THE IRISH SITUATION

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 61, 9 September 1921, Page 11

THE IRISH SITUATION

TO 111 IDITOK. . J . Sir, —Your editorial references to thi» subject and to the attitude of the Parliament of All Ireland appear strangely at variance with the tacit understanding to refrain from controversy pending the negotiations now proceeding. Under the circumstances we feel compelled to reply to your continual references to Ulster! as if that province were a unit in opposition to the rest of Ireland. Have you forgotten that five out of tho nine Ulster Counties have repeatedly declared, by large majorities, their agreement with the mass of I their countrymen ? The British Government is well aware of this fact, and henoe it has gerrymandered tho boundaries of what it is pleased to call Ulster'; and then we are seriously invited to regard thjs fantastic creation as "Ulster." In spite of the effort thus to ensure a permanent Unionist majority, however, there is a powerful section of Nationalist opinion in this new "Ulster," whence three Counties have been deliberately 'excluded. " As showing how grpsslyv under-represented this section of opinion is in the so-called Ulster Parliament, tho figures of the lalje clootion are startling. J The popujation of the six Parliamentary counties in 1811, latest figures-available in "VVhitaker's 1921 Alaianao, was 1,250,4*1. The votes cast at tlie Ulster eleotion a few months ago' were— Seats won. Repub. Eep. Uniqnisf, Nationlst. U. Nat. Belfast City 127,448 38,066 15 1 Antrim ............ 64,269 15,680 6 1 I Down' .'::....*■ 55,930 .25,250 6 2. ' Derry ..:..... 30,330 23,658 '3 ,2 Armagh.. >... 25,718. 20,81*■. ..:<'2 '2 '■ Tyrone and Fermanagh 1./. ■ 37,682 44,791 -4 '.4 Belfast Univer.. 1,725 291 4 -- 0 Totals ..........; 343,102 168,460 40 12J | Republicans and Nationalists polled 33 per ; cent, of ■ total votes, but got only 23 per i cent, of seats. In Belfast' the Republican 1 Nationalists poljad 23 per cent, of the I total votes for 6 per cent, representation. jOn ,the yotas oast tho_ representation ( should have been: Unionists 35, Republii can Nationalists J-7, paw. strikingly fair! Adding' the three counties of Ulster ex-, eluded from "Parliamentary Ulster," ithe voting would have been: Unionist 352,395, or 53.1 per, cent.; Republican Nationalist, 310,334-, or 46.9 per cent. . . Unionist majority in Ulster 42,061, or 6.2 per cent. The votes cast in the six counties represent a population: Unionist 838,000 ; Republican Nationalists 411,000; Ireland's jpopulation being 4,390,219, The '(Jmoirist Vote in the country is only 19 percent., of the whole, and they claim "self-deter-mination." Within the boundaries of trip six counties the 411,000 Republican Nationalists are 35 per cent, of the tptal. population of those counties. They are asking to be united to Southern Ireland. Is not 33. per cent, more entitled to consideration than 19 per cent.? 'Will' Ufsijer Unionists, so enamoured of " self-deter-mination,''1 find a way to concede "government by the consent of the governed" to that section of its people?' The County of Antrim has 580,811 people. Of-these Belfast hag, '386,947. "■' So that the one county has 46.5 per cent, pi" the whole population of the six Parliamentary counr ties, confirming the contention that pracr' tically all the trpubje of partition arises from Belfast. Antrim County is only one-twenty'-eighth ot tl)e aroa of Ireland. These figures argue that a nt'otivp other than justice would appear to actuate those desiring the partition of Ireland.-r-Wp are, et«., ' THE SELF-DETERMINATION LEAGUE. Bth September.