HOME RULE ACT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 14, 11 October 1919, Page 7

HOME RULE ACT

THREE MONTHS' GRACE EXPECTED

FAR REACHING CONCESSIONS TO ULSTER SENTIMENT By Telegraph-Special Correspondent.' • London, October fl. The Government ■ estimates that three months' grace -will be given before the Home Itule Act of ■ 19ii comes into operation undor the provisions of the Suspensory -Act. Mr. Devlin and Sir Edward Carson have already interviewed Mr. Lloyd George. Both «ire cognisant of the main features of tlio Government proposals. Very .far-reaching concessions are to bo mado to the Ulster sentiment. Mr. Lloyd' Georgo presided at a meeting of. Cabinet to consider the Irish question. Sir Edward. Carson was.summoned during the sitting.—Aus.-N.Z, Cablo Assn. ,

TWO RIVAL PLANS » (Rec. October 10,-.7.20 p.m.) New York, October n. Thp "World's"; London, correspondent learns authoritatively that two rival plans for Home Itule will be submitted by Cabinet to the Home Rule Bill.Com-, mittee'appointed to bring about a settlement of the Irish question. , The. first plan provides for full .Dominion Home Rule, witli complete fiscal .independence, but with uo power-to raise an army or create a navy, It provides that-any # county can decide by plebiscite whether it wiahes to remain under direct British: rule.- •-. Ireland will make a .fixed annual contribution of probably -El per head to Britain,' Tho second plan provides for, the establishment of.two Parliamentsone for Ulster's nine counties; the other for the rest of'felie counter." The correspondent ndds: "The ,latter plan•' is, looked on less favourably."—Ans.-N.Z. Cable Assn. .'•

' [The Home Rule Bill, passed in three sessions of Parliament >by the House, of. Commons, and three times rejected b,v the House of Lords, received the Royal assent •on September 18, 1914. , Simul-. taneously the Royal assent' was giveii to the Suspensory Bill, by which' it was ordered that no steps' should be taken to put the Home Rule Act into operation ■for twelve months in any event, and if the-war was not..then terminated,'.until such -further date, not later than the termination of the war; as should : be fixed by Order-in-CounciL .. The British Government, has lately been Reported'to ,have.laid down a new scheme; but'not-' withstanding th'at, the Suspensory Act being still in force will, on the "conclusion" of tho war, brinjjr the Home Rule •Act' of 1914 "into operation. • According to the Crown Law, Officers, the Homo . Rule Act .will come automatically into, operation when tho 'last of the belligerents, . namely Turkey, signs the Peace Treaty, probably hence. In the. meantime, the Government's new'proposals must be completed. Tho two suggestions in the Irish Government Bill for the safeguarding of Ulster are: (1) Country option; the exclusion of Ulster, which ia to have its own Chief Secretary.]/,