IRISH AFFAIRS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3595, 6 October 1920, Page 5

IRISH AFFAIRS.

I o MR. ASQUITH "SUMS UP. ' A WEIGHTY DELIVERANCE. LONDON, October 4. Mr. Asquith writes to the Times: The last nine months' experience is perhaps the most deplorable and scandalous chapter in the annals of Irish Government, but I canno? contemplate even as a policy of despair, Viscount Grey's suggestion for the final abandonment of ithe tfu§t which history has imposed "on us." Mr. Asquith reiterates the opinion 'that bestowal of the status of an autonomous Dominion in the fullest and widest sense is the only solution of Irish problems. "It would," he says, "place Ireland on a level footing with other Dominions, without imposing limitations and fetters regarding naval and military forces, i No grant of autonomy would bo complete which failed to include right to raise and maintain adequate military forces for local defence. There must also be included fiscal independence. To those disposed ito think such policy humiliating and hazardous, I put the question: What is your alternative? Can anything be more humiliating or pregnant with incalculj able peril than the present condi- : ! tioris " j MR. ASQUITH'S PROPOSALS. CRITICISED BY THE PRESS. Received 10.25 a.m. ' LONDON, October 5. The newspapers criticize Mr. As : \ quirk's proposals regarding Ireland as i a complete surrender to Sinn Fein. The Westminister Gazette prefers Viscount Grey's plan of a time limit iin which Irishmen would be called upon to settle their own problem, rather than Mr. suggestion that. Ireland should have equal rights with the Dominions regarding external ' relations.