HOME RULE

Evening Star, Issue 15073, 3 January 1913, Page 6

HOME RULE

SIR E. CARSON FAILS TO HAVE, ULSTER EXCLUDED. THREE TO TWO MAJORITY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, January 1. Sir Edward Carson, in speaking "to hie amendment to exclude Ulster from the operation of the Home Rule Bill, said that Ulster claimed to stand where she was. and to have done her best -under union! She also claimed to have succeeded under it- It was for the Government, if they could, to justify the turning out of Ulster. He pressed the Government to sav whether they contemplated exercising a force which they would never have dreamed of applying to Natal if she had refused to ioin in" the South African Union. If the Government had made up their mind he begged them to remember that no one could*" measure where the forces of disorder, if unloosed, would find their objective.

MINIMISING ULSTER'S OPPOSITION.

.. % . LONDON. January 1. Mr Asquith said he was unable to speculate or lay down contingent policies. He did not believe that when Ulster realised the solid protection which the Bill afforded it would do other than accept the Imperial decision. He asked, if the Bill were submitted to the electorates, what then would be the attitude of the -Unionists? Mr Redmond said he was .not influenced by, the. alleged danger of civil war. The feeling was as strong over the 1869 Church Act. and nothing had happened then. He was prepared to go to anv limit to meet the Opposition, provided that it was not inconsistent with national self-government. FEARING THE WORST. LONDON, January 1. Mr A. Bonar Law said disaster would follow the carrying of the Bill against Ulster's will. The Government, in the event of war, were gambling on the possibility of the whole Nationalist feeling in Ireland changing. The danger would be lessened if there were two subordinate Parliaments. He advocated rci amendment making it permissive for any county to remain outside the new Irish Parliament. He believed that the- loyalists would rather be ruled by a. foreign country than by the Nationalists. If the Government would submit the Bill to the country he personally—and he believed he spoke" for the Opposition—would not encourage anv form of resistance by Ulster; but if the Government forced the Bill he would assist Ulster's resistance. MR CHURCHILL'S PARAPHRASE. LONDON. January 1. Mr Churchill remarked that Mr Law had made the surprising 'statement that the loyalists preferred foreign rule. Sir E. Carson interjected that they would rather do that than be governed bv Moonlighters. " " Mr Churchill: "This is the latest Tow threat : that Ulster would secede to Germany," (Uproar.) Amid constant and heated, interruption, the First Lord pro- 1 ceeded to taunt Mr Law with his latest I step in Imperial statecraft. He declared I that no member of the Opposition believed the amendment to be workable. It proposed to mete out to the Catholics in Ulster exactly the treatment which the Opposition regarded as cruel and unfair to Protestants elsewhere. The Unionist veto by violence was not justified. The Bill had to be passed three times, and long before the Irish Parliament could legislate oppressively there would be a General Election, and the people would have a, clear constitutional remedy without- resort to threats of violence. SUBSTANTIAL GOVERNMENT VICTORY. LONDON. January 1. The amendment was negatived bv 294 Totes to 197. WILL THERE BE CIVIL WAR? Writing on November 22, the London correspondent of the ' Sydney Morning Herald ' said : In spite of the fact that in Ulster they are drilling with dummy rifles; in spite of the announcement by Mr F. E. Smith that he may some day have to re-turn to Ireland for a different purpose than that of making speeches: in spite even of that dreadful prospect, one must again record one's conviction that there will be no civil war in 'Ireland, and that the leaders of both sides know it. I listened in the House of Commons this week to Sir Edward Carton—the man who is to be commander in-chief of Ulster's foiees—criticising the financial arrangements of the Home Rule Bill. He did so in the way in which any man might criticise them who believed in his heart that the Bill might before long come into force in some form, u.ud who was only fearful that it might break down through unsound finane'e. Other Unionists had criticised the finance very ably, generally complaining that Ireland was getting" too much. Sir E. Carson surprised his own side bv affirming that Ireland was getting toelittle. ■ " It's all very well fcr the Nationalists, who love the" sentiment of the Bill, to put up with the niggardly amount the Government offer," he said' in his slow Irish accent, '-but we Unionists of Ire-, land, who hate the sentiment of the Bill, can you show us anything that we get out of it?" It was a very reasonable argument, stated in a very reasonable manner.

All the time Sir Edward Carson was speaking one had the almost irresistible impression that he had before his mind a time when the Home Rule Act would be working in Ireland—or a part of Ireland, at any rate. One had the impression that the leaders on both sides were fencing, and have been fencing from the beginning; that they both know that the tinal terms on which the question will be, settled have ncft yet been unmasked, and are each manoeuvring in order to avoid having to be the first to suggest the compromise. For there will be no fighting. There cannot be fighting for this reason : If Home Rule becomes law this cannot be until just before the end of the present Parliament's duration. Home Rule may be on the Statute JJook just before Parliament expires, but before the Act begins to be enforced the General Election will take place. In that election the people of Great Britain will bo asked to say whethei- they approve of the Home Rule Act or not. And if there were any question whatsoever of the Act being rammed down Ulster's, throat with bayonets, there, is no vestige of doubt as to what the result of the election would be. Liberals themselves would not stand such a proposal—they openly say they would not—and the Conservatives would simply sweep the polk. The Conservative Government coming into power would find Home Rule the law of the la.nd, and it would be a difficult matter for them to deprive the Eouth and west of Ireland of this privilege once it had been definitely enacted. That 16_ the reason why the Liberals at all costs wish to see the present Bill made la'w, whatever ha.ppens to it later. What the Conservatives would certainly do would be to exempt the north-eastern counties of Ulster from the Bill. And that is exactly what would happen If the Liberals came back to power after the General Election, because Ulster would by then have automatically set up her own "rebel" Government, and the Liberals would not have, reached power unless they had made it quite clear that their first act-ion on returning would, not be to coerce Ulster by force of arms. In short, it may be taken entirely for granted that although, if the election endorses Home Rule, the English Conservatives a.re bound by their promises to acquiesce, yet if any extreme course were proposed not only the Conservatives but' the Liberals in the House and in the country would fire the Government out of office within 24 hours.