THE HOME RULECONVENTION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14446, 5 November 1917, Page 8

THE HOME RULECONVENTION.

1 ■' We do not hear much about the Irish Ctonvention m these days (states a Canadian journal), but it is going on and' may. after ; a few months, produce a draft constitution for Ireland. It is exfe!? f£* afc gr^ at . harm °*y prevailed during the preliminary arrangements, such as the selection of standißg committees. Ulstermen and Nationalists are working together m the desperate attempt to find a basis ol an administration for Ireland m which they can cooperate. If they have recently acquired this common purpose they have also been brought face to face with a common danger and a common domestic enemy. The Sinn Fein is no less the foe of Kfdmond than of Carson. That sudden organisation is hostile to the Convention hostile to the Nationalist party, hostile tcrßedmond and hostile to tho. British Empire. Any scheme of home rule which leaves Ireland associated with England is hateful to the Sinn Fein. In four recent elections candidates of this party have been returned, and m every case a Nationalist was defeated. Thus a new line of party division has been established m Ireland and the Nationalists are fighting for the 'life of their party. This common peril must have brought the Irish Nationalists and the Ulster coyena liters closer together. The question is whether both together can hold their own against this frankly disloyal element that is winning* all the elections, andat the same time planning and de-claring-war against Great Britain. The other day the Sinn Fein was m rebellion. The traitors . who were convicted and afterwards released are unrepentant.

They say, and have proved, that they are ready to take help from and give help j to Germany. Yet m spite of both Car- i son and Redmond the people of Ireland I elect them to Parliament. j Let us suppose that, assisted by this • menace, the Nationalists and Unionists are able to agree on a constitution for Ireland, and that ; a home rule measure is enacted. Where is the assurance of , peace m the face of the Sinn Fein party's : present and future activities? There will ; still be a divided Ireland, still an ir- ! reconcilable party. The only prospect of peace is based on the hope that the Sinn Fein movement is a passing phase, j and that the organisation will go to pieces as rapidly as it has come to its popularity. : j