Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, MAY 9. 1913. HOME RULE BY CONSENT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13070, 9 May 1913, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald P UBLISHED E VER Y E VENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, MAY 9. 1913. HOME RULE BY CONSENT.

Th© AU-for-Ireland League is said to be making strenuous efforts to bring about Home Rule by * consent, in other words, by compromise. Mr William O'Brien believes there is a sufficient body of public opinion in Great Britain to make ths much-desired settlement possible in spite of the extremists on either side, and writing to the London Times on Mairch 22, declared tliat "events have made considerable strides on the road to a' harmonious settlement during '

past, week." Judging by the. speeches made in the House of Lords when the -•Home Rule Bill was killed, Mr O'Brien is justified in his expectations. The fact that any legislation which involves such tremendous interests as Home Rule, whether for Ireland, Scotland, Wales or i Yorkshire, cannot be settled on purely party lines has been manifest for sonle time, but the temptation to use the extremists in either party as a check to legislative achievement is too great for even our highest statesmen to resist. Politicians are but human, and the Unionist party in Great Britain can scaroely be blamed for allowing its intense desire to defeat the/Government to predominate when the opportunity given by Mr Asquith's Home Rule Bill was presented. V And from th© Liberal point of view it is pretty well known that j

Asquith does not consider his Bill to be by any means perfect. It is a makeshift by which he is enabled to carry out other legislation. It is a bribe to the Irish

party in the House of Commons. Tlie Post Office and Customs clauses are tine - ..,,,. .., • .u- u _ price that Mr Asquith, against his better judgment, pays and Mr Redmond demands. It is in many ways, however, a sincere desire to settle the Irish ques- ,- , , „ . . , . „ „. tion, and much that is good m the B need not be utterly lost just -because

political exigencies demand this or that of tlie Government of th© moment. It was obvious that the House of Lords — removed more from party influence than the Commons — recognised this. In spite of the stereotyped party speeches made by Lords Lansdowne and Crewe for their •respective paa-ties, Lord Weardale, Lord Curzon, and above all Earl Grey took a. very different line; The Archbishop of Canterbury set the ball rolling by frankly stating that the Home Rule Bill was in some respects excellent, but that he was obliged to. vote against it on account of much that was bad in it. Lord Curzon. avlio has always been considered an inflexible partisan, surprised every one by his statesmanlike summing up of the situation. Earl Grey, nowever, did even more. He spoke from the Imperial point of view and practically told their lordships that to stick to the attitude which had been adopted in the past and refuse to admit any sort- of Home Rule for Ireland was suicidal and stupid/. His speech made a great impression all over the kingdom a-nd from that moment it became clear that a compromise was possible and might eventually ba made. As was .shown in our article on the rejuvenation of Ireland few days ago, Sir Horace Plunkett has revolutionised Ireland by his agriculutral co-operative societies. He has proved conclusively that the Roman Catholic and Protestant farmers can meet in perfectly friendly intercourse over their business affairs. They* work together for the benefit of agriculture and there seems no reason why they should not work together for the benefit of their count

It is a problem that can not be settled by one. party or the other. Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives ha,ve any exclusive right to look upon themselves: as the legislative saviours of Ireland. A round-table conference in which Ulster is represented, as well as the Nationalists, should be capable of finding the happy medium. The Ulsterites would be more ready to compromise if they were not encouraged to -resist any form of local selfgovernment merely for the purpose of embarassing the .Government. It is known to politicians on both sides that! the country as a whole is absolutely sick of the Home Rule question and is more likely at the present juncture to return Mr Asquith' s Government to power than to try Mr Bonar Law. Therefore, if Earl Grey and his friends in the House of Lords can use their influence to get a settlement by consent which can be done merely by amending the present Bill! they will have accomplished much for IIt? Empire and taken a great stride towards federation. "It is kndwn to all-* level-headed men in the Commons," writes Mr Wiilam O'Brien, "that if men on both sides would only say publicly what they think and believe in* their inner forum, a peace conference wojfld liave assembled before a month was over. "With such forces working silently in aJI directions for peace, it is unimaginable that British statesmen with the great traditions of their history in their blood should fail 'before it is too late' to find some way of bridging ovfrr divergences now far less wide than *^ere those they have not hesitated to affront in the cases of Adrianople, Silistria, Sdutari, and the. delimitation of Albania." It has been pointed out that directly the Irish, question is settled the way is open for a gradual devolution of the powers of tlw* House of Commons to smaller bodies or perhaps enlarged county councils. Mr Asquith stated to the House the other day that the Government wished to acknowledge the manner in which the Opposition had worked with him in foreign affairs, and if this is possible to-day when it would have been deemed absolutely impossible only ten years ago, why should people despair of gradually evolving out of the present system a form of government suitable for the -Rrhole Empire!