HOME RULE CRISIS

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12756, 31 March 1914, Page 2

HOME RULE CRISIS

KING'S COUNSEL. MODERATION URGED. A HINT TO MINISTERS. LONDON, yesterday. Tho Sunday Times states that after the King had conferred with Lord Roberts the latter, acting at tb« King's request, laid his views on the Army difficulty before Colonel Seely and General French. The King, while maintaining a strictly constitutional attitude, made it clear to the Ministers that with liim lay the final appeal and counselled moderation without resort to desperate measures. The King took counsel with the moderates of both parties. GERMANY'S FRIENDSHIP. A JOURNALIST'S STATEMENT. LONDON, yesterday. Mr E. Harold Spender, of the Daily News and Leader, speaking at Cambridge said he believed the German Government kept the British Government informed regarding orders for ammunition and rifles sent to German firms by the rebels at Ulster. Thus Germany was a better friend to Britain than those so-called patriots.

TWO FUNDS. LONDON, yesterday. The Union Defence League fund is now £70,000. Mr Walter Morrison, ex-member of the House of Commons, has offered £IO,OOO towards the fund for offiors deprived of their pensions. > COLONEL SEELY. LONDON, yesterday The Times, in a leader, states: We have still to hear what the Dominions and Crown colonies will say about the reported proposal that Colonel Seely, Secretary for War, should be unloaded upon them. WARSHIPS' MOVEMENTS. LONDON, yesterday. The second battle squadron of the Home Fleet has been ordered to Bantry Bay, in pursuance of orders issued early in March. CAUSE OF DEMOCRACY. AND POLITICAL ENGINEERING. LONDON, yesterday. Mr W. Runciman, President of the Board of Agriculture, speaking at Cambridge, said had the Government given way to the Army officers' dictation they would have abandoned the cause of democracy more basely than if they assumed the cloak of autocracy. Those who had politically engineered the trouble would be the first to regret it if it taught the people to examine the whole Army organisation.

COLONIAL OPINION. ACCORDING TO MR REDMOND. LONDON, yesterday. Mr William Redmond, in a letter to the Westminster Gazette, says: "The vast majority of Australia, New Zealand and Canada favour Home Rule. If Parliament's will is set at naught it will cause the utmost indignation over seas." Mr Redmond asks: "How many officers have resigned rather than aid Irish evictions?" A UNIONIST'S SCORN. ARBITRAMENT OF THE SWORD JUSTIFIED. LONDON, yesterday. The Rt. Hon. F. E. Smith, Unionist, speaking at the Imperial League, said a supreme crisis had arisen which justified appealing from the despotism of a corrupt Parliament to the arbitrament of the sword. That alone justified the steps taken by Ulster, for which the Unionist party and more than half the representatives of Ireland were responsible. He scornfully diated the suggestion that Unionists had tampered with the Army. I CABLES TO MR REDMOND. 1 SYDNEY, to-day. Mr W. A. Holman, Premier, has cabled Mr Redmond that Australian opinion wholly condemns the disappointment and delay, and hopes the Irish people will make Ireland a united nation. Mr Meagher, Speaker in the House of Representatives, has cabled: "Absolutely opposed to the exclusion of Ulster and the consequent pernicious severance of our people.