IRISH SITUATION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1988, 19 February 1914, Page 5

IRISH SITUATION.

FORMIDABLE CRISIS. HOPELESS TO REASON WITH. KIND OF RELIGIOUS FANATICISM. By Telegraph—Press Association—OojjyrlcliJ (Rec. February 18, 10.15 p.m.) London, February 18. As a stout supporter of the Irish cause for forty-seven years, Mr. Frederic Harrison, the well-known positivlst, in an open letter to Mr. Asquith (the Premier), described the Irish situation. as tlio most formidable crisis which has ever beset a Ministry of -living memory. Face to face with a struggle, as bloody and obstinate as tho Boer war, tho gravity of the situation lies ill the fact that for the first time in modern history, a violent (but disciplined) premeditated defiance of tlw statute has been supported by the whole weight of Parliamentary opposition. That fact separates the Ulster covenant from any other insurrection within memory. Tho covenant is a kind of religious fanaticism—hopeless to reason with, and as stubborn to .crush as the English Ironsides, the Scotch Covenanters, or the Ayrshire Cameronians. "If you go full speed ahead you go to destruction," Mr. Harrison states; Ho suggests that Mr. Asquith, ' m the autumn, should add a clause to the Home Rule Bill constituting tho members elected for Ulster as an independent commitee to govern the provinco for an agreed period. A general election, 'with its varied programme, would not solvo the question, but a referendum of the entire constituencies of the United Kingdom would settle both the woman's suffrago and the Irisli questions.' The newspapers are- discussing Mr. Harrison's letter. Tho "Westminster Gazette" says there is an indication that tho Government may possibly appcint a Statutory Commission composed of members of botli parties to recast I Parliamentary Government on a ; Fedoral' basis. _ It is, pointed out tliat th'e'recon-struction-of the House of Lords is beyond the strength of any one party. Stress is laid on tlie indications that any agreed settlement 'of-the.. Ulster quostion in,the immediate future can only be' transitory. The "Westminster Ghzette" agrees that tho House of' Lords' problem should be included.