HOME RULE BILL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12790, 15 June 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOME RULE BILL.

! WINSTON CHURCHILL'S DEFENCE. LONDON, 'May 1. Mr Winston Churchill- rose, at 4.21 m the House of Commons on Tuesday, amid loud Ministerial and Nationalist cheers, to move the second reading of the Home Rule Bill. He said he desired to address to the House on argument from the point of view of a younger member, wiiose active political life lay m the new century, and had no experience of the debates of the 'eighties and 'nineties. They could •contribute the modern eye to the question. The violence of the. Irish movement had been steadily reduced as time had passed. Since iBB6 no scenes of violence had. been witnessed m Ireland more serious than those which had teen seen m connection with lahor disputes m Great- Britain. The. Home Rule movement had been ar. iriodified ana moderating movement, designed to secure the recognition of > Irish claims within the circle of the Empire. Ho did not mean that no Home Ruler had ever made a Separatist speech. (Opposition cheers.) A FEDERATION SCHEME. \ ■ ■---'.-. "I b.elievo it highly probable that the Bill will require a great deal of alteration before we achieve a complete scheme of. federation for the United Kingdomr(Opposition laughter) — but -when the Government spokie of the finality of this question they meant that > they would have reached the end of the quarrel with Ireland." (Ministerial cheers.) "With regard to the;. lrish having cheered the Boers, they were at that time engaged m a great and bitter struggle with this country to obtain their rights, and it cannot be argued that their action when unreconciled would be any guide to their action after a settlement." 'He defied. the Opposition dialectically to conjure up any sets of circumstancees m which the ruin of Britain would not mean the. ruin of Ireland. (Loud Ministerial cheers.) ULSTERfS RIGHTS. "Whatever Ulsters rights may be, she cannot stand ih the .way of the whole of the rest of Ireland. Half a province cannot impose a "permanent veto on a nation, and obstruct for ever a .reconciliation between the British and Irish democracies." Did /Ulster desire to be exempted from the. scope of this, Bill and have a Parliament of its.ov.n? It would be a great disaster to Ireland if the, Protestant North stood aloof from the National Parliament,. The Government sought no quarrel with Ulster. They sougjit to make peace, not war, but Ulster had duties as "well as rights, and there ' was a plain duty laid upon ihe loyalists of Ulster, which they owed, first, to the land of their, birth ; secondly, to their friends and co-religionists m Ireland; and their duty A to . the 'selfgoverning Dominions of ,: the Empire. That duty was to stand by the ship and bring it safely into port. (Loud Ministerial cheers and couriter - Opposition cheers.) It was a sacrifice -that was asked, but a great opportunity was also offered to them, and no words could tell the blessings that Ulster,- had -it m their power to; bestow on t/heir,fellow-country-men, or the fame and hondr they would reap themselves if they would lead Ireland home. (Ministerial 'cheers.)