HOME RULE AND CONSCRIPTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 179, 18 April 1918, Page 5

HOME RULE AND CONSCRIPTION

PKESS AND PUBLIC OPINION IRISH ATTITUDE CAUSES ANXIETY , r , .. . London, April 10. the Irish attitude ou conscription and Home Rule .'8 causing increasing anxiety in Government circles. "'.Hie 'rimes" correspondent in Dublin says that the Ij.stentcs accept conscription, but resolutely opposo Home Rule. Their Press warns tiio Government the questions must be kept wholly distinct. The Nationalists, on the. other hand, have dropped Home Rule and are concentrating upon passive resistance to conscription, tear 01 which has produced in these days a. close aihauce between parties and persons who have- been at each other's throats tor three years, Mr. John Dillon is approaching Air. do Valera, 'Mr. Healy, and .Mr. O'Brien, and the Church is leading the whole movement, while official and independent newspapers are combining to assist it. The Rev. .Father Bradley, Catholic Administrator of Armagh parish, states that a solemn league and covenant will be founded to passively resist conscription. A number of meetings in Ireland passed resolutions rf resistance. Several Cork Magistrates have resigned ns a protest: The Court Council yesterday refused to transact business. The Congress rf Irish Trade Unionists will meet on Saturday to discuss the question of conscription. The majority of members are Ulster-men, but it in believed th.it the congress is overwhelmingly against the proposal. Tho "Daily Chronicle" says it is understood that Mr. Lloyd George gave tho Labour Ministers an emphatic assurance j that the Government will press the Home Rule Bill. It is expected that Mr. Barnes will speak on tho third re.ading to-day. Tho "Daily Telegraph's" Parliamentary correspondent says that tho dramatic episode of Sir Edward Carson's intervention has oreated a new Parliamentary situation. Ho struck a true blow from behind, amid rapturous Nationalist applause. The Nationalists rallied to Sir J'idward Carson as to a brother Irishman against tho Government. It is truo that their ulterior objects nro different, hut their paths yesterday lay together.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. SINNIiuiOT PRISONER REMOVED PROM POLICE BARRACKS. (Roe. April 17, 8.20 p.m.) London, April 16. At Wicldow a crowd of Sinn Femora attacked tho police and removed a Sinn Peiner who had been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for illegally drilling.- A baton charge followed, and a | county inspector was injured. The crowd swept through tho station and damaged an engine. Later they broke ir.to the police barracks and removed the prisoner. —"Tho Times." THE BILL 'Wm COMMONS MR, DILLON MOVES TO REJECT IRISH CONSCRIPTION. (Rec. April 17, 8.20 p.m.) London, April IG. In tho Houso of Commons, Mr. Dillon moved the omission of Clause 2—which enables the Government by Order-in-Council to apply tho man-power scheme to Ireland. Jlo ['aid that no power on earth had the moral right to conscript a single residont of Ireland except the body representing tho Irish nation! Any attempt would havo consequences as farreaching and .serious as tho attempt to tax tho American colonies. He had been forty years in political life, and had never known anything approaching tho feeling in Ireland to-day. If conscription were applied the resulting chaos and confusion would bo appalling. Already business was becoming paralysed. Tho Nationalists believed that Sir •• Edward Carson and the Orangemon had started tho conscription cry for the purpose of raising such a passion that a Homo Rule settlement would be impossible Mr. Barnes, replying to Mr. Dillon, promised that the Government would bring in a Home Rule Bill immediately and nso every pressure to pass it into law. lie believed that tho Homo Rule Bill might pass before tho Irish clause in the National Service Bill became operative, but refused to pledge the Government to this effect. Answering Mr. Healy's interjection, Mr. Lloyd George 6aid: "The Government will resign if it fails to carry Home ltulo or if the Houso of Lords rejects it." Sir Edward Carson said ho would support tho Man-Power Bill even if the Government put Ulster under tho Nationalists, as was now threatened. He would prefer anything to the whole of civilisation being impeded by a victory by tho enemies. Sir Edward Carson continued; "It is now clear that no recruits in Ireland will be conscripted until tho Home Rule Bill was passoil." The Government was handing over Ulster as the price of conscription. _ Ho asked if the Nationalists would withdraw their objection to conscription when tho Home Rule Bill was passod. Personally he believed that conscription would prove to be even more difficult then, as tho Irish Government woidd oppose it. BILL AN URGENT NECESSITY ENEMY CALLING UP 500,000 MEN. Uiec. April 18, 0.20 a.m.) London, April 17, Mr. Lloyd George, speaking in the House of Commons, said that the ManPower Bill was imperative, because Germany had just called up n further half million men.—Reuter, BILL READ A THIRD TIME. London, April 17. The Man-Power Bill was read a third timo by .101 votes to 103—Reuter.