AN AMERICAN VIEW OF SINN FEIN. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—The enclosed copy of a letter by a member of the United States Senate, which has been forwarded to me from America, is of interest as giving an unbiased American view of the Sinn Fein movement in Ireland, and of its campaign of arson, pil- lage, and murder. I have verified the name of the writer as a member of the Senate, but not having his permission to do so, I refrain from giving his name.—I am, Sir, &c., Wallsend Shipyard, Wallsend-on-Tyne. J. B. Ilvsrsn.
"United States Senate, 23 June, 1921.
My dear Sir,—I received your letter of June 15th. Of course, I agree with you nearly, if not quito altogether. I have no religious prejudices of any description; but I am an American, and I do not want to see the United States used as a cat's paw to pull chestnuts from the fire' for Sinn Fein Irish Catholics, who want to take the whip handle over Irish Protestants in Ireland, nor do I want to pull out any ohestnuts ' for Irishmen who want to use us as an instrument of their hate of England. No people have ever demonstrated their incapacity for self- government as fully as the Irish Sinn Fein have done lately, by a system of arson, pillage and assassination, which they choose to call ` war.' War—for us Southerners, at any rate—was an open field, where we met the enemy breast to breast, and when we found that we could not do that we quit. We might have gone on for ever shooting Yankees from behind hedges and out of windows and off the roofs of houses, but that did not strike us as indicative of brave manhood or civilization.—I am, with every expression of regards, very truly yours,
Previous page
