PREMIER ON OUTRAGES

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 88, 11 October 1920, Page 7

PREMIER ON OUTRAGES

DEGREES OF HOME RULE

PERILS OP, DOMINION' STATUS,

(I'NITED TKZSS ASSOCIATION.—cePTSIO3T.I

(AOBTRAUAN - NEW ZEALAND. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON. 9th October.

Mr. Lloyd George delivered a speech at Carnarvon, where he had an enthusiastic reception. In the course of the speech he said :—

"The defence put forward for the murders and outrages in Ireland is that a state of war exists, the police being the garrison of a, foreign enemy. But Ireland cannot have a one-sided war. In war you do ■ not have one set of men standing up to be shot at and never firing back. In war no soldier ever complains, if the other side shoots back. Are the police to allow themselves to be shot like dogs in the street without attempting to defend themselves? The police have endured for two or three years, in a way which is the highest testimony to their discipline and restraintj the murders of their comrades ,md attacks on their barracks. The patience of the police is now giving way; they are beginning to hit back severely. Is it any wonder that the police have shot the murderers of their comrades, when terrorism made it impossible to obtain evidence against the murderers ? Order must be restored in Ireland, however stern the methods adopted. The murderous gangs must be broken upUnless I am mistaken we shall do it.

"The Government must proceed with the Bill providing self-government for Ireland. I protest against the doctrine that Ireland mu6t bo given more than Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Asquith gave in their Home Rule Bills; not because Ireland -does not need more, but because crime has been successful and because a gang of assassins is trying to bully us into giving more. If we give Ireland complete Dominion Home Rule, which Mr. Asquith now advocates, it will mean that Ireland can have her own navy and army; can slrat Irish ports against British'ships; can organise her own submarine bases; can introduce conscription and raise an army of half a million, Jed by Sinn Feiners who have vowed the destruction of Great Britain. Dominion Home Rule in Ireland means conscription in Britain as a defensive measure.

"Ireland was engaged during the war iii assisting the German submarine campaign. Ireland stood at the gateway to Britain and the Irish coa3t is now girdled with British wrecks. Are we to have Ireland as our enemies' submarine base in the next war? Was ever such lunacy proposed by anybody? Britain Is a great country. It has done more for human freedom than any country that ever 'existed. 'We will not risk its future and its destinies, because of the threats of any gang in Ireland. Wo saw the Great War through at a gigantic cost. We are not going to quail at the threat of a, handful of assassins."

The Premier added that the Home Rule Bill would give Ireland every facility to manage her own domestio affairs

LONDON, Bth October

In opening the autumn political campaign at Llandudno, Mr. Lloyd George did not refer to the Irish crisis in detail, but he ventured to predict that the Home Rule Bill would be passed by tha Coalition Government.