HOME RULE BILL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 78, 1 April 1920, Page 7

HOME RULE BILL

SECOND READING SURVIVED

DOMINION STATUS DISCUSSED

MR. ASQUITrTS "SUGGESTIONS.

(UKIIBD PRESS ASSOCIATION,—COPVRIGIiI.)

(AUSTRALIAN - NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.;

(Received April 1, 10 a.m.)

LONDON, 31st March.

The second reading of the Home Rule Bill was carried by 348 votes to 94.

When the Irish debate was resumed, Mr.' Asquith said he disagreed with the view that order must be restored before Constitutional changes could be considered. He was of opinion that the root of the mischief would not be touched until by wide reforms in the system /of government the general co-operation ot Irishmen had been ' enlisted in the enforcement of the law. He recalled his pledge that the vast majority of the people of Ireland should,have an Irish Legislature and an Irish Executive, subject to -the necessary safeguards for Imperial supremacy and the protection of the Irish minority. ' Replying to an interruption by Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Asquith said his pledge involved the grant of a Parliament for the whole of Ireland. The Bill, he said, was" cumbrous, ■costly, and unworkable. It was not demanded or supported by any section in Ireland.

Mr. Asquith suggested that the.Pome Rule Bill should be retained, but amended in some of the most vital particulars. For example, the power of the Irish Parliament and Executive under the Act should ba enlarged so as to give them practically & Dominion status, though, he admitted that the geographicial contiguity, of Ireland to Britain importantly differentiated her position, ■ particularly in the military sense, from the position of a. Dominion. He also suggested extensive financial adjustments, and county option in Ulster.

Mr. Bonar Law emphasised the fact that the Government waa compelled to introduce the Bill at the present stage because otherwise the existing Home Rule Act would automatically come into operation. Ulster, he said, must not be brought under the Dublin Parliament except by its own free will. The Bill .was intended to give Ireland the largest measure of Home Rule compatible with the national security, and the pledges that ha-d bee^n given. Mr. A'squith's suggestion did not mean Dominion Home Rule, the essence of whicb was the Dominions' ■control of their fighting forces'. Mr. Asquith proposed to reserve the control of the armed forces. The connection of the Dominions with the Empire depended upon the Dominions, and if any one of them, chose to-morrow to say it wpuld no longer remain* part of the Empire, we should not try-to force them. Dominion -Home Rule meant the right to decide the country's own destiny. This .was demanded by the legal representatives of the Irish people; and for Mr. Asquith to say he was prepared.to give Dominion Home Rule must mean nothing less than that-he was prepared to give the Irish a republic. There was no difference between honestly granting' Dominion Home Rule and openly giving self-determination to the elected l'epre sentatives of Southern Ireland. He challenged the Labour Party to say whether they meant if the elected representatives of Ireland wanted a republic, they would give them a republic, i Mr. Bonar Law, continued that if the Bill became law and Sinn Feiners refused to work with; the Parliament, pro-' vision would\be made in the Bill for an immediate reversion to the present position. If the whole of-Southern Ire-, land would have^only , a republic no settlement was possible. If, however, there was a large sane element in the population he did not believe that with a Parliament operating in another part of Ireland they would refuse to work in . the Southern Parliament.

Mr. Devlin strongly attacked the Bill. \They might send the whole Army and [Navy to Ireland; ,but might was right only for a time. A nation's heart's desiie was only satisfied by a recognition of the' spirit of justice and the concession of freedom.

Sir Edward Carson, while recording his unalterable opposition to the whole policy of Honi.e Bule and disclaiming any responsibility for the scheme,, said it would have bean easy for him to say he would continue to light to a. finish, but the cai-dinal facts were the Act of •1914 on the Statute Book and the pledges given to Many old friends were calling him a traitor because he was not fighting to the end, but he had been offered a Parliament fo" six counties and he could not ask Ulster to get rifles and fight for whai was offered peaceably. He would not vote for the Bill, but he would not prevent it passing. He challenged the Labourites to go to the country with the announced . determination, to drive Ulster under a Sink Fein Parliament or to give Ireland an actual or. potential Republic.. •