IN HIS FATHER'S STEPS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 121, 18 November 1932, Page 6

IN HIS FATHER'S STEPS

The visit of the Prince of Wales to Belfast for the, purpose of opening the hew buildings of the Northern Ireland Parliament must have recalled to every mind the still more iiriportarit and perilous mission which took his parents^there eleven- years ago.y;At rthat time .murder ancl arson were-.rife/ in Southern j Ireland, and j had' rjfobably reached their. .gjiniax und^r British rule. Mr. de/Valera's relations .with the • British Government are sufficiently indicated by the fact "that when at. his request a conference with Sir James Craig 'was held on. the sth May, 1921, the Ulster leader'had to submit to being taken blindfolded to the place of meeting. On the 24th of that month the first elections for die Parliament of Northern : resulted in the -, return of Sir James Craig's party, with a large. 'majority:—4o to 12—and it was; significant that both the Shin Feiriers and the; Nationalists; between whom the:-Opposition was, equally divided, ;were pledged not to take their.seatsstuY to join the DailEireann elected in the South. It was also significant that on the following day the Dublin" Custom-house, perhaps the finest building in Ireland and dating from the eighteenth century, was burnt to the ground by the order of the DaiL Eireann/and that the outrage was justified by the Sinn Fein official organ with the, plea "that "the destruction of the revenue and local government records would paralyse government."

The Northern Ireland Parliament was opened on the 7th June, 1921, in the presence of those forty members who did not prefer.to sit in the Dail Eireann, and it started on its way with Sir James Craig, 'how Lord Craigavon, as Prime Minister. But the ceremonial opening was reserved to.be performed by the King in person on the 22nd June, and by way of further emphasis on the importance ,of the occasion the Queen was to accompany him.' Not often in time of peace can a British Government have undertaken • a graver responsibility than did the Lloyd George Coalition Government when it advised them to go; but it was more than justified. A return in safety would have sufficed to justify the dangerous experiment, but Their Majesties returned not merely in safety but in triumph. They had achieved a brilliant and soul-stirring success. On the previous clay Lord Birkenhead, who not many years previously had adopted Lord Randolph Churchill's poetical anti-Gladstonian slogan, "Ulster will fight, and Ulster will be right," and even . suggested that "Galloper Smith" might be prepared to lead ihe attack, had dropped a hint that the Government might be willing to exchange the sword for

the olive branch. lie had declared in the House of Lords that "the actual fundamental fact of the situation is the difference between North and South," had admitted the failure of the Government's military methods during the last few months, and indicated that, though well able to win on these lines, it was quite prepared to consider another policy. v But Birkenhead was Birkenhead, and had been "Galloper Smith." Mr. Lloyd George also had a past, not to say several pasts. The King suffered from no such handicaps. He was and always had been abpve the strife and the changes of parties, and though he was of course speaking from advice, there was something in the spirit and the tone of his worUs which suggested a personal note, and as such made a profound impression that all his Ministers, combined could not possibly have equalled. The conclusion of-this great speech was as follows It- 1 • -■

, Thel eyes of the whole, Empire are on . Ireland to-day—that Empire in which so many nations and races have come together 'in spite-" of ancient feuds, and in which now nations havG.conie'to birth within the lifetime of the youngest in this hall. lam emboldened by that thought to look beyond tho sorrow and the anxiety which have clouded of lato my vision of Irish affairs, I speak' from a full heart when I pray that, my coming to Ireland today may prove to bo the first step toward an end of strife amongst her people, whatever their race oi creed. In that hope I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand f forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for 'tho land which they lovo a new era of peace, contentment,' and goodwill. It is my earnest desire that in Southern Ireland, too, thcro may ere long take place a parallel to what is now passing in this hall; that there a similar, occasion may present itself and a similar ceremony be performed. For this the Parliament of the United Kingdom has in the fullest measure pro-, .vided the powers; for this the Parliament of Ulster is pointing the way. The future lies in the hands of my Irish people themselves. ■ May this historic gathering be the prelude of a day in which the Irish people, North and South, under one Parliament or two, as those Parliaments may themselvesdecide, shall work together in common love for Ireland upon the sure foundation of mutual justico^nnd respect. '. If these words stir the reader's blood to-day, what must have been their effect when sympathetically delivered by the King Himself in the tense 'atmosphere of loyal , Ulster eleven years ago, and in the great city which, as the "Round Table" remarked at the time, had just welcomed the King and Queen "with a passion and enthusiasm which Republican Ireland has not attempted to minimise"? In tho actual terms of the speech which the King addressed to the Parliament of Ulster, said tho "Round Table's" article (September, 1921), there is nothing which cannot be reconciled with those of Lord Birkonhead'a speech. But the tone-was utterly different, and His Majesty's words fell like chords from a 'cello oa ears which had just been -listening to the ruffle of drums. On this occasion ihc King has.had to depute to his son .his duties at Bel-, fast. It is as his father's representative and in his father's steps that the Prince of Wales has gone to open the new Parliament buildings, but we may be sure that his own personal popularity has materially contributed to the "wildly enthusiastic" welcome which he has received. And the message which he brought from the King aptly supplies no antidote to the-ruffle of drums,, but'to the muffled misery of the slump. The Prince said it was his father's earnest prayer that they should meet the difficulties confronting the whole world, as -well as- their - own' special problems with the courage, tenacity, loyalty, and devotion, which had made .Northern Irishmen famous in the annals of the Empirel . ;.