavouring--and the endeavour will be made as enthusiastically in Ireland as anywhere else in the United Kingdom--to bring about the creation of an Army, the idea is absurd that under these circ.u.mstances a new Government and a new Parliament could be erected in Ireland."

Further, it gave time for healing work. The two things that he cared for most "in this world of politics" were: first, that "not a single sod of Irish soil and not a single citizen of the Irish nation" should be excluded from the operation of Irish self-government; secondly, that no coercion should be applied to any single county in Ireland to force their submission.

The latter of these ideals was cast up to him by many in Ireland, first in private grumblings, afterwards with public iteration. He saw and admitted, what these critics urged, that the one aspiration made the other impossible of fulfilment, for the moment. Would it be so, he asked, after an interval in which Ulstermen and other Irishmen, Nationalist and Unionist, would be found fighting and dying side by side on the battlefield on the Continent, and at home, as he hoped and believed, drilling shoulder to shoulder for the defence of the sh.o.r.es of their own country?

On that hint he renewed his appeal to the Ulster Volunteers for co-operation and regretted that he had got no response from them. More than that, he urged that his appeal to Government had got no response.

"If they had done something to arm, equip and drill a certain number at any rate of the National Volunteers the recruiting probably would have been faster than it had been." Alluding to the taunts at Ireland's s.h.i.+rking which had been bandied about in interruptions during the debate, he recalled the stories which already had come back from France of Irish valour; of the Munster Fusiliers who stood by their guns all day and in the end dragged them back to their lines themselves; the story told by wounded French soldiers who had seen the Irish Guards charge three German regiments with the bayonet, singing a strange song that the Frenchmen had never heard before--"something about G.o.d saving Ireland."

"I saw these men," said Redmond, "marching through London on their way to the station; they marched here past this building singing 'G.o.d save Ireland!'"

But he could not rest his claim, and had no intention of resting it, merely on the prowess of the Irish regulars already in the army.

"Speaking personally for myself, I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that on hundreds of platforms in this country during the last few years I have publicly promised, not only for myself, but in the name of my country, that when the rights of Ireland were admitted by the democracy of England, Ireland would become the strongest arm in the defence of the Empire. The test has come sooner than I, or anyone, expected. I tell the Prime Minister that this test will be honourably met. I say for myself that I would feel myself personally dishonoured if I did not say to my fellow-countrymen as I say to them here to-day, and as I will say from the public platform when I go back to Ireland, that it is their duty, and should be their honour, to take their place in the fighting-line in this contest."

That was a clear pledge. The Home Rule Bill received the Royal a.s.sent on September 18th. But before the seal was affixed Redmond's manifesto to the Irish people was in all the newspapers. It was his call to arms.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: This fact was verified for me oddly enough. When the 16th Division went to France, it was put through the usual period of apprentices.h.i.+p with trained troops, and our brigade was attached for training to the Scottish Fifteenth Division. Two companies of our battalion of the 6th Connaught Rangers were attached to the 8th and 9th K.O.S.B. I met two officers who had been in Dublin on July 26th, and it was one of these who told me of the cheering. Perhaps I may add that the relations between our Connaught Rangers and the Scots were most friendly, and that we found probably a hundred Irish Catholics in that battalion--Irishmen living in the North of England who had at once rushed to enlist in the nearest corps available.]

[Footnote 4: Bought in Belgium by John O'Connor M.P., and T.M. Kettle, after the Germans had entered Brussels.]

CHAPTER VI

THE RAISING OF THE IRISH BRIGADES

I

At the ending of the long session of Parliament in 1914 there was a curious scene in the House of Commons, where members were crowded to a.s.sist at the formal pa.s.sing of the Irish and Welsh Bills. On the adjournment, Mr. Will Crooks, from his seat on the front bench below the gangway, called out, "Mr. Speaker, would it be in order to sing 'G.o.d save the King'?" and without more ado uplifted his voice and the House chimed in. There must have been strange thoughts in the minds of Redmond, of Mr. Dillon, and others of the Irish, standing in the places where they had fought so long and bitter a battle, where they had been so often the object of fierce reproaches, whence they had hurled back so many taunts, now to find themselves the centre of congratulation, and joined with English members in singing on the floor of the House that national anthem which in Ireland had been for decades a symbol of ascendancy, rigidly tabooed by every Nationalist.

When the singing ended, Mr. Crooks's genial voice rose again. "G.o.d save Ireland!" he shouted.

"And G.o.d save England too!" Redmond answered.

That exchange of words outside the period of debate is, contrary to usage but very properly, recorded in Hansard.

From this time forth Redmond was on his trial. He had given pledges; he must make good to Ireland and make good to Great Britain. For the first, since Home Rule could not be brought into operation, he must secure recognition of the National Volunteers, must establish and regularize their status; for the second, he must obtain recruits as Ireland's contribution to the war. The two proposals were in his view--and indeed were in reality--inseparably connected. For both, in order to succeed, he needed to have the cordial support of his fellow-countrymen; for both, he needed whole-hearted co-operation from the British Government.

It would be too much to say that Ireland backed him cordially; but for the limitation of Ireland's response the fault lay chiefly and primarily with the Government, which failed him completely. The War Office could not actually and directly oppose his effort to raise troops; what they could do was to hamper him by the adoption of wrong methods and the refusal of right ones. Yet in that part of his task which involved making good to England, laying England and the Empire under a debt of living grat.i.tude, his appeal was made to Ireland, and he succeeded so far that only Ireland herself could have destroyed his work. But on the other point, which involved gaining satisfaction for Ireland, the appeal was made to Government and the refusal was complete. It was worse than absolute, for it was tainted with bad faith. Mr. Asquith as Prime Minister accepted the mutual covenant which Redmond had proposed, and allowed Lord Kitchener to disallow fulfilment of it.

Redmond's view was not limited to Ireland's interest. No man living in these islands felt more keenly for the great underlying principles at issue in the war. His mission, as he conceived it, was to lead Ireland to serve those principles. But it was futile to suppose that he could secure for England all that England expected of Ireland if he could obtain from England nothing of what Ireland asked. Redmond wanted recognition for the Volunteers chiefly as a basis upon which Ireland could feel that she was building an Irish army worthy of her record in arms; and this army would be no mean a.s.sistance to the nations allied against Germany's aggression. Considering all the facts which have to be set out, the true cause for wonder is not the limitation but the extent of his success.

There was neither delay nor uncertainty in his exposition of Ireland's duty. Quite literally, he seized the first chance that came to his hand.

He left London on the evening when the Act was signed, motored to Holyhead, as he liked to do, in the big car which his friends had presented to him--it was the only material testimonial which he ever received--and crossed by the night boat, driving on in the morning to Aughavanagh. When he reached the Vale of Ovoca he found a muster of the East Wicklow Volunteers. These were the nearest thing to him in all the force--his own friends and neighbours from the Wicklow hills. Aughrim, his post-town at the foot of his own particular valley, had its company, commanded by a friend of his, the local schoolmaster--typical of what was best in the Volunteers, a keen Gaelic Leaguer, tireless in, work for the old language and old history. This man, well on in the forties, but mountain-bred and hardy, had thrown himself into the new movement--little guessing that a few months would see him a private in the British Army, or that he would come with honour to command a company of a famous Irish regiment on the battlefields of a European war.

If it had been only for the sake of Captain MacSweeny (he was then, of course, only a captain of Volunteers), I think Redmond would have stopped. But it was a gathering of many friends, who pressed him to speak at a moment when his heart was full. Grave results followed from what he said that day; but a week sooner or later he was bound to say these things, and the results were bound to follow. Here is the pith of his utterance:

"I know that you will make efficient soldiers. Efficient for what?

Wicklow Volunteers, in spite of the peaceful happiness and beauty of the scene in which we stand, remember this country at this moment is in a state of war, and the duty of the manhood of Ireland is twofold. Its duty is at all cost to defend the sh.o.r.es of Ireland from foreign invasion. It has a duty more than that, of taking care that Irish valour proves itself on the field of war as it has always proved itself in the past. The interests of Ireland, of the whole of Ireland, are at stake in this war. This war is undertaken in defence of the highest principles of religion and morality and right, and it would be a disgrace for ever to our country, a reproach to her manhood, and a denial of the lessons of her history, if young Ireland confined their efforts to remaining at home to defend the sh.o.r.es of Ireland from an unlikely invasion, or should shrink from the duty of proving on the field of battle that gallantry and courage which have distinguished their race all through all its history. I say to you, therefore, your duty is twofold. I am glad to see such magnificent material for soldiers around me, and I say to you: go on drilling and make yourselves efficient for the work, and then account for yourselves as men, not only in Ireland itself, but wherever the firing-line extends, in defence of right and freedom and religion in this war."

On the following Thursday Mr. Asquith, as Redmond had publicly urged him to do, came to Dublin and spoke at the Mansion House with the Lord Mayor in the chair. Mr. Dillon and Mr. Devlin, as well as Redmond, were on the same platform and spoke also. The papers of September 25th, which reported the speeches of this notable gathering, contained also a manifesto from twenty members of the original Committee of the Volunteers, definitely breaking with Redmond's policy and taking his speech to the Wicklow Volunteers as their cause of action. Having recited a version of the facts which led up to the inclusion of Redmond's nominees on the Committee, it continued:

"Mr. Redmond, addressing a body of Irish Volunteers on last Sunday, has now announced for the Irish Volunteers a policy and programme fundamentally at variance with their own published and accepted aims and objects, but with which his nominees are, of course, identified. He has declared it to be the duty of the Irish Volunteers to take foreign service under a Government which is not Irish. He has made this announcement without consulting the Provisional Committee, the Volunteers themselves, or the people of Ireland, to whose service alone they are devoted."

The next paragraph announced the expulsion of Redmond's nominees and the reconst.i.tution of the Committee as it existed before their admission.

Six resolutions followed. It is noteworthy that the att.i.tude taken up with regard to autonomy was simply "to oppose any diminution of the measure of Irish self-government which now exists as a Statute on paper," and to repudiate any "consent to the legislative dismemberment of Ireland." There was no word of an Irish Republic and no explicit claim beyond immediate operation for the Home Rule Act.

Ireland's att.i.tude towards the war was defined by a resolution:

"To declare that Ireland cannot, with honour or safety, take part in foreign quarrels otherwise than through the free action of a National Government of her own; and to repudiate the claim of any man to offer up the blood and lives of the sons of Irishmen and Irishwomen to the service of the British Empire while no National Government which could speak and act for the people of Ireland is allowed to exist."

Mr. Asquith, when he spoke on Thursday night, must have been informed that this split was imminent, and he spoke with a view to that situation. He said:

"Speaking here in Dublin, I address myself for a moment particularly to the National Volunteers, and I am going to ask them all over Ireland--not only them, but I make the appeal to them particularly--to contribute with prompt.i.tude and enthusiasm a large and worthy contingent of recruits to the second new army of half a million which is now growing up, as it were, out of the ground. I should like to see, and we all want to see, an Irish Brigade--or, better still, an Irish Army Corps. Don't let them be afraid that by joining the colours they will lose their ident.i.ty and become absorbed in some invertebrate ma.s.s, or what is perhaps equally repugnant, be artificially redistributed into units which have no national cohesion or character.

"We shall, to the utmost limit that military expediency will allow, see that men who have been already a.s.sociated in this or that district in training and in common exercises shall be kept together and continue to recognize the corporate bond which now unites them.

One thing further. We are in urgent need of competent officers, and when the officers now engaged in training these men prove equal to the test, there is no fear that their services will not be gladly and gratefully retained. But, I repeat, gentlemen, the Empire needs recruits and needs them at once. They may be fully trained and equipped in time to take their part in what may prove to be the decisive field in the greatest struggle of the history of the world. That is our immediate necessity, and no Irishman in responding to it need be afraid he is jeopardizing the future of the Volunteers.

"I do not say, and I cannot say, under what precise form of organization it will be, but I trust and I believe--indeed, I am sure--that the Volunteers will become a permanent, an integral and characteristic part of the defensive forces of the Crown.

"I have only one more word to say. Though our need is great, your opportunity is also great. The call which I am making is backed by the sympathy of your fellow-Irishmen in all parts of the Empire and of the world.... There is no question of compulsion or bribery.

What we want, what we ask, what we believe you are ready and eager to give, is the freewill offering of a free people."

This was a double pledge as to Redmond's two objects. It promised, first, that every inducement should be given to join a corps distinctively Irish and having national cohesion and character; secondly, that the Volunteers should obtain recognition as part of the defensive forces of the Crown. Over and above this was an a.s.surance of enormous importance. There was to be no question of compulsion. Nothing was asked, nothing would be asked, but "the freewill offering of a free people."

Lord Meath followed, a representative figure of Unionist Ireland and a most zealous promoter of recruiting. Then Redmond spoke, and as usual dwelt on Ireland's contribution to the forces of the Regular Army so far actually engaged, which was fully adequate in numbers. "As to quality, let Sir John French answer for that, and let my friend and fellow-countryman Admiral Beatty from Wexford speak from Heligoland."--Nothing gave him more pleasure at all times than to dwell on the personal achievement of Irishmen; his voice kindled when he named such names.--He went on to give confident a.s.surance, having in it the note of defiant answer to the revolt which had been raised:

"I tell the Prime Minister he will get here plenty of recruits and of the best material. We will maintain here in Ireland intact and inviolate our Irish National Volunteers, and in my judgment that body of Volunteers will prove to be an inexhaustible source of strength to the new army corps and the new army that is being created."

Then, with disdainful reference to the "little handful of pro-Germans"

who had "raised their voices in Ireland," he declared that it would be no less absurd to consider them representative than to take General Beyers and not General Botha as expressing the sentiments of South Africa.

Yet, as we know, the danger in South Africa was serious, and South Africa possessed freedom, not the promise of freedom. General Botha had what Redmond was denied--power to act and act promptly. In Ireland the menace was far less grave at this moment, but it was destined to become overpowering because Redmond lacked the power to deal with the situation in his own way. Already much had been lost. Between the declaration of war and the pa.s.sage of the Home Rule Bill more than six weeks had been allowed to elapse in which nothing was done in response to Redmond's proposal, except the purely negative decision that Territorials should not be sent to garrison Ireland. This inevitably strengthened the hand of those who never liked the offer he had made. From the first an accent of dissent from the new policy was plainly distinguishable in what came from the Committee of the Volunteers. Mr. Bulmer Hobson says of the famous speech of August 4th: