MR DILLON IN AUSTRALIA.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 291, 27 April 1889, Page 2

MR DILLON IN AUSTRALIA.

AN ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME. j HE APPEALS TO AUSTRALIA FOR HELP. Adelaide, April 15. Mr Dillon, the Irish dalegate, received a great welcome on bis arrival in Adelaide, the people turning out in thousands to greet him. The Home Rule campaign was inaugurated in the Adelaide Town Hall on tho 12th instant by Sir Thomas Eemonde, Mr Dillon, and Mr J. Deasy. The large hall wm crowded to excess, the audience being composed almost entirely of Irish people. _ Mr P. M 'Glynn, M. P., occupied the chair, and amongst those on ths platform was Archbishop Reynolds, Romen Catholic prelate of Adelaide. Mr Dillon said that one of the most terrible weapons used against the Irish cause was misrepresentation and tortured truth. The great Press of the world used this weapon against the Irish people, and the only course open to them was a personal appeal to the people of the world. The people who first took up the Irish question asked, ” Have not you the same laws, rights, and privileges as the English, and why, therefore, areyou not satisfied?” The reply was that Irishmen were denied those privileges in Ireland which the people of England enjoyed. They had not in Ireland an administration of the law responsible to the people. They had not liberty of speech, and they had not power to administer their own looal laws. Those matters were managed by Englishmen foisted on to the Irish people in order to give those Englishmen good berther If these things existed in Australia there would be a revolution to-morrow. If Irishmen remained patient under the present system and placidly accepted the existing order of things he would blush to call himself an Irishman. A nation which was deprived of every fundamental principle of liberty owed no allegianoe to ’ the Government which made them slaves, yet because they refused to remained quiet they were Called rebels. Ireland governed by the police. If three gathered together in a private house police could interfere, and if an Irishman oarne under the ban of the police he was no longer a free man, bet be wm followed about and bis every action noted. For resisting a system of government as absolute as that ot Russia, for fighting for that freedom which was dear to Englishmen, Irishmen were sent to prison to herd with thieves and Itmt wallers. The Irish question had tor 90 veers been getting worse day by day, and the method of governing Ireland stood oondsmned by its own results. In Ireland alone the people ware decreasing, whilst in every other eountry the population was increasing The lito'l blood of Ireland had been drained away during those 90 years, and this was due to the pernicious system of Governing the country with myrmidons from Dublin Castle. The police force in Ireland was the largest in tht world, and if the present decrease of population and increase of polioe went on tho day would come when none bat policemen weald be left in Ireland, yet any county in Ireland was more free from crime than any part oi England and Scotland. The duty of the Irish polioe wss not to suppress crime, but to stir up disorder. If government by rifle and bayontl existed in Australia there would bo bloodshed to morrow. In Ireland tho British Government had a legion of spies and informers at work. He (the speaker) never went about in Ireland without being *'shadowed,” and that was the case with every man in that country who attempted to lift up his voice on behalf of his downtrodden countrymen. Cruel and outrageous charges had been made against the Irish Catholic people of persecuting the Irish Protest anti. Such a dastardly statement ho strongly denied, as except a few places ia the north, where the Orange banner had been railed, the people worked shoulder to shoulder for the common cause of Ireland. What wm Parnell's religion? And yet the Irish Catholics accepted him as their les iar. Amonget the Irish party in the House of Commons there were a number of Protestants representing purely Catholic constituencies, and yet it was stated that if there was Home Rule in Ireland the Irish Protestants would find their post 100 untenable. Such a statement was unworthy of brave people. The “ plan of campaign ” had been forced upon ' them by a Tory Government for the protection of the Irish people. Tho Irish people were being thrown out of their homes in thousands, and something had to be done to remedy the matter. Therefore the “ plan of campaign ’ was inaugurated, as the Tory Government had scorned the wants of the Irish and rode down the votes of their representatives in the House of Commons. The Irish leaders knew that if they did not do something for Ireland they would have to go back to the people and say, “ We can't do anything for you ; shift for yourselves." H they had said that the nation would simply have drifted into the power of terrible secret societies. To prevent that the “ plan of campaign ” was resolved upon. He claimed that it had broken the power of landlordism in Ireland. It had saved the people of Ireland from Ribbon, Orange, and White Boy Msooiationa. It had enabled them to say that where the “ plan of campaign ” was planted there crime was not to be found. It had saved the unfortunate people thousands of evictions, and it had taught cruel and exacting landlords that if they went too far the people had something to fall hack upon to fight them with. The Irish leaders had been accused of trading upon the feelings of the people for their own ends, but he was contented to let that charge be dealt with by hie countrymen themselves. They intended to continue to struggle, and appealed to the people of Australia to help them. They would go on till they put an end to the awful misery of tho Irish people. They would go on until they had a national Government, and so long as the nation was deprived of liberty so long would they hear of the Irish question. He believed that the dawn of hope for Ireland was at hand, and he relied on the people of Australia to helo them to gain justice for Ireland, libertv for Ireland, Home Rule for Ireland. Sir Thomas Eemonde and Mr John Deasy also spoke, and appealed foe funds. During the evening the audience were very demonstrative, the mention of the name of Balfcur or of Salisbury being greeted with hisses and groans, A resolution wm passed expressing sympathy and promising support to the Home Rule movement,