The Sun FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1914. THE IRISH SITUATION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 132, 10 July 1914, Page 6

The Sun FRIDAY, JULY 10, 1914. THE IRISH SITUATION.

Lord Lansdowne's significant remark that matters have arrived at such a pass that it is impossible to guarantee what will happen in the next few weeks, bears. the impress of being a pretty accurate summary of the Irish situation. The fullest preparations are being made in Ireland for civil war; the parties to the Home Rule controversy in Parliament are both maintaining a bold front, and yet the great British public are going about their business as if they had made up their minds that the danger of civil war nad passe,d. Some months ago one of the stock arguments against Home Rule was that the people in the South of Ireland had lost interest in the question, that the land problem was being solved, and that the peasant farmers were doing so well that they didn't {-are whether they got Home Rule or not. The extraordinary growth of the Nationalist voir unteer movement which, in a few short weeks, has spread over the countryside like an epidemic, and resulted in the creation of a larger military force than the Ulster volunteers, is a sufficient answer to any such ,absurd delusion. Nationalist Ireland is just as determined ! about Home Rule as ever, and having got it will never let it go. But the question is: Can a compromise 011 the exclusion of certain Ulster counties be arrived at, and how far are the Liberals prepared to go? Mr T. P. O'Connor, M.P., who has shared the confidence of the Nationalist leaders for years, foreshadows a very interesting development in the event of disorder in Ireland when the Royal assent is given tfl the Bill and it comes into operation. He says that regiments will be ordered I to Ulster to quell the disorder, but it ;is quite on the cards that they will refuse. In that case, other regiments | will be ordered across, and if these refuse also the Ministry will imI mediately advise a dissolution and go to the country on the issue of whether the Army or Parliament is ,to govern England. An election fought on these lines would in all probability result in a return of the Liberals, when, according to Mr O'Connor, they could then proceed to reorganise the Army on " democratic'' lines. We think Mr O'Connor assumes a little too much. It is quite conceivable that the Liberals would like to go to the country on an issue such as this, but it is also possible that they might win by a very narrow majority and still be dependent on the Irish vote. In which case they might remain in office without a sufficient body of public, opinion behind them to admit of the enforcement of order in Ireland by the proclamation of martial law and the employment of troops. When the Amending Bill goes to the Commons, the amendments inserted by the Peers are bound to be rejected, and everything depends on the nature of Mr Asquith's alternative proposals, and the spirit in which they are received, by the Ulster leaders.