HOME RULE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1920, Page 5

HOME RULE.

THE DIFFICULTIES OF ULSTER. EXCLUSION OF COUNTIES. By Telegraph,—Press Assn.—Copyrlsnt. London, March 11. Yesterday's meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council was generally regarded as the most momentous ever held. The speeches were marked by intense seriousness. An earnest, strong contingent of delegates from Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan Counties put up a strenuous light lor inclusion in the northern area.

The Daily Telegraph says that the throe counties pleaded that the Ulster Covenant should not be departed from, but the inexorable facts of the situation prevailed, and they were defeated by a large majority. It was with sorrowful feelings that the majority voted to put the counties out of the Ulster Parliament, but mind had to prevail over heart. It was felt that it they were included the Unionist majority would be so small that Parliamentary business would be impossible-

The Council motion on behalf of the three counties said that the Council, abiding by the Covenant, refuses any form of Government that does not include the whole province, and demands that the Parliamentary leaders should see that the new Bill is altered accordingly.

A PREFERENCE FQR UNION. I When this had been defeated the meeting carried unanimously a motion reaffirming a preference for union over Home Rule, and refusing to accept responsibility for the new Bill, but considering the new Bill preferable to the 1914 Act, the simple repeal of which seemed unprocurable. Ulster representatives, therefore, should not accept responsibility for defeating the new Bill, but should press amendments protecting the interests of Unionists outside the six counties. The Daily Telegraph says the upshot of the whole thing is that Ulster will not oppose the Bill, but the excluded counties are sold. The Morning Post states that the outstanding feature of the meeting was the frequent manifestation of the fact that

Loyalists would give anything to remain as they are, and are being pushed out of the United Kingdom against their will, which is a deplorable return for what Ulster did in helping to win the war.

The paper adds that the Ulster Unionist Businessmen's Council also reaffirmed preference for union, but au-thcri.-.ed Sir Edward Carson to proceed as he considered best, because the rejection of the new Bill would involve a grave risk of establishing an All Ireland Parliament. On the other hand, the Irish Unionist Alliance met in Dublin and resolved that, while recognising ■Ulster's claim to separate treatment, the new Bill mir-t b? opposed by every means in their power.

SPEECH BY SIR E. CARSON.. Sir Edward Carson, in a speech at a public meeting at Belfast, after the termination of the Council, said that if they had their way there would be no tampering with the union. They warned the Government that, whatever the outcome of the. tampering, they would accept no responsibility, and if disaster resulted the whole responsibility would be the Government's. At the same time he refused to ask his followers to run their heads against a wall. They would not participate in the discussions 'before the committee stage, when they would try to amend the Bill in Ulster's interests. They had set out to free Ulster from a Dublin Parliament, a.nd if the Bill passed they had won, he would not say for the whole of Ireland, but they would have done what they covenanted for Tt was all very well to say: ''Why not tight as before?" but. there was nothing more to fight for if TJI ster was freed from a Dublin Parliament.

It was no use pretending they could govern Cavan, Donegal and Monachal) They had a strong Ulster in the fix comities which would lie a better support for the other three tha.n if they had a tottering Ulster comprising the whole nine counties. He denied that the Covenant had been broken. The Council's decision was sane, wise and statesmanlike. It was not due to fnnkj but, sheer logic was the reason.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn. ,