HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 74, 18 July 1914, Page 2

HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

To the Press, Mr John Redmond, M.P., made tlie following statement with reference Lo lie Homo Rule I>i)j : "To-day's division marks the death, after an inglorious history of 114 years, of the Union of I'tt and Oastieicagh That Union, the cause <-l Ireland's poverty, misery, depopulation and de-moralisation—-tho cause o' fun.hie, insurrection and liioocUmod, and of the disloyalty of the Irish people through out the world—js dead, and its phi * is to be taken by a nov union, founded on mutual respoot and goodwill, between the two i«]andg, and to he followed, I firmly believe, by the history of peace, prosperity and loyalty. The Union, as we have known it, is dead. That, at any rate, is be>ond doubt or question after to-day's divi sion. "I am not quite sure that everybody quite understands that today's division is equivalent to '.he passage of the Home Hide Bill, into law. Vet this is strictly true. There are only two eventualities—and both of them nrc iinpsssiWe—.Which could possibly

prevent the Home Rule Bill actually becoming a statute, in a few weeks' time. The first is that the present session of Parliament should come to an abrupt end before one month frora this date—an utterly unthinkable proposition—and the other is that the House of Commons should suddenly go mad and pass a resolution to the effect that the Bill should, not be presented for the Royal Assent. In the absence of these two absurd contingencies the Bill must automatically become law. The House of Lords have no power to stop—and even the Government have no power to prevent—it going in the ordinary course for the Royal Assent to the Throne. The Parliament -Act provides that the Bill shall be presented for the Royal Assent." THREATS OF CONSPIRACIES. "Nor wore prophecies of evil the >nly ones put forward to alarm and deceive our people during the last few years. It is impossible to forget the threats repeatedly made, not only in the English newspapers, but by Parliaucntary leaders—notably by Mr Bonar [, aw —that if an attempt were made to ?arry the Home Rule Bill a third time in the House of Commons the Parliamentary machine would be smashed. 11l these threats have vanished into thin air, and the Bill has passed. It s also impossible to forget the extraordinary odds against which we have been fighting for the last two years, md especially for the last six months. He have had the entire power and .vealth and secret influence of the aristocracy of this country opposed to us. We have had many hundreds of thousands of pounds of money spent in the opposition of Home Rule. We have had the action of a section of the army ivhich the Morning Post had declared 'killed the Home Rule Bill.' We have had the entire Conservative Press devoting itself without stint to magnifying every supposed obstacle to Home Rule and to misrepresenting our cause. We have had to submit without reply to gross misrepresentation, not only in Great Britain, but, I am sorry to •say, in Ireland. Notwithstanding all these things we have won out. THE AMENDING BILL. "It is true we are faced with the prospect of what is called, or rather miscalled, the 'Amending Bill.' Let there be no mistake about this. No amendment in the Bill is called for, sifcher by the Government themselves, or by the Irish party. We believe that the Bill is a good workable Bill, and that it is a charter of liberty for the Irish people. But we are practical politicians, and, I hope, men of sense, and we all recognise that it is worth oaying a, great price to ensure that Home Rule will come into operation amidst universal goodwill, and to prevent its being heralded by civil commotion of any kind.

"1 take this opportunity, on the third and final passage of the Home Rule Bill to express the most earnest hope that now when everybody in Ulster, as elsewhere in Ireland, has to face the indisputable fact of Home Rule and a Home Rule Parliament, those of our fellow-countrymen who are nervous as to their-position, will abandon unreasonable demands and enter into a conciliatory discussion with their fellow-countrymen upon points of the Bill upon whih they would desire further safeguards. I say, on behalf of the Nationalists of Ireland that, wo desire their co-operation and friendship, and I appeal to them in all parts of Ireland to join hands with us in making the Home Rule settlement one that ensure the prosperity and freedom of all classes in the country. If the Amending Bill contains the terms of agreement whereby some of our fellow-countrymen in the North, who are to-day dissatisfied and nervous about the future, may be conciliated, and does not outrage the fundomental principles of tho Home Rule settlement, I am convinced that every Nationalist in Ireland will rejoice. If the 'Amending Bill' does not contain an agreement,! can see no prospect of it becoming law, and in any case,failing agreement,the Irish Party have made it plain that their hands are quite free to deal with any proposals that may be made. "The great thing for us to remember is that, ■ 'Amending Bill or no Amending Bill," the Home Rule Bill is now practically an Act of Parliament. People talk of the possibility of a General Election before the Bill actually comes into operation. Portions of the Bill will come into operation the day it receives the Royal Assent. Other portions of the Bill must necessarily come into operation gradually, and, at the best, months must elapse before it can possibly be in full working order, with a Parliament actually sitting in Dublin. I see no likelihood whatever of an early General Election. But General Election or no General Election—the return once more of the Liberal Party to power or the return—most unlikely—of the Tory Party to power —the Union of Pitt and Castlereagh can never be again set upon its feet, and tho Assembling of an Irish Parliament under the provisions of the Home Rule Bill is .'is certain as the rising of to-morrow's sun."