SINN FEIN PSYCHOLOGY.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."]
Bra,—The speech of Sir Robert Woods in the House of Commons on Saturday, March 19th, is a mournful commentary on the moral condition of Ireland to-day. Now Sir Robert, in addition to being one of the Members for Dublin University, is an eminent Dublin specialist, and on medical matters his opinion must undoubtedly carry weight. He is reported to have said : " If one was to understand this problem at all, and to see daylight, one must get behind Sinn Fein spectacles. They agreed that from the point of view of- morality these outrages were murder, but according to the Sinn Fein point of view they were not murder. The whole point was a psychological one, and we must understand the psychology. . . . He did not agree with their point of view, but he could see it, and so long as Sinn Fein held it and believed that their first duty was to offer armed resistance, it was no use for us to blame them." Sir Robert Woods did not mention whether or not, from a medical standpoint, this psychology involved a corresponding obligation to be murdered, but went on to urge that " if the Government chose to take a firm step peace could be obtained within a month." In other words, he recommends that the Imperial Government, which is responsible for the lives of His Majesty's subjects in Ireland, should hasten to negotiate a political " settlement " based upon the recognition of the psychological phenomenon of the right to murder. And to add irony to the suggestion, the Irish Times entitles the speech
" Sir R. Woods and Peace."—I am, Sir, &c., ASIITOWN.
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