THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 188, 7 February 1912, Page 5

THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

LINING THE STREETS WITH TROOPS. ATTITUDE OF NON-CONFORMISTS. STATEMENT BY MR. DILLON. TACTICS HELP CAUSE IN ENGLAND. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 6, 10.30 p.m. ! London, February C. It is officially stated that 3500 troops will line the streets to Celtic Park. Rev. Sylvester Horne, in an introduction to Jeremiah MacVeagh's pamphlet on "Home Rule or Rome Rule V says the British Non-conformiste Cannot resist the Irish Government unless they are prepared to repudiate self-reliance and self-control, which is the secret of the free churches' strength and prosperity. The Gland Orange Lodge at Belfast requested the brethren not to interfere with the Nationalist meeting at Celtic Park. Mr. Dillon, speaking at said he was convinced it was possible to produce a Home Rule Bill acceptable to the Nationalists and to the bulk of the British people. The Ulstermen's tactics have greatly served the Home Rule cause in Britain. The Times asks Mr. Winston Churchi'l if he needs 4000 troops to enable him speak in Belfast, what force would required to coerce Ulster to submit to Home Rule?

AN UGLY SITUATION 1 . London, January 25 Newspapers of all shades of political opinion recognise that, the situation in Lister is becoming more serious, and tliat every hour might easily end in civil WAT.

|; i' ( ' u^ in g tlle position the Times says he Government now knows whether the loyalists in the North of Irelaad been bluffing when they said they ivould fight rather than accept Home Kuk\ The men of Ulster meant every wohl they said, and the responsibility for what occurs must rest upon the Government. The loyalists will not submit to be placed under 4he yoke of dominion by the renegate majorities of the south, whipped up by the priests and the Nationalists. The Government is treading an extremely perilous path, at the end of which, even if it treads successfully from a party standpoint, there is no solution of the Irish difficulty, but only the beginning of troubles more acute than any even Ireland has furnished in the past." Mr. James Douglas, the well-known journalist and critic, writing to the Ministerial papers, implores the Government to refrain from allowing the cause of Home Rule to be associated with bloodshed on the eve of its triumph. The Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, is at present in Sicily, and Mr. Churchill and Mr. Lloyd George are in supreme authority.

In the course of the speech which he delivered in Liverpool while on his, way to Ulster, Sir Edward Carson, M.P., who was Attorney-General in the last Unionist Administration, said: "After a long series of the Government his thrown down a challenge, and we have taken it up. I charge the Go: vernment, and will make the statement good, with a long series of provocative insults towards the loyal men in the North of Ireland, culminating in a deliberate scheme to either provoke disorder or to cover Ulster with contempt. Let those rebels who call me a rebel put it to a test. They do not want to leave it to any great ecclesiastical authority. Tt is a crime to tell the people, of Great Britain that the loyalists will not, under any consideration, submit to being turned out of the citizenship they have inherited. The cost may be great and the suffering may be terrible; no man feels the responsibility of the position more than I do. God knows I would rather bear it myself, but we want to share it with you." The corporation of Belfast has agreed to let Ulster Ifall to the Unionists for a demonstration on a date prior to that on which the big Home Rule meeting is be held. It is believed that the Unionists' scheme is to retain possession of the hall, and thus prevent Mr. Churchill from speaking. The Freeman's Journal insists that if every street in Belfast has to be guarded bv the armed forces of the Crown, Mr. Winston Churchill must be secured the right to address the Home Rule demonstration to be held there on February 8. Any departure from the settled programme, declares the paper, will be fraught with terrible consequences. The Daily Express seriously suggests that Mr. Churchill should be arrested, on the ground that he contemplates an act that is highly calculated to provoke a breach of the peace.