Hope of Settlement.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 83, 8 December 1913, Page 5

Hope of Settlement.

HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

SPEECH BY MR ASQUITH. [By Eleotkio Telegraph—Copyright] [United Press Association.] London, December 0. hi a speech at Manchester, the Bt. Hon. H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister, said that he is much more hopeful of Home Rule, in view of a prospect of a settlement that would command the consent and goodwill of all parties and would have a sounu basis on the lines suggested in his own speeches at Ladybank and Leeds and in Sir Edward Carson's latest speech.

In las last speech, continued Mr Asquith. Sir Edward Carson had suggested that the humiliation of the minority could be avoided. That was a remark which, he was sure. Sir Edward would agree would also apply to the majority. He agreed with Sir Edward Carson regarding the necessity for avoiding in a lull any possible separatist and anti-federal tendency.

Mi' Asquith endorsed the younger Pitt's declaration that the quality ■most needed in A Prime Minister is not eloquence, knowledge, or industry, but patience, He deprecated short if attractive "cuts" and hurried and precipitate committals. He was not going to he hustled. Mr Asquith denied that in his Leeds speech there was a withdrawal of anything that he had said at Ladybank. He had been vainly looking for weeks for some corresponding and not irreconcilable statement on the Opposition side. He had unexpectedly found it in Sir Edward Carson's latest speech at Manchester, in which Sir Edward declared that no settlement must humiliate or degrade Ulster and that Ireland must not be treated differently from any part of the Kingdom and must have the same protection from the Imperial Parliament, and that r.c il.ill establishing the foundation of an iiltimate separation could be permitted.

"I do not find anything in these general conditions," said Mr Asquith, "with which, on principle, T am disposed to quarrel. Ireland's case is urgent. Tt must come first, but the Imperial Parliament's supreme and unquestionable authority must he retained. The Liberals have supported Home Rule for a generation because they believed that it is not a steppjng-stoue, but a preventative of separation. The .Government is prepared to consider,- with a view to meeting every reasonable objection, any stipulation in the Bill, such as that relating to the Post Office, which the:'Unionists consider lias a separatist and anti-federal tendency. I regard Sir Edward Carson's declaration as a significant and hopeful feature of the situation. I cannot but express my belief—nay, my expectation vnbhat a free and frank discussion on the lines indicated by me at Ladybank and by Sir Edward Carson may lead —as Heaven grant it will—to what nil desire far more than the prolongation of an embittered controversy.

"nme'lv, a settlement com men dine; the consent of all parties. Whether the minority's apprehensions are wellfounded or ill-founded, they exist and are genuinely and deeply felt, and they constitute, until abated or removed, the one formidable obstacle to! self-government." The Daily Telegraph, commenting, on Mr Asquitli'.-; speech, says that] the Government Ims waited until Ulster is armed before believing that Ulster is not bluffing. IMPORTATION OF ARMS. Times—Sydney Sun Special Cables. London, December 6. The Gazette publishes a Royal Proclamation, signed at Thursday's meeting of the Privy Council, prohibiting the importation of arms, ammunition and gunpowder into Ireland. A second proclamation prohibits coastwise carriage of arms, ammunition and gunpowder. Neither applies to articles intended for sporting :ind other unwarlike purposes. The Unionist members of the House of Commons for Belfast have decided to organise a motor service to be placed at the disposal of the suggested provisional Government for the transport of troops in the event of hostilities.

Several papers consider the proclamation regarding importation of arms is belated. The Unionists in Dublin regard the proclamation as the Government's recognition of the seriousness of the situation in Ulster, and as a prelude to all possible steps to avoid the calamity of a civil war.

DEMAND FOR REVOLVERS. A POPQLAR CRAZE. INFLUENCING THE ARMY. London. December 0. h is reported that eighty thousand anus are already stored. A largo number of revolvers has been purchased by Belfast Unionists and Nationalists in the past fifteen months. Revolvers have become a popular craze. One tradesman at Londonderry booked orders last spring for 3000 revolvers.

Government agents, who have been inquiring in Ulster recently, reported that apart from local supplies, ammunition is short. The Unionists of. Ulster claim that sufficient rifles and soveral Maxim guns have arrived. I The Daily Chronicle hope? tlm' 11km proclamation issued by the Privy Council, regarding the importation of i munitions of war into Ireland, will' be promptly followed hy action against'

Army~officers who hereafter use rebellious language. A more outrageous spectacle, it says, was never presented than that of influential Conservatives endeavoring to sap the loyalty and undermine the discipline of the Army. The Chronicle rejoices that the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Selborne and Sir Edward Carson markedly dissociate themselves from such violent anarchical courses. BIG CONSIGNMENT CETS THROUGH. (Received 9 a.m.) London, December 7. The Customs authorities at Belfast detained eighty-nine cases of rifles and bayonets from Liverpool which were consigned to local gun makers, but they were afterwards released. EXPRESSION OF PUBLIC OPINION (Received 9.0 a.m^ London, December 7. The Rr. Hon. Mr F. E. Smith (Unionist M.P. for Liverpool) addressed the Oxford Union chiefly on Home Rule. A resolution of confidence in the Government kvas d»f§at»d b.v Oil to £3B,