THE HOME RULE SITUATION

Press, Volume L, Issue 14884, 26 January 1914, Page 6

THE HOME RULE SITUATION

During the first week of last month the people of Great Britain wore treated to a sories of speeches on tho Irish question by Lord Haldane, Sir Edward Grey, Sir John Simon, Sir Edward Carson, Mr Bonar Law, and Lord Lansdowne. Mr Asquith had just previously spoken at Leeds. Nobody who has followed tho controversy can have felt much wiser, after reading all these utterances, either as to the rights and wrongs of the. matter or, what • really eeems to be much more important, as to-the actual intention of the Government. The Unionist speakers merely repeated their indictment of the Government and their determination to stand by Ulster should the Government insist on going '"full steam ahead." Tho Ministers merely reiterated tho Government's determination to stand by "tho principle" of the Bill and its willingness to admit that the Bill is capable of being largely improvod. The most interesting fact was the anxiety of the Ministers to make tho Prime Minister's speech at Leeds look less provocative than it appeared to be —an anxiety that was natural enough in view of the manifest uneasiness of some of tho chief Liberal newspapors lest Mr Asquith had gone too far. One can hardly bo surprised that the Unionists, and especially the Unionists of .Ulster, are greatly, encouraged by the. unwillingness of, .the Liberals. to stand by their Bill. They interpret the eagerness of the Government for come compromise, which will obviate the danger of civil war while preserving the , principle of tho Bill, as evidence toat, a' firm stand' by the Opposition will ' result in the, abandonment of the Bill altogether, or tho suspension of its operation until after a general election. It is difficult to doubt that they have interpreted the Government's attitude correctly, although they may be, and doubtless are, quit© unable to guess at the tactics the Prime Minister may pursue thereafter. Sir Edward Carson probably expressed what tho majority on both sides aro thinking when he said:—"lf "tho Government havo got a halfway "house, let them put it T>efore us in "black and white. If they do not "do that I would rather they break "off all this talk altogether, and let "us, if necessary, fight it out to a " finish. ,. The Unionist newspapers are demanding, of course, and quite fairly, that tho Government ehall say definitely what it intgnds to do, but the Liberal Press is generally favourable to a policy of reticenco on this point. The "Manchester Guardian," however, one of the most influential of all the organs of Liberal opinion, takes a different view. It had hoped that the Prime Minister would have indicated ac Leeds the lines upon which he j would consent to a settlement being ! arranged, and it urged that the Government should "not let the last M hours run out before they mako up " their minds."