LORD CARSON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22709, 23 October 1935, Page 8

LORD CARSON

The death of Lord Carson, which is reported in this morning's issue, removes a notable figure in the political conflict which preceded the granting of Home Rale to Ireland. In that triangular contest in which the British Government was involved at once wilh the Homo Rulers of the South and the Loyalists of Ulster, Sir Edward Carson, as he was then, was one of the principal champions of the right of the North to remain under the direct government of Great Britain. And, although in the end the form which the Irish settlement took removed the Ulster representatives from the House of Commons, he and his supporters were successful to the extent that they saved their compatriots from the domination of the North by the South that would have resulted from a Home Rule Act such as was envisaged by the Irish Nationalist Party in those days when the Home Rule question was an issue which divided British politics. After almost a lifetime of struggle, it was given to Lord Carson to see Ulster prosperous and free and her people as directly the subjects of the King as in the stormy days when they passionately pledged their loyalty to his Majesty befoi'e the war. Lord Carson's career divides itself into two portions. Although shortly after his entry into the House of Commons in 1892 he assisted in the defeat of Gladstone's Home Rule Bill, the greater portion of his energies up to 1911 was given up to his professional work. In those years he achieved a reputation as one of the finest pleaders at the English Bar. His success in influencing iuries was so remarkable that one who had studied his legal career closely said of him that he would sooner be in the wrong with Carson to defend him than in the right with anyone else. When about 1911, after filling the office of Solicitor-general, he emerged as a political figure of importance, with the Irish question again assuming disquieting proportions, it was not as q.n urbane pleader of the rights of Ulster that he commanded attention in Parliament. Himself an AngloIrishman and a Protestant, the issue before the House was to him not one in Avhich political expediency was the

final consideration. With a burning conviction of the righteousness of the cause for which he fought, he attacked with bitter invective any proposal that had the object of compelling Ulster to throw in her lot with the South in a separate Irish Government. Determined, if all other means should fail, to resort, to force to maintain the independence of the Protestants of the North, Lord Carson led a semi-military organisation which at one time seemed on the point of clashing with the regular forces. When the outbreak 6f the war caused all parties to sink their differences in the interest of the common welfare, he devoted his energies to assisting the Government in the vigorous prosecution of hostilities, and was for a time included in the membership of the War Cabinet. Soon after political life had resumed its normal tenor, the passage of Mr Lloyd George's Bill for the reform of the government of Ireland, establishing Parliaments both in Dublin and Belfast, gave Lord Carson and his party all they could reasonably hope to accomplish. And so for him the fight was won. In the course of the struggle violent feelings were engendered, and bitter things were said by those, on both sides in the controversy, who took a part in it. Those who knew him intimately spoke of Lord Carson as a warm friend, an attractive personality, and a hater of shams. He was a great advocate and a tough fighter who deserved well of the Ulster which he served so earnestly.