MR. ASQUITH AND IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 4 September 1919, Page 9

MR. ASQUITH AND IRELAND.

Speaking at Edinburgh towards the end of June, Mr. Asquith said:—"Until the matter of Ireland were grappled with, he would never cease to call attention to its supreme urgency and the paramount importance of stopping the policy of drift once and for all. He was absolutely amazed at the indifference, levity, and, he might almost say, frivolity with which the question was now handled. " Remember, it was now nearly five years since one of the greatest struggles in our Parliamentary history, which involved the clipping of the wings of the House of Lords. The Liberal Government of that day placed on the Statute —where it still remained—an Act giving self-government to Ireland. The operation of that Act was suspended, but it remained therea solid declaration by the Legislature of the United Kingdom that the time had come when, in whatever particular form or with whatever modifications, the Irish people must in Irish affairs be allowed to govern themselves. Without prejudice to other obligations of the principle of Devolution, Scottish Home Rule should be advanced to the forefront of the political arena."

Addressing the British Liberal Party at Leeds on June 19, Mr. Asquith said:—"ln regard to Ireland, he put on one side the ill-sifted stories of deliberate outrages, which were without solid foundation; but, quite apart from -that, the situation was of the gravest. The fatal blunder was made, he proceeded, upon the morrow of the Convention report in pressing compulsory service on Ireland. It never could have been enforced, but had .the effect of introducing into an atmosphere which at that moment was one of conciliation and hope, discord and' rancor, which the enemies of reconciliation between the two countries took full advantage of, and which paralysed the efforts of the Nationalists and of the most intelligent and enlightened Unionists of the country. 'The result is that, whilst the great Parliament of free nations in Paris has been laying the foundations of free communities throughout the world, here in the country which has been the mother and pattern of free institutions for the whole world, we have close to our own doors the reproach that we are doing nothing to satisfy'the v legitimate aspirations of our own fellow-countrymen in Ireland. That is a reproach and a scandal to British statesmanship, and is a-- source of permanent danger in the internationl sphere. Do not let this , matter be dropped, but insist upon a full, prompt, ; and adequate settlement of this, the thorniest of all our political troubles and the most fruitful source both of domestic and international peril in the future.' V -.../;; ■-