HOME RULE.

Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14409, 21 May 1917, Page 4

HOME RULE.

THE GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSAL

UNIONIST OPINION .IN THE SOUTH-WEST.

(Australian andN.Z. Cable Association)

(Received May 20, 5.5 p.m.)

London, May 18. Lord Middlcton, on behalf of the .Union** in the south-west of Ireland m^ letter to Mr Lloyd George, insist ed that the Sin, Fein movement hasgamed immensely in strength since the re^elhon. Its operations were actively seditious. Its programme declared tfcafc its aim is an Irish republic. Any division of Ireland would enormously increase the forces of disloyalty. , lue Southern Unionists were willing to consider the possibility of a convention, and had already announced their readiness to enter a conference on the future government of the Empire after the war, hoping that tie Irish question would bo settled on broad Imperial lines.