HOME RULE NEXT YEAR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1732, 24 April 1913, Page 4

HOME RULE NEXT YEAR.

IRISH LEADER'S STATEMENT.. Mr. John Redmond. M.P., the Bishop of Raphoe, and Mr. John Fitzgibbon, M.P., trustees of the Homo Rule Fund, recently issued an appeal for funds in support of the Home Rule movement, in the eourso of which they say:— '"When isssfng the appeal last year we stated that, although none of tho funds would bo needed for tlio support of tho National parly in the Houso of Commons, tho main •purpose for which the national funds had been used in the-past still remained, and in face of a perfect tempest of fault-finding and prophecies of evil wo ventured to affirm that 'the great cause of national self-government was within, measurable distance of victory.' That statement has been fully vindicated. A Homo Rillo Bill—the best ever offered to Ireland—has not only been drafted and introduced, but has emerged triumphantly from ten months of criticism inside and outside Parliament, has passed through all its stages in the House of Commons by steadily increasing and, ■under the operation of the Parliament Act, will, in May, 1911, at tho latest, become law in spite of anything, tho House of Lords can do. This is a great victory, but it has been made possible only, by steady and continuous effort and sacrifice. The peoplo of Ireland havo done Their part by making the fund of last year a record'in the history of tho National movement, and by giving to tho Irish party their confidence and steady and unwavering support in t.ho face'of a vast amount of unreasoning and cruelly unfair criticism. While rejoicing over tho victorious progress of tho cause, wc must not allow our.efforts to slacken till victory is iinallv secured. Tho objects for which we appealed last year aro .still witti lis. Tho Ulster campaign in tho British constituencies, financed as it is by immense sums of money contributed by wealthy Unionists, has been met and utterly defeated by the United Irish League of Great Britain,'the Irish Press Agency, and the Irish Nationalist members, but tho campaign in Great Britain is an expensive one, and it would bo utter folly to slacken our efforts in the field. Frequently during the last year it. has been asserted by the enemies of the Irish cause that Ihe people of Ireland no longer cared for Homo Rule, and that those who had bought their farms were indifferent or hostile to tho national cause. That insult was repeated bv Lord Lansdowno when speaking against the third reading of the Bill in the House of Lords. This appeal will give the peoplo of Ireland an opportunity of answering that taunt, and beyond all question a record response of tho Trish peoplo to this appeal will havo a power- | M effect in impressing upon the House lof Commons mid the- voters of Great Britain' the earnestness and determination of tho Irish national demands."