SINN FEIN, GERMANY, AND LABOUR
(To TEE EDITOR Or THE "Eleecrsroit."1 8m—though your views and mine on Ireland differ lobo sorb. yet as the Spectator is one of the few honest journals in England, I venture to believe that you will publish this letter. As an Irishman, may I say that your article entitled as above is a farrago of nonsense ? The writer most strangely emits all mention of the most powerful force in Ireland to-day—the Catholic Church. Is this British bigotry or ostrich-like ignor- ance ? In any case this omission renders the article valueless and misleading. At no time in history were the Bishops so unanimous and so outspoken in their condemnation of the present Government of Ireland. Would you venture to gay that the hierarchy is Bolshevist or pro-German ? Believe me, Sir. Sinn Fein is not Bolshevist; and the Catholic Church will save a self-governing Ireland from the excesses of English Socialism and Continental Freemasonry. I again repeat, any picture of Ireland which leaves out the sane and conservative influence of the Catholic Church is false and misleading. A journal like the Spectator ought to rise above antiquated [We have not often been able to write an article about Ireland without mentioning the Roman Catholic Church. In the article to which our correspondent refers there was no need to mention it. No doubt the hierarchy will oppose Sinn Fein in the end. The hierarchy generally trips up any Home Rule movement that looks like succeeding. It encourages such movements openly for a time because they are popular, but it gets rid of them ultimately by some hidden device. Sinn Fein has professed itself pro-German; but the Germans are helping the Bolsheviks against the Allies; therefore Sinn Fein cannot help being Bolshevik.—En. Spectator.]
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