HOME RULE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 649, 7 March 1914, Page 5

HOME RULE.

CONCESSIONS TO ULSTER. A SWEEPING VETO. By Tftlegrapli.—Press Association. —Copyright London, Thursday. It is authoritatively stated in the lobby that Mr Asquith's proposals include a sweeping veto to Ulster, and extensive control of local affairs, with the option of withdrawal from the rest of Ireland at the end of a certain period. Members of all parties express the opinion that it will be June betore Mr Birrell, Irish Secretary, can reintroduce the Home Rule Bill. There was no no discussion to-day. It is expected that some weeks must elapse atfer Mr Asquith's statement to permit of the proposal being digested. The Unionist motion of censure on the Government has now been dropped. Signatures to the Union Defence League's appeal against Home Rule are increasing in numbers daily. BILL'S FINAL INTRODUCTION. AN AFRICAN ANALOGY. London, Friday. Mr Augustinel Birrell, Chief Secre tary for Ireland, introduced the Home Bill into the House of Commons yesterday amid loud Ministerial and Nationalist cheers. Mr Asquith informed Mr Bonar Law that the Government's proposed amendments to the Bill would be ready for circulation on Tuesday. In a letter to the press, Lo»d Dunraven says a fair chance of a settlement of the Irish difficulty is obtainable only by referring Mr Asquith's proposals to a conference on the lines suggested by Lord Loreburn. Coercion of Ulster was impossible, and exclusion unthinkable while a general election is useless as a solution. Lord Hugh Cecil, Unionist M.P. for Oxford University, declares that the difficulty in the way of a conference is insuperable. He draws an analogy between General Botha's action in South Africa and the possible happen ings in Ireland as creating two centres of sovereignty. Nobody can deny, he says, that the deportations were altogether indefensible. Nobody can be blind to the outrages and scandal of the infliction of perpetual exile by a retrospective enactment. True sovereignty lies with the South African Parliament and General Botha not with the British Crown. Such are the consequences of Home Rule.