THE ULSTER "IRRECONCILABLES.”

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15511, 11 January 1911, Page 8

THE ULSTER "IRRECONCILABLES.”

Thu vehement declarations of a few public men in the Mother Country have not obscured the fact that the mass of the British people have ceased to regard Home Rule for Ireland as a step towards the- downfall of the Empire. Even the most determined of the Unionist loaders and newspapers failed during the recent election contest to lash themseh es into their old condition of burning indignation against ‘ 1 Parnellism ” and all its ways. It is not surprising, therefor©, to find Dr G. B. Clark, an ex-member of the House of Commons, stating in Sydney that he does not think there will be further serious opposition to tho granting of Home Rule except from the " irreconcilables of Ulster.” These exceptions are, of course, people quite apart. Their representatives mot in conference at Belfast lato in November, and an unofficial account of their proceedings indicated that they wore making a bold effort to convince the electors that the political situation was alarming. The delegates decided, it was reported, to resist under arms Homo Rulo should it be forced upon Ireland " by any Radical or coalition Government of Nationalists and Socialists.” They pledged themselves not to pay taxes to any Parliament sot up in Dublin and they invited subscriptions to a fund “ for t-lio provision of arms of defence to be kept in rendiness in case the loyalists in Ireland had to fight for their liberties.” At a great meeting of Unionists a motion was carried declaring that the Unionists of Ulster would feel themselves justified in resorting to “ any means that might be found necessary to enable them to preserve unimpaired their equal citizenship in the United Kingdom.” But the threats to plunge Ireland into civil war were uttered in the heat of an election campaign, at a time when men might be pardoned some indiscretion in the choice of platform weapons, nnd it is not at all probable that the Ulster Unionists are still "seeing red” whenever thoy discuss political developments. The great majority of them, at any rate, must understand that no one has proposed to hand them over to the dominion of a foreign ruler or indeed to diminish by one iota their rights and privileges as citizens of tho Empire.