The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1911. THE HOME RULE STRUGGLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1280, 8 November 1911, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1911. THE HOME RULE STRUGGLE.

To-day wc print the third of three important cable messages respecting the Home Rule campaign which have been received this week. The Ulster Liberal Unionists have issued a manifesto declaring that if Home Rule is imposed upon Ulster without an appeal to tho electors the inhabitants will be justified in resisting the Government. The manifesto goes on to say that if Ireland is plunged into civil war the responsibility will rest with tho Government. The Government, however, has apparently decided that its best policy for the pre-, sent is to treat tho defiance of Ulster 1 ns pure "bluff," and to reply to it by sending Ministers to support Mr. Redmond in his platform campaign in England. Mn. Redjtond, in his speech to the London City Liberal Club, appears to have said nothing new, but the gathering obtained its importance from tho fact that the mover and seconder o£_ the motion were members of the Ministry. In his speech in Lancashire, reported yesterday tho Nationalist leader came I nearer to the actual issue by declaring that Ireland wants only_ ft subordinate Parliament," and is willing that the Imperial Parliament should remain unimpaired, in order to curb any attempt by the Irish to abuse their powers." He also hinted that we may expect, in the Home Rule Bill which ho will dictate_ to the British Government, a provision that Ireland will still retain representation at Westminster. Nobody yet knows exactly what Mn. Redmond means by Homo Rule, and Ncw Zcaianclcrs," Canadians, South Africans and Australians will bo puzzled to know how there can bo any logical form of self-government, any "Irish Parliament controlling purely Irish affairs," to which there can bo coupled a system of Irish representation in the Imperial Parliament. If Ireland is to have Homo Rule on the colonial model, she obviously cannot demand, and would not need, any representation in the House of Commons. Theoretically, of course, Ireland could easily he made a Dominion like Nov; Zealand, and the purely theoretical objection against such a development is one of Imperial expediency and practical expediency—the objection that, by requiring Scottish and Welsh autonomy, it, would require a British Federal Parliament, -which in its turn would logically.require the drawing of tho trans-

occanic colonics into tho net of a formal Imperial Federation ; and tho second objection that practical convenience rebels as strongly against Irish autonomy as against the political separation of the North Island of this country from the South Island. These arc questions which will bo thrashed out in the next three years, but for the present the campaign against Home Rule is directed against what the men of Ulster feel convinccd is an impending Nationalist tyranny. The revolt of Ulster was inaugurated in Belfast on September 23, when an army of protest numbering about 200,000 people gathered to fight Home Rule. The main feature of the demonstration was a speech by Sir. Edward Caksox, who has taken charge of tho Ulster campaign. It was- the first of a scries of speeches insisting that the people of Ulster, as the only means of defending their civil and religious liberties, would refuse to submit to Home Rule, no matter what the cost might be. "After all," said Sin Edward Carson, "what was their demand 1. They claimed no special privilege; they disclaimed it. All they asked for was the same rights and the same protection as those which were accordcd to all their fellowcitizens in Great Britain. These they claimed as the inalienable rights of citizens of the. Empire. AVhat would they gain by Home Rule ? No one had ever told them." He declared, and the whole tone of the proceedings during the following days confirmed his words, that their action was not mere bravado. They had to follow the argument to its logical conclusion, and their first duty was to prepare to make themselves accountable for the administration of Ulster in tho event of Home Rule ba- ■ coming an accomplished fact. On •September 25 • a conference of delegates from the Unionist Clubs carried a remarkable series of resolutions. The first of these embodied a pledge not to acknowledge under any conditions, or obey, any Irish Parliament; and other resolutions directed the establishment of arrangements for tho provisional government of Ulster. Sir. Edward Carson was of course promptly charged by the British Liberal press with preaching treason, but lie replied that no Ulster loyalist would ever be guilty of treason to their King. Instead of preaching disorder, lie contended,. he was preaching law, and advocating the only method of averting the most serious kind of lawlessness. That the Ulster Unionists are in earnest in their determination to refuse obedience to any Parliament but the British Parliament appears to be beyond doubt. Rightly or wrongly they are convinced that as a minority they will find their civil and religious liberties destroyed under Home Rule, since Home Rule will mean the ascendencv of a bitterly hostile majority. The Morning Post thus considers the possibilities: Let us suppose that Ulster decides to follow its projected programme. A Const'itutiou is granted to Ireland. Ulster refuses to accept the Constitution, but adopts a Constitution of its own and proceeds to administer .its own affairs—always protesting that it is willing to live under the Union. What will the Imperial Government, do? Will it proceed against t'lio Constitutional leaders of the province on a charge of treason? That is a possible but somewhat antiquated procedure, which v.-oulrt come very strangely from a 1 Liberal Government of tho twentieth cen- ' tury. Would a charge of conspiracy bo ; effective? How could tho law enforce pen- . allies sufficient to deter a whole people ! from proceeding in a course upon which it was determined? It is impossible to put ' a quarter of a million people into prison. < Tho resistance, remember, need • not bo - active: passive resistance (tho invention . of our Liberal friends) might well bo . moro effectual. If the I'rotestants of , Ulster refuse to pay their taxes or pay them only to their own chosen represen- ' talives, it is difficult to conceive of the . machinery that' could force them to obey. I This is.no mere question of an Act—like , (ho Education Act—decided upon by a I majority to which the minority was hostile. It is a question of placing a people ! in a perpetual minority under tho govern- > mont of another race holding another re- ■ ligion. i Tho logical solution of tHe difficulty [ would appear to be the exclusion of ' Ulster from tho operation of the ' Home Rule Bill. For if Home Rule - is justified by tho fact that a section ■ of the United Kingdom wants a sop- • aration froni_ its partners, the polit tical separation of Ulster from the rest of Ireland would appear to be } justified on a similar ground. It is l plain that a long and bitter strug- : glo over the Irish question will > darken the politics of Britain for i sonic years to come; and no one can - say what the end will be. ! ) ======