HOME RULE: ITS PROSPECTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 177, 26 July 1913, Page 10

HOME RULE: ITS PROSPECTS.

(To the Edit _.) Sir— T crave the courtesy of statinc the Home Rule corrtroversv from the latest standpomt. Papers just to hand Cive some of the debate upon the bill bemn- reintroduced into the House of Commons. To my mind Mr Asquith is weakening. He devoted much time to minimising- the Unionist wins since the Reneral election, endeavouring to show that the Liberal outnumbered the Conservative voters. In all elections by-is,ues have to be borne by leading parties, and ' it does not follow that all who voted against the victors in a trianeular election would do so if it were a dual contest -Many, for instance, that were indignant. : about insurance, or TarifT Reform, would ' regard Home Rule as a something not i worth troubling about—to them it would seem as remote as if a matter concerning . Australia or Timbuctoo : Tlie Home Rule "Sydney Morning , Herald, printed a Jett-or by mc on -The ' Curse (altered by the 'editor from Cnme') of being an Irish Protestant " I quote therefrom: ""Mr Asquith's statement that Home Rule was submitted to , the electors is another instance of his paltering with the truth. Home Rule was only mentioned incidentals, and other matters of immediate interest loomed so large before the electors that probably the average British voter never gave a thought to Home Rule, But he does not seem very pleased with it now. The British Nonconformist conscience is the rummiest thing on earth. It is so elastic that, if it could be materialised, there would be a ruinous slump in rubber. - ' Mr Asquith is with mc regarding the British voter. Speaking of "Newmarket election, he quoted "The Times" special correspondent to this effect: "It is doubtful -whether a single voter will be influenced by Sir Edward Carson's plea for T'lster. Ireland is a far country from these quite Cambridgeshire villages, and these agricultural labourers who form the bulk of the electorate are more interested in problems affecting the land on which they live. Indeed, the invariable ignorance of many of them as to the stg.te of affairs in Ulster, and the professed indifferenc" of others to the consequences of Home Rule, are the despair of tho two ladies who have come over from Ulster." Regarding Ulster's resistance, Mr Asquith says: "This is a claim on the part of the majority of fonr counties to interfere in defiance of the expressed wish of the majority. I say to tho House of Commons there is no legislative nssemblv in the world would tolerate such a demand." Sir Edward Carson: -'Will tho right hon. gentleman say -whether nny legislative assembly in the world has ever driven out people like this?" (Opposition cheers.) Mr Asq-ith said: "Show mc in this bill I where its safeguards for liberty, civil and j religious, aro in any war inadequate." ln my letter to the "_.__ Herald" 13: "Ah! but look nt the safeguards—yes. look at them. Safeguards as futile then as frail. They are not worth considering. and some of them are only of a temporary character. The first thing the Irish Pariliament would do would b e to look about

I for the most effective way of getting rid of i them. What the safeguards Would prove leffectual in is this: causing continual frie|tion between England and Ireland. But Mr Redmond and the Convention of Nationalists promised so and so. 'Who is to guarantee Mr Redmond and the Convention? Has not Mr Redmond proved himself as unreliable a person as ever lived? What reliance can be placed on Rome? Behold her broken compact on the education question. But there is the appeal to England. Appeal to tbe dirty traitors who would now band the Protestants of Ireland over, body and soul, to those whom they regarded as (heir enemies. Appeal to the same old gang in possibly the same old mood. There would not be even the consolation of nn appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober." -Mr Balfour, replying to Mr Asquith, retorted: "If you p,is< [Tome Rule in its present shape you arc practically putting Ulster, for all domestic, purposes, and subject to what you call your safeguards, under tbe control of the res; of Ireland, and however the rest of Ireland use their power, provided they keep within the four corners of your bill, everything that Ireland does against the rest of Ireland is rebellion against you. and all the forces of the Crown would be asked for. and perhaps given—asked for by the dominant party in Dublin, possibly given by the occupants of Cue Treasury Bench. These forces would he claimed, and that is the atrocity of this bill—that is the greatest of its atrocities—and do not tell mc a majority have a constitutional right to establish tbr.t system within their limits. That i> a violation of the most fundamental rights which any district, within the United Kingdom now possesses, and vet you are recklessly goin;*. not merely to deprive lister of its fair share of representation, not merely to divorce it from the frencra! system of the United Kingdom, not merely to put it under the control of a majority which it profoundly distrusts, but you are actually [going to take upon yourselves 'he function of keeping it under the heel of that majority: You are going to make yourselves for all time the policeman and possibly the tyrants of this area of Ireland without yourselves havin„ any • responsibility in the management of its affairs. This bill is so unconstitutional and so deep a violation of sound principle that you cannot. e\pcci Ulster to submit ; and. what, is much more important from votir point of view. ; mi cannot expect the British public, when they understand what is going on. not to take the side of Ulster.' - In my letter published October 4. 1012. II said: "'Parnell was a sower of discord, and was trying to dismember the Empire. Bonar Law and Sir Edward Carson are endeavouring to bold tbe Empire together, insisting that the Protestants- of Ireland are entitled to continue a component part of the United Kine-dom, and declaring emphatically that Mr Asriuith's masters, the enemies of Enrrland. will not t>e allowed to trnmple upon them. The English and Scotch may |be critical now. but there can be no doubt an which Fide they would eventually rally. am. etc.. \VM. S. AICKIN.