Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1922. RUFFLED ULSTERMEN

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1922, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 1922. RUFFLED ULSTERMEN

Mr. Churchill, who as Secretary of State for the Colonies has charge of the Irish Free State Bill, has again shown that he is far from ideally qualified for the task. It was doubtless inevitable that any British Minister dealing frankly 'with the Irish question in the present inflamed' state of feeling should give some offence to both sides, but this only makes the giving of unnecessary offence to either of them the more unpardonable. With a tactlessness which is witftout respect of persons or parties, Mr. Churchill has succeeded in wounding quite unnecessarily the feelings of both Ulster and Sinn Fein, but Ulster's is the more solid grievance. The Bill is, of course, a Sinn Fein Bill, and for that reason Mr. Churchill should have been particularly careful to handle it with as tender a regard as possible fox the fears and the suspicions of Ulster. He has exercised no such care, as to-day's report of the progress of the Free State Bill shows. All that the Sinn Feiners have to complain of in the Minister's handling of a Bill which gives them substantially all they want is that, in his speech on the second reading, he adopted a tone of condescending superiority towards his friends in Southern Ireland.

He hoped, according to our cabled report, that the.people,'through the election, would finally put aside the idea of an Irfeh Republic. He also hoped the election would result in securing a fresh, normal, and sensible Parliament for Southern Ireland. The men at present in that Parliament were chosen, not because of special fitness, but because they were thought to be the most obnoxious to the British Empire..

We remarked at the time that talk of this kind from a British Minister could do no good in Ireland except to the propaganda of Mr. de Valera, and Mr. Collins's prompt declaration that " nothing that would ever be proposed to the Irish people should tie the feet of the nation finally '' seemed to indicate that the Provisional Government took the same view. In the same speech Mr. Churchill made the frankest and clearest explanation that has yet been given of the most glaring blot on, the Irish Agreement. ,We refer, of course, to the boundary question. After saying that " no expression of opinion now would affect the Treaty," Mr. Churchill added:

Had they waited to refer the -boundary question to Ulster there would have been no Treaty. It would have meant the reconquest" of Southern Ireland at an enormous cost of blood and ■ treasure, when the only difference was the right of the people in certain districts to express an opinion regarding which Government they would live under. ■ . '

Frankness and clearness could no, further go. The possibility of oversight or misunderstanding is swept away. The Government knew exactly what it was doing. The choice was between the statutory rights of Ulster and, the written promise of Mr. Lloyd George on the one side and the claims of Sinn Fern on the other. The rejection of these claims would have renewed the'fight with Sinn Fein "at an enormous cost of blood and treasure." The rights of Ulster and the Prime Minister's promise could be violated at a cheaper price. The easier course was chosen, and an agreement signed with Sinn Fein to alter Ulster's boundary without her consent. *

Is it straining the matter unduly to say that the ultimate' justification of the action of the Government is to be found, if at all, in the same iron law of necessity which in an unguarded moment was pleaded by the German Chancellor to justify the invasion of Belgium? Substantially the two cases are very far apart. Ulster is not to be directly robbed of her territory for the benefit of a State to which she is at present irreconcilably opposed. The boundaries are to be readjusted by a Commission of which the Chairman, at any rate, will be independent and impartial. Due regard is to be paid to the wishes of the inhabitants of the districts affected. ' And if. the work is fairly and skilfully-done, both parties may be the better for it.' But toe fact remains that Ulster's rights fire being technically overridden in a manner that would never have been attempted with regard to any other

self-governing unit of the Empire, and that under the conditions prevailing in Ireland a technical wrong is almost inevitably inflamed into a substantial and. intolerable grievance. While' advising Ulster to accept the settlement, Mr. Bonar Law has not concealed his opinion that the Government has blundered, and the very least that it ( can now do is to retrieve its blunder as far as possible, and to reassure Ulster by tactful, respectful, and sympathetic handling.

If the Government recognised this obligation, it; seems clear that Mr. Churchill did not. By the sacrifice of much less dignity and the exercise of much less forbearance than was involved in the protracted negotiations with Sinn Fein, it would surely have been possible to calm the ruffled feelings of the Ulstermen and to abate their suspicions even if their amendments were unacceptable or even impossible. Not only has Mr. Churchill failed to do anything of the kind, but he has added fuel to the Ulster flame. After rejecting an amendment which Mr. Churchill admitted to be not in itself unreasonable, though it had apparently to be rejected as inconsistent with the " Treaty," he moved the closure, despite the angry protests of the Ulster members. Other amendments having been rejected, Captain Craig said that " while the Government refused to alter a single line at the request of Ulster members, yet when Sinn Feiners in Dublin passed a resolution necessitating a change, the Government immediately agreed." The Ulster members then left the House in order, as one of them said, to debate the Bill elsewhere, and the Bill was passed in their absence. No more unfortunate incident has occurred outside of Ireland since the settlement was, reached three months ago. The snake of mistrust which Punch represented the new " St. David " as exorcising from Southern Ireland may now be expected to display greater venom than ever in the North.