PEACE OF IRELAND.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 292, 3 September 1908, Page 7

PEACE OF IRELAND.

A WARNING. THE GOVERNMENT WILL LEGISLATE. LAND PURCHASE. (by telegraph—press association—copteicht.) (Rcc. September 2, 11.20 p.m.) London, Septombor 2. Mr. John Redmond, Leader of tho Nationalist party, speaking at Dublin, read a letter which he had written informing Mr. Asquith and Mr. Birrell that if the people of Ireland ouco got it into their heads that tho defects of the Land Act, 1903, would not bo remedied, and that no fresh legislation would bo immediately proposed dealing with congestion and tho breaking up of grass lands,, it would be impossible for tho Nationalist party t-o hold themselves responsible for the peace of Ireland. Mr. Asquith, in reply, promised to legislate before tho end of the session on tho lines the Irish party suggested. THE DEFECT: GRASS LANDS.

After the Royal Commission on Congestion in Ireland (chairman, Lord Dudley. Governor-General-elect of Australia) had made its report, Mr. Birrell made a special point of the state of affairs that was admitted to exist by a Commission presided over by a "Tory LordLieutenant," and declared that the Liberal Government, thus encouraged, intended to introduce legislation curing this great evil—the withholding of grass lands from the operation of tho land purchase proposals. Mr. Birrell has, therefore, clearly committed tho Government to legislation curing this alleged defect in the earlier legislation. As reported by the " Manchester Guardian," he said:— "Now they (Lord Dudley's Commission) have issued their report, and what do they say? They side with the people. They say the whole of this land ought to be broken up and handed over to the tenants. All the disturbance in Ireland during the last two years associated with what is called cattle-driving—a thing of which I greatly disapprove, and which I deeply regret, because it has thrown great difficulties in my path—all this disturbance is attributable to that ono cause, the withholding of vast areas of land from the operation of land purchase, Now wo get this great body of impartial persons, presided over by tho late Conservative Lord Lieutenant—a man who knows and has served Ireland well—coming to tho conclusion that, after all, these poor people wore right and the Government wrong. I quite agree that that is no justification for lawlessness, but it is a justification for the demand which these people have made, and entitles us and tho Government of whioh I am a member to go forward in that direction and to introduce legislation at the earliest possible moment for carrying out not Radical designs or predatory schemes, but the recommendations of a Commission presided over by the late Tory Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. (Cheers.) "It has ever been the curse of our dealings with Ireland that we postpone reforms until the very last moment, instead of taking them boldly in hand, and leading the way in tho path of amelioration. But I believe we. shall do that, and when once we have cured this freat evil, this source of dispute and trouble, reland will then indeed be a poaceful country, though bent, it may be, upon Homo Rule. Well, I, at all events, boar it no grudge in that matter. Tho sooner they get it, in my judgment, the bettor it will bo not only for them, but for us." _ (Cheers.) The Unionist press 6trongly object to the element of compulsion'as-regards acquisition of land in the Commission's report.