HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1061, 25 February 1911, Page 3

HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

Sir, —I was .somewhat surprised to rend your leader ol" last Thursday morning, 16th instant, on the Home Rule question. It seems incomprehensible how anyono in this Dominion, after having enjoyed the blessings of self-government, could he opposed to tho just claims of the Irish people to manage their own affairs according to their own ideas. And this is tlie meaning of Homo Rule. You quote the "Spectator's" suggestion evidently with approval, that Ulster should demand a separate Parliament if Home Rule were granted. You, sir, like the editor of the "Spectator," aro under tho impression that Ulster is all Unionist, or that a majority of its people aro Anti-Na-tionalists. That is quite incorrect. If there were a separate Parliament given to Ulster it would be a Nationalist Assembly, for more than half tho population of Ifiiat province is Catholic and Nationalist to a man. while nearly lialf of the Protestant population is likewise iii favour of Home Rule. Henco in tho Old Country, Conservative correspondents of tho "Spectator," who are evidently better informed than its editor, have poured streams of cold water over the proposal of a separata Parjiament for Ulster. And it is strange, sir, that you have not como across the notable pronouncement that camo from Ulster during tho recent election. While gangs of (hired speakers wero stumping Great Britain, spreading the hoary calumny of Catholic intolerance, and striving with all the ingenuity they wero eap T able of to poison the minds of all fairminded men, like a bolt from the blue camo tho now famous manifesto of tho Liberal leaders in Ulster to their Protestant countrymen. Tho gist of this document is contained in tho following ■passage: —"For our own part, zealous Protestants as we are, we have perfect confidence in our Catholic fellowcountrymen. In tho south and west of Ireland goodwill and brotherly kindness aro universal. Wo confcss with shame that it is only in Protestant Ulster .intolerance and bigotry have a vigorous growth." And they. affirm .their conviction that thoso tffio trust their countrymen aro tho best friends of that country, and that tho only way to improve the prospects, material and other, .of Ireland, is tho granting, of Home Rule." This document is signed by six of Ulster's most prominent sons —all Protestants. Tho first on tho list is Lord Pirrie, tbo head of the great shipbuilding firm of Messrs. Harland and Wolff. T',hen come Sir Hugh Mack, another .Belfast manufacturer; Mr. P. M. Archdale, of Castle Archdale, County Fermanagh; Mr. Shiilington, J.P., of Pariadown; Dr. Keighley,' of Lisburn, u member of tho Irish Bar, and, a distinguished novelist; and Mr. Joseph Carr, of KillyJeagh. If ihese gentlemen had signed a document stating on a public matter of this kind what was not true, Unionist Ulster would have risen up to protest, while t\he Unionist press would havo rung ; with denunciation of them. As it is. this manifesto has been allowed to go through the length and breadth of tho land unchallenged, and , those doughty champions .of the Union'and Protestant ascendancy, tj'ic Craigs and the Moores, tho M'Derraotts, the Wylics, and the Magills, aro dumb on tho subject. Even a largo section of the Orangemen of Ulster, who aro supposed to bo implacable foes of Home Rulq, havo como round to Gee that they havo been too long used as the duneS of tho landlord party to oppose wliat would ho for thu benefit of Irishmen of all creeds and classes. Mr. Sloan, grandmaster of one of tho Belfast Lodges, has had tho courage to tell his fellow Orangemcnt this, and to como out as an independent candidate at tho last election. Tliesa fow.facts • should surely prove that, with the exception of a few of tho landlord class and their blind dukes, the whoio of Ireland, Caljholic and Protestant, is united in favour of abolishing a condition of things.that haa mado her tho one blot upon England's escutcheon, and the one weak link in tho Empire's chain.—l am, ctc., , . ERIN-GO-BRAGH. Wellington, February 18, 1911.