IRISH HOME RULE

Evening Star, Issue 15537, 6 July 1914, Page 6

IRISH HOME RULE

THE NATIONALIST VOLUNTEERS. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. Press Association—By Telegraph—-Copyright. LONDON, July 4. Captain Fitzgerald Lombard has resigned his command of the Nationalist volunteer battalion at Kingstown. He argues that the volunteers are leadevlcss as far as highly-trained officers are. concerned, and 'that an immediate General Election will be in the 'best interests of all concerned. He also hopes that the Unionist and Nationalist volunteers will form the beginning of a regular TerritoriaHorco. GREAT MEETING IN LONDON. SIR E. CARSON "oN THE POSITION. "ULSTER MUST BE UNHAMPERED." LONDON, July 5. (Received July 6, at 9.30 a.m.) Sir E. Carson addressed 10.000 people at Hcrne Hill (London). The Ulster leader said that he assumed that Ministers, as honest men. would explain to the King when thev asked him to sign the Home Ruie Bill "that his signature would cause a civil commotion in the North of Ireland, and that the withholding of his signature would cause a similar commotion in the South and West. If Ulster ever went with, the Irish Government it would be of her own free will, and net at the bayonet's point, Ulster wanted no makeshift Government, no sexennium limit, and no county limit. SIGNIFICANT. LONDON, July 5. (Received July 6, at 9.30 a.m.) The South Belfast Regiment of Ulster Volunteers marched through the streets ot Belfast carrying their lies with bayonets fixed. PRELATES AND POLITICIANS. SYDNEY. July 6. The Anglican Archbishop and the Dean of Sydney, in letters to the Press, defend themselves against the criticisms of Mr Griffith, State Minister of Public Works, in connection with their petition against the proposed coercion of Ulster. THE TRUTH ABOUT IRELAND. MANCHESTER DEPUTATION'S REPORT. A deputation of four Liberals and four Unionists, who left. Manchester at the bediming of May to study the Home Rule question in Ireland, have now issued their report. It is of a remarkable character in many respects. Some of the conditions arrived at are given as follows: In Cork and district we had ample proof that boycotting still exists—farms we visited being actually under police protection—and in one case there were five constables protecting the life and property of the occupant, a Nonconformist farmer. The few Unionists who met us seemed actually afraid to be seen talking to him. In Dublin we saw slums of incredible squalor, in which thousands of people exist in filthy tenements which would never be permitted to exist in any town in Great Britain. The rates here are lis 5 J d in tho £ without education rates, as against Manchester rates averaging &» 27-10 d, which include education rates. In Sligo the rates are lis in the £. Hero again boycotting exists. No Unionist is employed l ,v the corporation. We next visited Enniskillen, where the Nationalists have not been in power for 300 years. The rates are as low as 4s 3d, and "for this amount we found well-made and well-kept streets, clean houses, and a beautiful park, in contrast to the filthy, uneven streets and general squalor of Sligo. From the condition of nationalist towns, we are convinced that tho local selfgovernment is so bad as to prove that those in authority are not capable of properly controlling and governing national expenditure. Belfast greatly surprised and impressed us. With rates at 6s lid in the £, this city, with many of the greatest industries in "the world, with wide, well-paved and well-kept streets, gave many evidences of prosperity and efficient government, and proved to be in very decided contrast to the towns where Nationalists have tho administration of affairs. We were impressed most of all by the absolute sincerity and resolute determination of menliberals, Nonconformists, Trade Unionists —who have dropped all party, denominational, or trade differences, in order to present- a solid and unbroken resistance to Home Rule.

In conclusion, we beg to state clearly and distinctly that the great wish of all these loyal people is "Leave us alone. What is good enough for England is good enough for us."

A party of four Stirlingshire gentlemen, who visited Ireland during May for the purpose of ascertaining at firet hand whether a demand really exists in that country for Homo Rule, attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of Stirlingshire Unionist Association in Stirling on Saturday. Three of the party are we'll known "in the county as prominent supporters of Radicalism. The Unionist, member of the party was Mr Alfred Crocket, cleTk, Gillespie terrace, Larbeit; while the Radical members were Messrs James Stevenson, mining contractor, Gowan place, Bannockburn; Alexander Cramond, foreman ship carpenter, Talbot street, Grangemouth.; and James Williamson, foreman iron moulder, Stirling street, Denny. The party visited both the south and the north of Ireland. —" Quite Sick."— Mr Cramond eaid he had looked forward to the tour in Ireland with pleasure, but he assured those present that it was not a trip of pleasure at all; it proved to be one of the saddest journeys 'he had ever undertaken. When he heard the sad stories and saw the actual etate of affairs in Ireland he was quite sick. They had interviewed numbers of boycotted farmers, and thenstories were sad indeed. Mr Cramond said he had gone to Ireland a Radical, but he had come back with changed opinions. Anything he could do to help to light Home Rule would be done. i Mr Williamson said the one thing thathad struck him on his vkit to Dublin was the dirt. Dublin was the dirtiest town he had ever seen. Travelling from the South to the North of Ireland, they could see that things were better managed in the North. While in Ireland they could never £i>t a Nationalist to speak about Home Rule. Tho fact of the matter was that the Nationalists were afraid to speak -Tut what was in their minds. The Nationalists were under the heel of the priests, and they had simply to do what the.v were told. —A Sad State of Affairs.— Mr Stevenson referred to the superstitious nature of the Irish people. On one occasion, he said, they were passing through a town where there was a cathedral. At this cathedral, 6d, 3d, 2d, and Id were charged for admission at different doors. Outside the building there were about 100 men standing who had been unable to pay. These men supposed that by standing there they would get an amount of spiritual good little less than those, who paid one penny for admissi.cn. What be had seen in Ireland almost made his hair stand on end. It was a very sad state of affairs. He had gone to Ireland a staunch Liberal, but as a result of what he bad seen his opinions were ehan-ged. Mr Crocket said that throughout their journeys, wherever they found Unionist administration, things were in a most prosperous way. In the North of Ireland there were greater improvements on the land ' than in the South, the houses were tidier, and there was more industry in the North than in the South. SIR PLAIN • DECLARATIONS. Speaking at the Queen's Hall, London, the Ulster Leader said, that he had heard a. groat deal about '' offers" and. counter iofier*. He told them, that no offer and

no counter offer had been made of any kind, except what he heard in the House of Commons, an offer which he reje:til as a hypocritical sham, and for whi'Vi, if it was made to him again, he would try and find some more forcible term. _ "'Vve are not out for a settlement. We an hot afraid. I don't want civil war, it is a. horrible thing—it is almost a savage thing in the present century and in a civibs'ul race; but if they drive us to it wj wi : ! take the consequences like men." (Cheers.) He told them plainly it was who would shirk it; it was the Government. The case was unarguable. The moment they turned it into a crime to fight for the unity of the United Kingdom the matter would not rest with the United Kingdom. It would come out through the whole Empire that men had been prosecuted; and prosecuted for what ? For thoir loyalty to the King and the Constitution. All he could say was that when they had turned that into a crime he would be proud to be put in the dock as the first criminal they prosecuted. (Loud cheers.) Let the Government avoid civil war. For his part he sincerely and devoutly hoped that they would, and nobody could say otherwise, but he told them this, and he said it with all sincerity, and . with the full knowledge of the responsibility that rested upon himself : If the Unionists were to join with the Radicals, and were to come forward with a programme that Ulster must have a Home Rule Bill, Ulster would say "Never" —(cheers) —and the Government knew perfectly well that they were up against that situation. WHAT THE POET OF EMPIRE SAYS. Speaking at a recent anti-Home Rule meeting at Tunbridge Wells (Eng.). Mr Rudyard Kipling declared that the Homo Rule Bill broke the faith of the generation. It officially recognised conspiracy and rebellion, and subsidised tho forces of boycott, outrage, intimidation, and murder, and created an independent stronghold in which all those forces could work together. The Government got into such a position that it became necessary to put someone out of the way to get straight, and Ulster was to be put out of the way; but they made one mistake. They gave the officers the choice of causing a collision with the people of Ulster and shedding their blood, or resigning their pay and throwing up their position. The officers, to their eternal glory, decided to give up their positions rather than save the position for the Cabinet, and so they saved the Empire. MR KIPLING'S POEM ON THE COVENANT. To the first number of the ' Covenanter,' the organ of the League of British Covenanters, Mr Kipling contribute* the following poem, which is copyright in the United States of America: —■ THE COVENANT. We thought we ranked above the chan;e ci ill. Others might fail, not we, for we were wise Merchants in freedom. So of out- 'recwill We let our servants drug our strength with lies. The pleasure and the poison had its way On us as on the meanest, till we learned That he who lies will steal, who steals will slav. Neither God's judgment nor mans heart "was turned.

Yet there remains His mercy—to be sought Through wrath and peril while we cleanse

the wrong By that last right which our forefathers claimed When their Law failed them and its stewards were bought. This is our couse. God help us, and

make strong Our wills to meet Him later, unashamed