MR. ASQUITH'S SOLUTION

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 84, 6 October 1920, Page 7

MR. ASQUITH'S SOLUTION

FULL DOMINION STATUS

THE GREY PLAN CONDEMNED,

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.— COPI RIO&T.)

(PUBLISHED JN IBE TIMES.)

LONDON, 4th October

Mr. Asquitli writes : "The experience of the last nine months ; s perhaps j^e most deplorable a.nd scandalous chapter iv the annals of Irish government, but I cannot contemplate, even as a policy of despair, Viscount Grey's suggestion for the final abandonment of the trust which history has imposed on us." Mr. Asquith reiterates the opinion "that the bestowal of the status of an autonomous Dominion in the fullest and widest sense is the only solution of the Irish problems. It would place Ireland on a level footing with other Dominions, without imposing limitations and fetters. Regarding naval and military forces no grant of autonomy would 1 be complete which failed to include the right to raise and maintain adequate military forces for local defence. There must also bra included fiscal independence. To those disposed to think such a policy humiliating and hazardous, I put the question What is your alternative ? Can anything be more humiliating or pregnant witfi incalculable peril than the present conditions? The only logical sequence is to undertake the task of reconquering Ireland, which the wills and consciences of English people will never sanction I am not alarmed at tha spectre of an Irish republic. Men in the long run will not fight for phrases, but for realities."