HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 27, 2 October 1913, Page 5

HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.

THE ULSTER CONFERENCE.

[Br Electric Telegraph—Copyright] [United Press Association.! London, October 1.

Viscount St. Aldwyn in a letter to the Press states that he had a personal bias towards settlement by consent, instancing the Irish Church Disestablishment Act of 3809, and the. Reform Act of 18S5. In these cases, however, both parties agreed on a

principle, but no such accepted basis existed for a conference on Home Rule. He asks how could the Government depart from the principle of an autonomous Ireland or the Unionists accept a principle which they had opposed for twenty-seven years Even a the Nationalists agreed to the exclu sion of Ulster, he felt sure that the Ulster Protestants would never yield their weak and scattered co-reiigion-ists to a denomination which they dreaded for themselves. Therefore, ho did not anticipate any useful result from the mischief going on in Ulster. Both parties ought to discuss the possibility of eliciting the country’s judgment with a guarantee thai if that judgment was favorable, the Lords’ would not impose any obstacle to. the passing of the law in 1914. This would obviate its passing under the Parliament Act, which was odious to the Unionists, and largely the cause of the present trouble. Disestablishment could he j similarly treated. Nc responsible Minister would content; that Home Rule should become law if .'•the majority of jthe people were opposed to it. u ■ i-'■' <■

LIBERAL OPPOSITION

London, October J

No decision on the Home Rule question is likely until the Cabinet meets in the middle of 'the month. Liberal circles in London believe that the Government does not contemplate making any approaches to the Opposition, There is a strong current opinion that the Liberal Party is averse to a conference.