IRISH PROBLEM

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 3628, 7 November 1918, Page 3

IRISH PROBLEM

DEBATE IN THE COMMONS

In the House of Commons, MiO'Connor moved that Britain should not attend the Peace Conference until it applied the principle of self-de-termination of small nations to Ireland.

Mr Asquith urged that before Britain entered the Conference she should give an assurance that Ireland will not be behind any of our selfgoverning Dominions.

Mr Sbortt, Secretary for Ireland, said the failure in Ireland was shared by the Irish m well as by the English. He asked the Nationalists to tell the House what settlement they would accept.

Mr Bonar Law said he had listened to Mr Asquith with amazement. It was preposterous to claim that the British Empire should not take part in the Peace Conference until it had settled the Irish question. The Conference had no right to deal with the matter.

The motion was altered to read, "In view of the approach of a Peace Conference, the Irish question should be settled in accordance with President Wilson's principle of self-determina-tion, for which the Allies are ostensibly fighting." The motion was rejected by 196 to 115.