OFFER TO ULSTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 283, 28 November 1921, Page 5

OFFER TO ULSTER.

THE LATEST SCHEME. DISCLOSED TO CRAIG. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. CONCESSIONS BY SINN FEIN. (B.v Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, November 27. Tt is not. expected that any pronouncement on the Irish situation will be made before Tuesday, when the Ulster Parliament is to open. Sir -Tamps Craig, in an interview with the Premier, learnt the details of the latest scheme of settlement propounded to the Sinn Fein in the conference with Cabinet. It is generally believed that the Sinn Fein leader;-, on their own initiative, offered concessions to Ulster, including fiscal autonomy and the right of veto, but they were adamant regarding an All-Ireland Parliament. The position is still most critical, but it is not yet hopeless. The Belfast outbreaks are causing the gravest apprehension, and engendering feeling in the Ulster Cabinet prejudicial to amicable consultations with the Southerners.

Sir James Craig has received a warning from Belfast that public feeling among Unionists is so inflamed that a frightful conflagration might be expected at any moment. Extra troops and a hundred special constables have arrived, and elaborate precautions are being taken to safeguard tramcars. The week's death roll is twenty-four. (United Service.) TRIBUNAL OF EMPIRE. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Birkenhead, in a speech at Tunbridge Wells, said that the Irish quarrel had weakened the whole Empire ) and had produced unhappy consequences in the United States. There was a greater tribunal than the Irish Conference or the Imperial Parliament, namely, the tribunal consisting of the citizens of the Empire. If the only method of attaining peace consisted of force, it seemed that no British Government could shrink therefrom, but it would not bring a contented Ireland nearer. No one could complain that the Government had not offered Ireland the whole substance of her historic claims. Neither directly nor indirectly in any contingency was it the Government's policy to apply coercion to Ulster, and no question of taking from Ulster her special privileges under the 1020 Act could arise, but the Government hoped that sometime in the near future Ulster would recognise that her interests in ' many matters could best be served by an All-Ireland Assembly. This was the gravest issue that had arisen. The conference could not confidently predict that it would be solved.

"I would be misleading you," added Lord Birkenhead, "if I pretended that anxictiess relating to the conference have in any way diminished.' .

Sir Gordon Hewart, Attorney-General, speaking at Leicester, said that while the Irish Conference was in being the hope of a lasting settlement must not be abandoned, but certin matters were so vital and fundamental that they could not be subject to any kind of compromise. One was allegiance to the Crown. What was expected of Ireland was the same allegiance as that which Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa owe to the Crown, which represented the reality of common citizenship. It was not possible that Irish men at one and the same time could be aliens and citizens. — (A. and N.Z.) A TEST OF STATESMANSHIP. The "Observer," summarising the Irish negotiations, states that Ulster's attitude to the situation created by the Kings speech in Belfast has reinforced her detractors and deeply disappointed her friends. '"We invited her again." proceeds the "Observer/ ""to study without prejudice her own situation, fhe is not asked to commit suicide for the Empire's sake. She is asked to make some concession for the peace and contentment of Ireland within the Empire. '"Thoughtful Ulstermc-j will view with dismay the future of Ulster as a disconnected part of ;i hostile Ireland, as a State without tolerance founded on coercion, seething with suppressed discontent, and more and more compelled to condone uiob violence. It is a high test for the farsightedness and moral courage of the Ulster Cabinet. The statesmen of any country must face its mob. Ulster has a mob like all countries. Jf the Ulster Cabinet is to play a statesmanlike part it will have tn face its own mob. We do not think it has* been faced vet. If it is not faced the Government of Ulster will pass under the swny of sectarian passion from the bv-strcets.

BELFAST QUIETER. PATROLS IN THE STREETS. EFFECT ON ULSTER. LONDON, November 27. General Sir Ncvil Mac-ready, General Officer Coinandirtg in Ireland, has arrived in Belfast. The Lord Mayor announced to-day that additional troops had liecn promised it necessary. The corporation has decided \o cover tramenr windows with wire netting as a protection against bombs. Belfast was quieter to-day. The Lancashire Fusiliers arrived from Dublin, and stroug forces with armoured cars patrolled the streets. Spasmodic firing was resumed in the afternoon, one man being killed and a woman dangerously wounded. Later a harbour constable named McHonry, on duty at the docks, was shot dead. It is declared that McHenry was murdered in revenge for his disclosure of a plot to bomb ferry boats carrying shipyard workers.

The Belfast correspondent of the ""Daily Telegraph" says that the most recent shootings have destroyed any vestige of a chance of Ulster compromising. Unionists unanimously regard the latest outrages as part of a plan aimed at making the government of Ulster impossible. Feeling against the Sinn Fein was nover more intense. It is hopeless to expect Ulster to cuter a Parliament controlled by the Sinn Fein. * * Twenty-four Sinn Fein prisoners, who have started a hunger strike, have been transferred to English prisons.