The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1911. HOME RULE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 97, 7 December 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1911. HOME RULE.

Mr Augustine, Birrell,, the.' Secretary for Ireland; has announced tlia-t i the Home. Rule Bill will he introduced’ in the Imperial Parliament in March next. The scheme of the Government involves the setting up in Ireland of a Parliament consisting of two Chambers, with an Executive that is, a Cabinet of Ministers—responsible to it. It -involves that this Irish Parliaifient; shall have full representative powers and control over purely 1 Irish concerns, ' and that, in considering what those t concerns are, Mr Birrell says the Government will be found taking a wide view, the object being co admit a national demand for national responsibility, and to establish yet another Parliament—for there are already a great number in the Empire —subordinate to the Imperial Parliament, which will be an opportunity, he hoped and believed, in time to come, co bo a training-school for Irish statesmen and for Irish administrators. Proceeding to explain the measure, the Secretary for Ireland tolls us that this Bill is introduced to satisfy the demand by the representatives of tat Overwhelming majority of the Irish* people in Ireland, in England, in Scotland, throughout the Empire, and the world, and that after closely studying Ireland for many years, the main feeling left in his mind was how, aftei all the lighting and revolution and confiscation and menace, after all the penal laws and famines and tithe war:md Coercion Acts, after the destruction of native industries and the yearly drain on the population by emigration, there were still in Ireland foui md a half million people, and how the majority of them still adhered tc their old religion. •• Sucli tenacity of faith was, he believed, almost unexampled in the history of the whole vorld. Among the opponents of Home -tide two great difficulties were talked ibout. They were money and religion. At present the cost of civil government in England, Scotland, and Teland was: In England, 18s 9d per nan; in Scotland, £1 2s 8d; and in •'land, £2 4s Id. If Ireland every .car now got I.V millions more than ••he’contributed, Mr Birrell wondered, “what would Ik; the state of things Wcnty years hence at the same rate? Economies could he effected under Homo Rule, hut if it was refused the expenditure would largely increase. If Home Rule was the true way out of Hie difficulties, then they must face Hie monetary difficulty—face it holdh

"(I in no niggardly spirit.” AVitli regard to tho religions difficulty, Mr Birrell docs not deny its existence.' -dt-hough lie doubted its right to be •oiled ‘religions.’ Most of the people : n Ireland who felt the religions difficulty most strongly wore the very maple who, were Ireland to become Protestant, would be the most enthusiastic Home Rulers. The position was that those people wanted te be in tho ascendency. Nothing bid the spirit of Protestant ascendency had -i”-'von ted Homo Rule from being passed a long time ago. Never in the history of the world had the experiment of self-government failed. Why should it fail in the case of Ireland? Instead of Ireland being a hlot upon

our escutcheon, she would in time he a real integral part of a United Kingdom,” was the concluding statement of the Irish Secretary. Mr Walter Long, M.P., in reply to Mr Birred, takes quite a different view. He sees:—“What was going to he the resole of tiie legislation which Mr Birrcll introduced? The proposal of the Government was not that the Irish people should govern themselves, hot that a majority, who, by their acts, whatever their words, had never yet shown themselves loyal or taken the least patriotic interest in the British Empire, should he allowed to govern a minority who, by acts as well as words, had proved themselves as worthy sons of the Empire as over existed. Mr Long said ho knew Ireland, and lie believed, that there was a great body of men in the North equivalent at this moment in numbers to any army we could put in the field for action if called upon, to fight in any part of the world, and better, lie was sorry to say, than a great portion, of our Army in physique, who were determined that they would not sell .their rights, liberties, and privileges without a struggle.” Therefore it seems that the end is not yet, and the cherished dream of* Homo Pule for Ireland is not yet quite a certainty.

DR. MORRISON RIVALLED. The daring feat of Dr. Morrison, who travelled through China on foot disguised as a Chinaman, has been rivalled by Mr Edwin J. Dingle, an Englishman, who lias just completed an overland journey through China fi'om east to west, starting from Shanghai in March, 1909, and reaching the frontier of British Burma in February, 1910. Proceeding up the Yang-tse Kiang by steamer for a distance of fifteen hundred miles, ho reached the Yangtse Gorges, and travelled thence almost entire on foot for a distance of nearly two thousand miles to the Burma frontier. During his journey through Yunnan he was taken seriously ill, and for several days lay at the point of death, but was nursed in Yunnan, and resided in the interior of China during a period of convalescence of several moqths’ duration. The observations of the author during Ids travels throw much light on the revolution now proceeding' in China, and serve to show that -it was by no means the surprisingly sudden upheaval that it lias seemed to outsiders. For instance, he quotes a paragraph published at Shanghai in June, 1910, which indicates that even at the time the revolution was well in train. “All the Legations at Peking,” it reads, “have received letters from alleged revolutionaries in Shanghai, containing the warning that an extensive anti-dynas-tic uprising is imminent. If they do not assist the Manchus, foreigners will not be harmed, otherwise they will be destroyed in a general massacre. The missives were delivered mysteriouslyj being * obliterated; postmarks In ivipwj of tjhe 'resent sjmilar warnings received by the .Consuls, uneasiness has been created.” In view of those statements, coupled with the fact that a serious rising occurred at Hankow in January of the present year, it is inconceivable that the officials of the Powers having interests in China should have been ignorant that the storm was brewing. The Young China party, unlike the Young Turkey party, made no secret of their intention to throw off the autocratic “old man of the sea,” represented in the one case by Abdul Hamid and in the other by the Manchu dynasty.