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Reprint from the Indiana Catholic, 27th February, 1914.
SIR ROGER CASEMENT ON THE ENGLISH
BOYCOTT OF QUEENSTOWN.
(A REMARKABLE COMMUNICATION.)
As already stated in the Dublin correspondence of
this paper, the Cunard and White Star and. other
English lines last November stopped their principal
ships from calling at Queenstown, Ireland, the finest
harbour in the world. The English lines di(l this to
help the commerce of Liverpool, London and Plymouth.
A great protest arose in Ireland over the “ boycott ”
and a number of Irish-Americans in New York waited
on the Hamburg-American Company’s Vice-President
in New York and asked to have the Hamburg-American
trans-Atlantic liners call at Queenstown. The big
German company’s officials decided to accede to the
request, and arrangements were made to call at Queens-
town. is move tie amburg-American so
incensed the Britishers that all the British lines made
protest to the English Government, and as a result
representations were made from London to Berlin
against the German ships stopping at Queenstown.
F.---Morecthan this, the great steamship trust decided to
throw the Hamburg-American out of the pool and
make a rate war on that company if it lived up to its
arrangement to call at Queenstown. The result was
the Hamburg-American had to break its promise, at
least for the present.
Last Monday we received the following letter from
that distinguished Irishman, Sir Roger Casement, who
was long a diplomat in the English service, but who
has recently resigned from the service of that Govern-
ment to serve Ireland.
SIR ROGER’S LETTER.
Herewith is the remarkable letter of Sir Roger:
DUBLIN, Feb. 10, 1914.
Editor of “ The Indiana Catholic,”
Indianapolis.
DEAR Sm,
A controversy of the gravest concern to Irish com-
mercial freedom lias arisen in connection with the pro-
posed call by the Hamburg-Ame-rika Line at Cork
Harbour and its withdrawal under pressure from
certain quarters. As I have retired from the British
Consular Service, I am now free to take public action
on behalf of Irish interests, and I feel strongly that in
this question of our right to freedom of intercourse
with the world at large we should be up and doing. It
is no use protesting. Our protests are made openly
of those who injure Ireland are always made in secret
and by stealth, and cannot be met by Irishmen not
trained in that school of action. So, abandon “pro-
tests,” and hit back. The greed of the British shipping
companies is as universal as the ocean---both are theirs,
by a law of nature. IVe can hit the one by using the
other. Every Irish-American to-day, who can do so,
should travel, by preference, by the steamers of the
Hamburg-American Line and leave the Cunard Com-
pany and its associated companies to contemplate the
triumph of their “diplomacy” in their diminishing
bank balances. They have succeeded, for a time, at
any rate, in keeping that friendly foreign company
away from the shores of Ireland, and they think they
have all Irish trade inexorably in their grip.
It is hard for Irishmen at home to dislodge that grip
upon their commercial life, backed up as it is by suc
powerful agencies; but it is not hard for Irishmen in
America to hit the knuckles of that grasping hand,
and leave their mark upon it, too. Irishmen in
America live in a free land and are free men and have
free minds, and often full pockets. Let them use their
freedom and close their pockets, to help Irishmen at
home to freedom and full pockets. Close their pockets
to the Cunard Company and they will begin to open
some minds near home, too.
Those who look upon Ireland as their private pro-
perty will begin to realise that Irishmen are not cattle.
Every dollar taken from the Cunard and given to the
Hamburg-American Line is a dollar given to the cause
of Fair Play and Free Trade for Ireland.
Let that be your watchword for six months-and
then see if our ports are still to be closed to friendly
foreign lines, as if we, or they, had the plague.
Yours faithfully,
ROGER CASEMENT.
We commend the above letter from a great and
gifted Irishman to all our people as worthy of earnest
consideration and prompt action. The Cunard Com-
pany, especially, has always shown its contempt for
Catholics generally, and it is now engaged in trying
to injure a strongly Catholic people. All American
Catholics, as well as Irish-Americans, should be
interested in seeing Ireland win this fight against a
system of discrimination which should be abhorrent to
all liberty-loving people.-“ THE Ixnmvx C.iTnoL1c,”
and above board and are disregarded. The “ protests ”
February 27th, 1914.
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