ULSTER AND HOME RULE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 193, 15 August 1911, Page 4

ULSTER AND HOME RULE.

We fear that there is no possibility of inducing the average Unionist to take an unprejudiced view of the Horn* Rule question; but we can only deplore the evident determination of the Opposition ti> aggravate tie bitterness of this contr<Jversy in every conceivable wav. Entirdy apart from Borne Rule, it i 9 surely hi{4 time that the traditions of past inimosity should cease to be revived perennially, and it is manifestly poor service to the nation and the Empire to stir up bitter memories, and to exasperate racial and religious prejudices by such an appeal as the Duke of Abercorn has just addressed to the Protestants of Ulster. The suggestion that "Ulster should not permit separation from the United Kingdom" is palpably a gratuitous effort to revive the worst traditions of sectarian and racial rivalry in the North of Ireland. It can have no other object; for Home Rule in Ireland will no more mean separation from England than it has meant in New Zealand or Australia. It is neither conceivable nor possible that the concession of the rights of local selfgovernment to Ireland should result in the disruption of the Union, and it is infinitely to be regretted that gross and flagrant misrepresentations of the purpose and character of the Nationalist policy should be employed by representative politicians fit Home to serve the sordid ends of party warfare.