The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1910. "ALL FOR IRELAND."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 201, 3 December 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1910. "ALL FOR IRELAND."

It must have occurred to every thoughtful reader of British political cablegrams that Irishmen and their hopes and aspirations' will largely influence the coming elections. Irishmen are proverbially Warm in their expressions of approval and disapproval, and Mr. T. P. O'Connor was characteristic enough when he said : "The people have at last an opportunity of ridding themselves for ever of the servitude to a prejudiced and insolent aristocracy." Naturally enough, the true Irishman is "All for Ireland," mainly because he has seen in Home Rule a way out of the sorrows of his country. There is no analogy in the demands for Home Rule for Scotland, and Wales with that of Home Rule for Ireland, for the case of Ireland is unique. Wiles and Scotland have never suffered frsm years of misgovernment or oppression. Mr. John Redmond, one of the commanding figures upon the British political stage at present, has stated that the Irish! Party, on the question of Home Rule,; stand precisely where Parnell stood, and that he himself would never recede one 5 inch from the position. "Our minimum demand," he said, "is for an Irish Parliament with an Ex-ecutive-responsible to it and full control over all purely Irish matters. This is the definition of Home Rule to which the British Prime Minister and the entire Liberal Party stand pledged, and is our minimum demand. What i is understood as 'devolution,' or the ! creation of a council in Ireland without legislative powers, was proposed | by the Liberal Party in a Parliamentary Bill in the year 1007, and was rejected by lis. Devolution is dead, and there will be no resurrection for it. As for wihat is called "Home Rule all. round,' or a general system of federalism, of course if England, Scotland .and Wales desire to have Parliaments of their own under a federal system, Ireland would have no reason to object. I think we would agree that our Home Rule constitution should be of such a character as to fit in with a general system of federation later on; but it must be clearly understood that Ireland cannot wait until England, Scotland and Wales have made up •their minds -to get Home Rule for themselves. Home Rule for Ireland must come first. We will not tolerate any postponement of tihe question nor any watering of our demands." Home Rule for Ireland is not a new demand. It has been fought for by the biggest men ever the "Green Isle" has possessed in modern times. The Nationalist leader has, of course, been violently accused of vacillation on the "All for Ireland" question, but his real position is put in Shis declaration that Ireland cannot wait until England, Scotland and Wales 'have made up their minds. The fear that the "Home-Rule-all-round" project may be made en excuse for delaying the grant to Ireland of self-gov-ernment is really the question that is agitating. Ireland's most vivid patriots. Ireland wants Home Rule first, and then the 'federation can come as soon as it likes, but Ireland doesn't want Home Rule f#r Ireland to be retarded by a long discussion on Home Rule all round. Until recently "Home Rule for England" was a question not discussed, but the cry is possibly being used as a handicap to Ireland's time-honored demand. Mr. H. de R, Walker, Liberal M.P. for Milton Mowbray, lately asked: "What is to happen to us poor overburdened representatives in England? The Welshman, the Scotsman, and the Irishman are each to have their subordinate Parliament to deal with the purely local affairs of his countrr. and whv are we Englishmen to be denied a similar privilege? But, since the analogy of Canada is quoted, I think the omission of England must have been simply an- oversight, for there is no part of Canada, except some of the undeveloped territories, which is not represented in a Provincial Parliament as well as in the Parliament of th<> Dominion. But, apart i from any analogy, we in England re- | quire, just as much as the people in anv other part of the United Kingdom, a Parliament or Assembly of our own, which will have quite enough to do in attending properly to our separate English interests." Mr. O'Brien, who is "all for Ireland," has seen in the general demand for federation, a weapon that may delay indefinitely the possession of 'self-govern-ment bv his country, and, naturally enough, he is fighting all he knows to keep "Home Rule for Ireland" an issue entirely distinct from "Home Rule All Round." The average citizen will agree that if Ireland obtains self-government, an equal boon must be granted to England, Scotland and Wales, but he will probably also agree that Ireland, which has suffered and fought for the boon, should be the pattern.