Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28, 1914. THE POSITION OF HOME RULE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13290, 28 January 1914, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28, 1914. THE POSITION OF HOME RULE.

In our cable neAvs to 7 day it is stated tliat within the next fortnight the House of Commons Avill be face to face%Avith a great national crisis. Reading the remarks of the opposing leaders on the great Home Rule question one is dismayed at the prospect before the nation, if it Avere not, as Avas remarked m these columns a few weeks ago that the conviction comes that sound British common sense Avill, as it has frequently done m periods of national stress, find a AA'ay out of the difficulty and bring everytlung to a safe and satisfactory ending. Meamvhile Mr Asquith is declaring that he is as "firm as a rock m his intention to pass the *• Home Rule Bill into law, and Mr Bonar Law has given his last word that the .Unionists Avill stand by their pledge to assist Ulster m its campaign -of resistance. The actual material result of the Ulster agitation of the last twelve months, it is pointed out by a AA'riter m the Sydney Daily Telegraph, is that a nullion pounds has been subscribed or promised to the movement. There could not be a more remarkable confession of the fictitious character of the- agitation. In any organised attempt to prevent the realisation of Home Rule a hiillion pounds Avould be a mere grain of sand on the seashore. Think of the~ many millions that were spent' m the Balkans ! But Avhat is more, surprising is that' not only these subscriptions, but the open instigations to revolutionary violence j the frank avowals of sympathy i with suggested rebellion, the attempts to create Ac material for an /irmed body to resist the military and naval forces of the CroAvn, should have,- their origin and receive- their inspiration from the .Conservative party. Any effort, whether organised or not, to stop theapplication ?of self-government to Ireland .after it has <jnce received the sanction of the Imperial Parliament is as undisguised revolt against the King as Avould be an elaborated scheme to set up another Government m opposition to the one which exists throughout the British dominions. It is the claim of the Unionists that the seditious orations and tlie reckless methods that have been adopted ostensibly * to check Homo Rule are justified until the constitutional de-' parture haa been-\ sanctioned, by a general election, but the Sydney Avriter points out that at the last elections m the United Kingdom it*Avas one of the cliief cries of the Unionists m the campaign against the .Government and its financial and social, reforms that the re* turn of the Liberals .'to power would mean the granting of Home Rule to Ireland. The public 'was 'warned, indeed^, that any interference .with the' pOAvers of the House of Lords Avould in-., volve the ultimate passage of^ the Irish self-government bill.' This . Avas never, denied by the Liberal party. * The /Parliament Bill passed m order' tliat a succession of constitutional and -legislative changes that had for years been made impossible by the Peers might, at length be dealt Avith m the spirit m Avhich they had been sanctioned a I general elections. Home Rule for Ir-daincj Avas one of the measures which the Parliament Bill Avas . specially intended : to meet. If every measure of this kind..' after it had been passed more thai* once »i by the House of Commons, Avas to be : held back for another general election because* the Lords refused to pais oreven to deal Avith it, tho whole purpose for Avhich the House of Lords has had its veto powers clipped would, bo- defeated. The calmness, tho patience the conciliatoriness Avith Avhich the Bvitish Government has faced the crisis that has. been created to embarass and confuse it, and deflect it from the course Avhich it has has marked out for itself, and for Avhich it has received the endorsement of the elected representatives of the people, will, it may be assumed, mark its' attitude to tho end. From tha.beginning of the struggle it has beeh pre- 1 pared to listen to every suggestion for ' meeting tihe special circumstancos of Ulster. It is inconceivable that the Government could give way on the ■ treatment of Ulster, unless an acceptable scheme conld be submitted to it; The ' obligation is on the Conservative minpr- \ ity pf the House of Commons to submit : suqh a -scheme. ..If . a workable compromise, acceptable to both parties, is ,

effected, there will be unfeigned joy m every part of the Empire. But the Government cannot give up the main principle of its policy. Tlie Government's policy has been endorsed by the people already, and to appeal to it repeatedly, even on serious constitutional changes, Avould involve an abandonment of responsibility and a weak surrender . to opposition, opposition too, accompanied with threats of violence that would be destructive to parliamentary government. It is interesting to take an outside and presumably unprejudiced view of the situation and some remarks by the San Francisco Argonaut are Arbrth quoting. "It is unthinkable," says that paper, "that Ulster should offer a resistance more serious than a large riot, and especially m view of the fact that more than half of the people of Ulster herself are Home Rulers. To those unfamiliar with Irish history the rebellion of Ulster must be an enigma. The neAv Irish Parliament Avill have powers considerably less than those of an American board of supervisors. Every conceivable chance, to oppress has oeen foreseen and guarded against/'. And yet it is impossible to doubt the reality of horrified indignation with Avhich- a portion of Ulster regards the rearrangement, of the passion Avith Avhjch it is repudiated". The solution of the problem is, of course, to be found m tradition and m the inherited hates of centuries. The Ulster Protestants are of another race and another! blood. The : racial consciousness, > both North and South, is scorched red with the memory of raids and massacres i and the almost inextinguishable hatreds of generations of barbarous persecutions and outrages. Actually it is not the Home Rule Bill that arouses the rage of Ulster. It is a senso of defeat at the end of five hundred years of struggle. 'It is not the Home Rule Bill that awakens the triumphs of the South. It is. the sense of success after- centuries of Bloodstained effort. The hew bill is ,hardly more than an emblem or a flag. The men Avho applaud or denounce it are thinking of the past, riot of the future. It is an attitude hard to appreciate m a country Avhere the past is but yesterday and eternally separated from to-morrow hy expectations and by hope." There is this however, to remember and to reassure us m the (present most critical situation that nearly every great struggle has had to reach its close mid threats' of discord and civil strife, or gloomy prophesies of disaster and decay, but the strong sense of the people has almost invariably triumphed, . the fears liaA'e vanished m the presence of the Teality ; .and the onward march of the race has . proceeded unaffected by disturbing memories of the. past.