HOME RULE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 115, 1 October 1912, Page 5

HOME RULE.

SIGNING THE COVENANT.

SIR E. CARSON'S CAMPAIGN.

By Cablc~Press Association—Copy right London, September 29.

Upward of 2000 Ulstermen in Dublin have signed the Covenant. Sir Edward Carson is going to continue the campaign in England and Scotland.

SERIOUS RIOTS. THE POLICE ATTACKED. Received 1, 12.10 a.m. London, September 30. At the conclusion of the Ulster Day celebrations in Moy, Tyrone, a conflict occurred between the Nationalist and Protestant processions. It lasted for an hour. Stones, bottles and revolvers were used. The police were overpowered, and two of them seriously injured. The police returned to the barracks and obtained weapons. A bayonet charge followed, and there were a number of casualties.

WILL ULSTER FIGHT? COMMENT FROM CLOSE QUARTERS. •IRISH-AMERICAN INTENTIONS.

By Telegraph—Own Correspondent. Wellington, Last Night. The recent sensational cables from the Home Land relating to the Ulster anti-Home Rule attitude, was referred to in conversation between your correspondent and a gentleman who at one time had a very close connection with somewhat similar occurrences in the Emerald Isle. It may be as well to state, at the outset, that the gentleman in question is not a Roman Catholic. He is an Irish Protestant, and an Orangeman, and was for many years connected officially with the difference between the people and the ruling caste that have for a couple of hundred years served to provide Ireland with its chief supply of interesting items.

"WILL ULSTER FIGHT?" he was asked, and the reply was, definitely, "No; Ulster is and always has been loyal. I am not casting any reflections on the bravery of Ulstermen; that has been proved, and need not be referred to again; but it has been shown in the past that when Ulstermen are faced with the red uniforms of the British troops, which to them represent the Crown to which they are so loyally attached, they are not likely to carry on the campaign on which, as we understand from the cables, they have embarked." "WHAT IS ALL THE TROUBLE ABOUT?"

"Well," said the gentleman in question, "that takes one over a long way back, but the chief trouble is that whenever an Opposition, Liberal, or Conservative, or Unionist Government finds itself reduced to an extremity, it raises the Home Rule question in the hope that out of the resultant melee it may get some political renown, for which for many years politicians have played. Ireland is a pawn in the political game, and the same process is being continued now. Ulster is being worked up to a pitch of political desperation, which will not result in anything worse than a riot or series of riots, which the constabulary will be quite capable of subduing. I know, because I have been in the thick of similar encounters; and I say that riot is the worse that will happen." " WHAT IS AT THE BOTTOM OF ALL THE TROUBLE?"

lie was asked. "Sectarianism," was the reply. "There is no time nor .space to go into the beginnings of the subject. There are two classes of clergy in Ireland—the Roman Catholic priest, sprung from the soil, who leads his flock in any direction ho thinks proper, and the Presbyterian parson, who preaches day in and day out that Rome is casting longing eyes on the entire dominance of the Isle of Saints. Judged from the viewpoint of the colonial, cither idea is absurd, but the Irishman, from whichever point of view you regard him, is an extremist; and you always have to take him just as he is, and not as you would like him to be. I have lately received a letter from a Catholic relative in New York, who stated that at least half a million Irish-Americans are prepared to go over and wipe the Ulstermen oft" the face of the earth, if a rebellion occurs. This may be true or not. It is probably a-great exaggeration, but it is interesting to note the horrible possibilities of such an absurd rebellion. I do not," he. added, "supposed that the influx of such a force could or would be prevented by the present Home Government."