y, as Germany's western fortress, naval base, Heligoland of
the Atlantic, would from the nature of the case be far worse than that
of Prussian Poland, Schleswig, and Alsace for the last forty years.
Only those who are ignorant of Prussianism and its most recent
methods--methods followed long ago by every tyrannical Power,
including the England of the past, but which Prussia still maintains
as a menacing anachronism in the age of democracy--have any illusions
upon this matter. The Irish people, with a few insignificant
exceptions, have no such illusions. They have, for the first time in
their history--a memorable fact--put a national army into the field, a
glorious army! And they have put that army in the field for the
express purpose of defending Ireland from such a fate and of doing
their share in helping to rescue the unfortunate and heroic peoples
who have already fallen under it.

With the Irishmen already serving, or who obeyed the call as reserves
when war was declared, and those who have volunteered since the war,
the Irish army in the field has amounted to 154,038 men to this date,
and this number is being increased and replenished at the rate of
about a thousand men a week. More than a hundred thousand have
volunteered since the war, and before the year is out it is our hope
that at least half another hundred thousand will have followed their
example. To these may be added for Ireland's credit the officially
acknowledged Irish units in Great Britain, such as the "London Irish,"
the "Liverpool Irish," the "Tyneside Irish" (a brigade). But account
cannot be taken, though their existence may be noted, of the many
thousands of Irish in English and Scottish regiments and in the
Canadian and Australian forces. There are some special Irish Colonial
units, too, apart from the Irish, in practically every Colonial
battalion, such as the Vancouver Irish Fusiliers and the Quebec Irish
Regiment. A short time ago General Botha's wife at Capetown presented
green flags to a South African Irish regiment. But it is the army
raised in Ireland itself which is our more special concern here, for
that is the army which it is Ireland's privilege and duty to maintain
at its full strength in the field; and that consists of the regular
battalions of the historic Irish regiments and of three specific new
Irish Divisions with "service" battalions of the same regiments. Each
of the new Divisions is under the command of a distinguished Irish