ADMIRAL MAHAN ON IRELAND.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.")
Ste..—At the present time, when Irish regiments are fighting so splendidly for the Empire, there can be few who would not wel- come any fair, any possible, settlement of the Irish Question. Germany, we know, has built many fond hopes on being able to use Irish disaffection to her own advantage, has tried to foster and encourage the seeds of rebellion in Ireland. Short of injustice to Ulster and danger to the Empire, a settlement of Irish griev- ances is an end we all desire.
It may be timely and useful to give the views of the great historian of The Influence of Sea Power, the late American Admiral A. T. Mahan, who was of Irish descent, and who told us just before he died that, next to those of his own country, the interests of none were so near to his heart as those of our Empire. In his chapter on "Motives to Imperial Federation" in his Retrospect and Prospect, published by Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. in 1902, Admiral Mahan says:— "With one exception, there does not exist among the different bodies which should compose a federal Empire of Great Britain the traditional alienation which hampered the movement of the American States in their first efforts towards union. The excep- tion, of course, is Ireland. Practically regarded, it is impossible for a military man, or a statesman with appreciation of military conditions, to look at the map and not perceive that the ambition of Irish separatists, if realized, would be even more threatening to the national life of Great Britain than the secession of the South was to that of the American Union. It would be deadlier, also, to Imperial aspirations; for Ireland, by geographical posi- tion, lies across and controls the communications of Great Britain with all the outside world, save only that considerable, but far from ponderant, portion which borders the North Sea and the Baltic. Independent and hostile, it would manacle Great Britain, which at present is, and for years to come must remain, by long odds the most powerful member of the Federation, if that take form. The Irish Question, therefore, is vitally important, not to Great Britain only, but to the Colonies."
It is to be hoped that our statesmen will never be blind to the dangers of which Admiral Mahan so plainly warns us. For many years he did all that an officer of the American Navy could do to warn us of the growing menace of German aspirations to world- power. In private conversations and letters he expressed himself much more freely as to what he well termed " the blindness of your people " as to Pan-German aims.—I am, Sir, &c., R. B. MARSTON.
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