HOME RULE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 44, Issue 13604, 31 July 1918, Page 5

HOME RULE.

SOME STRAIGHT TALK. (, Australian and N.Z. Cable Association) (Received Wednesday, 8.50 a.m.) LONDON, Tuesday. Mr Bonar Law, winding up the debate on Mr Dillon's motion, said that he had never listened to a more unreal Irish debate. Mr Dillon had not come within one hundred miles of the real difficulty of the Irish problem, which was due to a difference of opinion between Irishmen. The talk about the tyranny of Fmgiand was ridiculous. If the English Government committed a fault it was by laxity and not by tyranny. "We all like to see a settlement of the question,-'' said Mr Bonar Law, "but that could only be if those who made the demands were prepared to look the whole facts of the case square in the face. The Unionist members of the present Government were prepared to introduce a Bill to give effect to some sort of self-government for Ireland in order to get rid of the Home Rule question, even, if it alienated a large section of their party. "It was impossible to put any form of Homo Rule into operation in Ireland at present. No sane man would suggest handing tho Government over to the Sinn Feiuers. The Natinalists should recall the attitude of Irishmen all over the world, who not only wanted liberty, but wero willing to fight for it. Do the men who hold back in this great struggle really represent the principles for which we are fighting?"

Mr Asquith said the debate was further proof of the supreme, overwhelming importance of securing a settlement of the Irish question. It was the dying Parliament's duty to put the question on a better basis for its successor. Conscription aggravated the Chief Secretary's difficulties by creating an atmosphere which shifted tho balance of poli. tical opinion, and temporarily political power from the constitutional to the revolutionary party. This was a serious state of things. He appealed to the Government, in the interests of the Empire and the Allies, to try even at the eleventh hour to find a settlement. He also appealed to the Nationalists and Ulstermen to join a common recruiting platform. Apparently tho Dominion representatives wore unwilling to consider the problem. If that were so, President Wilson, who was also overcrowded with war matters, and the House of Commons would have to make another effort at settlement.

Mr Devlin said the Nationalists had done their share. Ulster had sent 58,----000 recruits, of which 20,000 were Nationalists. The rest of Ireland provided 65,000, of which number about 10,000 were Unionists.