HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

Mataura Ensign, 17 January 1914, Page 7

HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

"CIVIL WAR INEVITABLE." BI ELECTBIC TELEGRAPH COPYBIGHT. l-lil UNII'EI) PlibSS A.BSOO|AT)OIM. LONDON, Jan. 15. Speaking at Bristol Mr Bonar Law . (Leader of the Opposition) declared that 1 the position of Ulster was far more 6erious than the Government or the country realised. They were drifting inevitably to a civil war, which would [ shatter the whole fabric of national existence. There had been conversations between the parties, but without result. The Government desired a peaceful solution of the problem and the position , under which they held office made u impossible for them to take the only step that would afford a peaceful solution. If the Government went on, the issue could not be decided without bloodshed. The Unionist Party was pledged to support Ulster, and with the help ot the Almighty they intended to keep that pledge. i

OUTSPOKEN LEADER. LONDON, Jan. 16. Mr Bonar Law, continuing, said that if the Government could make a proposal to do away with the prospect of, civil war the Opposition was ready to consider it, with a real desire to accept it, if possible, without any sacrifice of national interest or honor. He thought from the speeches of Hon. Winston Churchill, Sir E. Grey and Hon. H. H. Aequith at Ladybank that the Government was prepared to face the facts, but at the first whisper of a conference the Nationalist leaders demanded their pound of flesh. When party discipline was so rigid and passions so strong that party interests are preferred to national interests the danger to the State was grave indeed. That position was now reached. The Government knew that if an appeal were made to the people to-day a ver-' diet would be given against them. The ■ wlork for which they had sacrificed; everything, including their dignity and ' the traditions of the House of Com- j mons, would be all in vain. That was a | humiliation to which no party leader should submit. The obligation which the party had incurred to the Nationalists was not precisely a debt of honor, but it weighed heavily with the Government. They could be true to their allies only by being false to the country. The Unionists maintained that Parliament had the right to govern Ulster, but not to sell j them to slavery. If the Government ceased to act as a! constitutional Government of free peo-1 pie there were tyrants who had lost the ] light of that obedience upon' which all I governments exist. British troops were j to be used to shoot the loyalists in or-1

der to pay a debt to meri who rejoxed ! over our national misfortunes, insulted [ the Sovereign and vilified the Army, i Such an order ought not to be given' by the Government, but by the declared I will of the whole of the British people. If the Government feared a general election it could secure a clear issue by a referendum, and the Unionist party would bow to that decision. CHANCELLOR'S REPLY.

LONDON, Jan. 16. j Lord Haldane, speaking at Hoxton, deprecated discussing the Ulster negotiations from public platforms. Bfe declined to despair of a rational people reaching something approaching a common denominator, even if Mr Bonar Law's speech had proved not encouraging. A good deal of time remained for people to talk of civil war in Ulster, but they should think of a civil war oxi tending oyer the whole of Ireland. War was certain, if "the cup for which Ireland had waited for 26 years was snatchjed from her lips."