ULSTER CRISIS

Southland Times, Issue 17642, 4 May 1914, Page 5

ULSTER CRISIS

tHE GON-BPNNBBS. -. NOT TO BE PROSECUTED. ■ FEDERAL SYSTEM SUGGESTED. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright - LONDON, May 1. The -Morning Post (U.) states on good authority that the Cabinet on Monday last decided to prosecute Captain Craig, M.P., Major McCalmont; M.P-, and others for gun-running, but rescinded their decision on Thursday. ' The Dally Chronicle (G.) confirms tills statement. There Is much speculation as to the Government’s action. It is rumoured that i they will offer a commission, composed of all parlies, to consider a Federal system for the United Kingdom, and that it shall bo to fix at date by common consent whereon Federalism . shall operate. -There will thus be a time limit, on which ■ the Nationalists insist,-- but meantime the Irish Parliament must have an opportunity to prove its capacity. Mr Redmond and his colleagues refuse to be’ Interviewed, owing to the delicacy of tlie situation. The - Irish Times states that Mr Asquith, Mr Redmond, Sir E. Carson, and Lord Lansdowne are re-opening.- their conversations immediately. ” At the meeting of the Primrose League at the Albert Hall, Lord Curzon, who presided, said that for weeks the country had been trembling on the verge of civil war, and if. it had escaped it was owing to tii© self-restraint and unconquerable resolution of Ulster and Sir ECarson's splendid leadership. Lord Lansdowne. in his speech, emphasised the fact that the exclusion of Ulster meant as long as Ulster desired, and. as regards the Federal solution, the country might expect to be asked to give a mandate. EXCLUSION OF ULSTER. A UNIONIST ATTITUDE. . A GENERAL ELECTION. "WOULD NOT SOLVE DIFFICULTY.

LONDON, May. 2. Received May ", 5.5 p.m. Lord Lansdowne states that the proposal for the exclusion of Ulster for six years is grotesque. It must be understood that if the Unionists entertained the proposals based on Home Rule and the exclusion of Ulster they were not abating anything in their dislikes or objection to Home Rule. They were ready to examine any federal scheme provided that it was a scheme in which Ulster could find an honourable place, and a scheme consistent with the interests of the rest of the United Kingdom. Meanwhile Ulster was safe, and was not going to retire from her position. The Government would not attempt to drive her from it, and Hiat was the only solid foot of ground m the Irish quagmire. The general election, which was not far distant would not solve the difficulty, though probably it would facilitate a solution. MOVEMENT OF TROOPS. PURELY ROUTINE WORK. LONDON, May 2. Major-General Sir Cecil Macrcady, who was recently appointed magistrate of Antrim and Down, and who is in charge of the police at Belfast, in an interview, said that the movement of troops at present contemplated were purely one of routine. FIRE IX BELFAST. ■ OPERA HOUSE ABLAZE. G UN- RUXXI NO PROSECUTIONS ABANDONED. LONDON. May 3. Received May 4. 12.25 a.m. The Belfast Opera House and Hippodrome adjoining are ablaze and it is feared that they will be destroyed. The prosecution of Ulsterites in connection with the gun-running incident has been abandoned owing to Nationalist representations. SIR EDWARD CARSON. MESSAGE TO THE DOMINION. During his recent visit to England the well known New Zealand pressman; Mr Malcolm Ross, had the privilege of an interview with Sir Edward Carson at liis house in London After a chat Mr Ross asked Sir Edward for a message to the people of New Zealand and the Ulster leader dictated the following—"I am glad to have the opportunity of meeting you to send a brief message to those loyal men in Australia and New Zealand, who, I know from many communications —and. indeed, from tiie substantial and material support we have received from them at different times — are watching our struggles in Ireland to maintain our position as citizens of the United Kingdom under the Imperial Parliament. I am anxious, above all things, that they should understand that we abate not one jot or tittle of our loyalty to the Crowh and of our pride in the Empire over which the Crown rules. However we may be misrepresented. the fact remains that we tire fighting no selfish battle for any personal gain or interrst. Our case is a plain and simple one. We were invited into'the union of the United Kingdom under which the Empire has grown and flourished. Since we entered the union as citizens under a common King we have done our best in-times of stress and difficulty to prove ourselves worthy of our citizenship, and at no moment of the kingdom's difficulties have we ever held back in any way from making our contribution in lives and money in the common cause of our country. Under the union we have built up a great industrial prosperity unsurpassed by any part of the United Kingdom, and we have done so because we have gratefully accepted such laws as the Imperial Parliament passed, and have worked under them to the best of our ability. “We desire In the future that our great Industrial democracy should go on marching shoulder to shoulder with the democracy of Great Britain in the great social and industrial progress that is dailv developing through the efforts of tii© imperial Parliament. We have never claimed, and we do not now claim, any ascendency of anykind whatsoever, and our motto is equal justice for all under the United Kingdom. We seek to govern no one. and are willing to be governed through the composite forces of the whole kingdom. We claim that no power exists that can drive us out from our community in which we were born, and to which'we have given no grounds of complaint as to our loyalty or our conduct. We do not believe that a Parliament in Dublin can do anything for us that cannot be far better done by the Imperial Parliament, and we say that if the Imperial Parliament does, under such circumstances, for the, first time in history. desire to put us outside their community. they have no right whatsoever to hand us over to the government of others, who have never shown any qualifications for adminLvtering a great industrial community. Indeed, the whole power of those who demand Home Rule has arisen not from loyalty or from any administrative competence, but from their perpetual declaration of disloyalty to the Empire, and their determination to thwart the efforts of the Imperial Parliament, which we gratefully ackuqledge have been directed, certainly in recent vears. to the progress and development of our beloved country. We do not believe that any other community throughout the whole British Empire would, under similar conditions, accept the degraded position which we have been offered, but would, as we are doifig resist to the end any such attempt to deprive them of their full rights of citizenship. We do not allege, as is so untruthfully stated, that a minority has the right to resist the law Just because they dislike it. On the contrary, we say that so long as we live under the Constitution, we are bound to obey the law and we have always acted on this principle. . But we do say that there is a corresponding duty on the part of those who govern the community to take care thataaoU the rights and privileges which goW citizens have Inherited shall be maintained intact for them. I desire to send, loyal greetings to all thinking men in the Commonwealth and in New Zealand, and 1 pray to them to judge us not by garbled misrepresentations of our actions, but to remember** tllat our one ambition is to remain as we are, and go forward with them in the progress of our race