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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 118, 24 June 1914, Page 6

The Amending Bill which lias been introduced for the purpose of meeting to some extent the objections of Ulster to Home Rule leaves the Irish situation pretty much where it was before. According to "The Times," 'which is less guarded in ''its language since the Harmsworth faction obtained control of its policy, the "Bill extinguishes the last faint hopes of peace still cherished iu Ulster." The Bill provides that in any Ulster county a majority of the electors may decree exclusion from the scope of the Home Rule lifeiM for a period of six years from the date of the meeting of the Irish Parliament. A poll may be taken at the request of at least a tenth of the electors and within three mouths of the passing of the Home Rule Bill. It is expected that Antrim, Armagh, Deny, and Down would vote for exclui sion, and that Tyrone and Fermanagh, where there are Nationalist majorities at present, will stay in. .During the six years, the excluded comities would retain their representation in the British House of Commons. It is expected that the Unionists will make a strong light to add Tyrone and Fermanagh to the 'excluded territory, but on this point the Nationalists will no doubt prove absolutely uncompromising. In some quarters j an effort is being made to secure, instead of exclusion "for six years, exclusion ; pending the reconstruction of the British i Government on federal lines. The main question, however, is: Can civil war be avoided? The Ulster leaders have created j a Frankenstein that they Avill find it J very hard to control, and, judging by the growth of the Nationalist Volunteer j movement,. Mv Redmond , will soon find himself in no happier a. position. For all practical purposes the Home Rule Bill is through. Rejection by the House of Lords will not keep it oft" the Statute Book, and if Ulster does not like it. coupled with the concessions in the Amending Bill, she has got to light or accept the situation. If there is an Ulster rebellion, it will be the duty of the Government to suppress it, and the hopelessness of Ulster winning by force of arms must be obvious to the Ulster leaders themselves. Victory would, of course, mean that Ulster would rule England and the Empire. The game was lost, from the Ulster standpoint, when the Unionists failed to force an appeal to the country prior to the Home Rule Bill getting through the House of Commons for the third time.