DUBLIN CASTLE RULE

New Zealand Tablet, 12 October 1916, Page 19

DUBLIN CASTLE RULE

GETS A NEW LEASE OF LIFE. UNIONIST CHIEF ‘SECRETARY APPOINTED. Last week-end saw the publication of a White Paper containing the headings of the proposed settlement by which the Government of Ireland Act, 1914, was to have been at once made operative for all Ireland with the exception of the six excluded counties (says the Catholic limes, August 5). The following were amongst the clauses of the settlement: As regards the excluded area, the executive power of his Majesty to be administered by the Secretary of State, through such officers and Departments as may be directed by order of his Majesty in Council, those officers and Departments not to be in any way respomsible to the new Irish Government.’ ‘ The number of Irish representatives in the United House of Commons to remain unaltered, viz.,

£ Provision to be made for permanent sittings of a High Court Judge, or Judges, in Belfast, appointed by the Imperial Government, or for the constitution of a new Court in Belfast, with the same jurisdiction as that of the High Court, but locally limited. All appeals both from Courts in excluded area and those m the rest of Ireland to go to the Appeal Court in Dublin, which is to be composed of Judges appointed by the Imperial Government, and having a like tenure of office as English Judges/ What Irish-America Thinks. Whilst things are in the melting pot at home, the Irish people of Philadelphia, U.S.A., at a great meeting held in one of the biggest halls in the city, have shown themselves still active and earnest supporters of the claims of the Irish people to national self-govern-ment, and have reaffirmed their adhesion to the principles of the Irish Parliamentary Party under the leadership of Messrs. Redmond, Dillon, and Devlin. Stirring speeches were delivered by eminent ecclesiastics and other leading citizens. English Conservative View. Discussing the Irish situation, the Daily Telegraph says: The plain facts, so far as Great Britain is concerned and she is very vitally concerned—are two. One is the general recognition among men of all parties that, as the Home Rule Act is on the Statute Book, it must be given a fair trial. The other is that there can be no'coercion of Ulster in any shape or form, and by Ulster is meant the six counties which were excluded by the recent settlement/ Castle Rule Revived. One unfortunate result of the collapse of the negotiations is that Dublin Castle rule, which everyone hoped and believed was dead and done with, has been, temporarily at least, revived. So Mr. Asquith told the House of Commons on Monday night, when he announced that Mr. Duke, the member for Exeter, had been appointed to the Chief Secretaryship. The announcement evoked a good deal of indignation, for Mr. Duke, though he is supposed to have Home Rule leanings, is a Conservative, and his appointment puts the Government of Ireland into Conservative hands, the Irish Attorney-General being a Unionist of the Unionists. Thus Liberalism is completely ousted from the Castle. 1 J Mr. Dillon’s Warning. The Premier’s announcement was made in the course of a debate inaugurated by Mr. Dillon, who successfully moved that it is vitally necessary and urgent that the Government should immediately disclose to the House their plans for the future government of Ireland during the continuance of the war/ In a passionate peroration, Mr. Dillon asked’: ‘ Why was SazonoiT driven from power in Russia V The statement as to his health is merely a polite explanation. He has had to go because powerful forces are urging the Tsar to break faith with Poland I have faith in the King, I have faith in the British people, but many of my countrymen have not and

trouble lies ahead. What will be your position in the councils of Europe when peace comes if you talk about oppressed nationalities while you are holding down Ireland against her will by armed force ?’ A Peaceful Settlement. Mr. Redmond, however, had hopes of a peaceful settlement, though the Government was, he declared, bankrupt, and had again set up Dublin Castle, which it had itself asserted to be hopelessly broken down. He demanded the instant withdrawal of martial law and reminded the House that Ireland had raised 150,000 men, not including Irish contingents from the colonies, and that the Dublin Fusiliers fought side by side with the Ulster Division. The New Chief Secretary. Mr. Henry Edward Duke, who is to be the new Chief Secretary for Ireland, was born in 1855, and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1885 after having been engaged in journalism. He sat for Plymouth as a Conservative from 1900 to 1906, and returned to the House in January, 1910, as member for Exeter. At the General Election in December of that year Mr. 11. St. Maur was returned by four votes, but on a scrutiny the seat was awarded to Mr. Duke by one vote by Mr. Justice Ridley and Mr. Justice Channell. Mr. Duke took silk in 1899, and was Recorder of Devonport from 1897 to 1914. He has a high reputation as a lawyer. Irish Party and the Crisis. Meeting on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Mi. Redmond, the Irish Party passed the following resolutions: 1. That it is the opinion of this party that the alterations proposed to be made by the Government in the heads of the agreement handed by Mr. Lloyd George on behalf of the Prime Minister to the Irish leaders are alone responsible for the failure to secure a war emergency settlement of the Irish question, -and we feel bound to place on record our conviction that this failure to keep faith with the Irish leaders and with the Irish people, whose assent to the proposed terms had to be secured with considerable difficulty, will have a most unfortunate and serious effect on the Irish people. 2. That we strongly protest against the action of the Government in reviving the discredited system of Dublin Castle rule in Ireland, already condemned on all sides, and condemned particularly by the Harding© Commission and the Prime Minister himself, and that in our opinion the appointment at this moment of a Unionist Executive to carry on that system is an outrage on the feeling of the Irish people. 3. That in our opinion an overwhelming case has been made out for a full public inquiry into the shooting, of prisoners without trial in North King street and elsewhere in the City of Dublin during the recent insurrection, and that in all cases where it appears prisoners have been killed under the above circumstances by the troops full compensation should be given to the relatives and dependents of those who were killed* Irish Press Censorship. Mr. Dillon, in the House of Commons on Tuesday, complained of the- operation of the military censorship over the newspaper press in Ireland. The Freeman’s Journal had been warned against publishing articles urging clemency to rebels, and the warning was conveyed to the editor by a soldier carrying a fixed bayonet. In another case a letter forbidding the publication of a priest’s letter was written on the notepaper of the Kildare Street Club, the hub of ultra-Toryism in Dublin. He asked if this military censorship was to be retained under the new regime, and demanded that the proclamation which forbade public meetings being held without permission should be .withdrawn. Mr. Samuel said he was assured by the military authorities that they had exercised the censorship in a spirit which they regarded as one of forbearance, and it was only where articles were of a gravely injurious nature that they took any action. He hoped that the new Chief Secretary might find it possible to mitigate, and perhaps even to withdraw, some of the restrictions in regard to meetings.