THE HOME RULE BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 204, 17 January 1913, Page 5

THE HOME RULE BILL.

MR. BALFOUR MOVES ITS REJECTION. THE ULSTER PROBLEM. PERVERSITY OR PEDAXTRY? A WARM DEBATE. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright London, January 15. Mr. Balfour, in moving the rejection of the Home Rule Bill, said the Government had promised the Nationalists nationality. the British people peace, and the taxpayer economy. They told the advocates of Home Rule all round that this step would mean the disintegration of the United Kingdom, and they told the Imperialists it was a step towards the unity of the Empire. All had been duped, and the greatest dupes were the Nationalists and British people. The Bill gave Ireland l ights too great for Britain's fiscal interests. The Government, on the other hand, had done its utmost to deprive the Irish Government of what every self-governing Dominion possessed. After expressing himself shocked at the utter and dangerous want of comprehension of the Ulster problem, he warned the House that if calamities arose, if blood was spilled, which God forbid, the real assassins were those who never had the courage to face the situation. The Prime Minister, replying, said Mr. Balfour had conveniently ignored the fact that the Irish movement had passed from sentiment and effort to an organised practical and inevitable reality. If the Bill were rejected, the insistent demand would remain undiminished, as a permanent expression of the ■will of the vast majority. Apparently the only people who were not dupes were Mr. Balfour and his friends, who were just now going through their own 'experience of the science of political union. (Laughter.) Given perversity on one side and pedantry on the other, any constitution could be wrecked in a week. Apart from the ample safeguards contained in the Bill, two would operate most strongly, namely interest and common sense. Mr. Balfour's prediction of disaster was a repetition similar to that preceding the. granting of self-govern-ment to the Transvaal. He was convince the Bill would exorcise the baneful influences which had hitherto kept Bri- S tain and Ireland apart, and establish I permanent unity. j Mr. Balfour, on entering the House, I was cheered by the Unionists, and then j; toy the Liberals. The latter was intended as a tribute to the readoption of the Balfourian scheme of tariff reform. THE CLOSING SCENES. TWO BRILLIANT SPEECHES. jl Received 16, 9.0 p.m. i London, January 16. , In the House of Commons the closing scenes of the battle over the Home Rule Bill were marked by characteristic speeches by Mr. Balfour and Mr. Asquith. Mr. Balfour confessed that the Government was supported by substantial, majorities, but said that the discussion j had been carried on in a manner making ( the value of that support worthless, reminding one of the old comedies, where the chief schemer invited his subordinates to carry out his policy by giving them j different versions of his objects. The , Irish had been given a dangerous weapon wherewith they might secure their real ambition of full-fledged nationality. Friction and strife would result from their getting too much or too little. He derided the constitutional architects who bad searched the world to create an abortive federalism. He sketched Ulster's reasons for opposition. History showed that a mixture of religion and 1 politics would prove injurious to the minority, while none believed in a recrudescence of tne old style of persecu- j tion. Yet each age possessed its own i methods of persecution. Ulster knew ] the crime-stained record of the men who i would be masters, and it was not un- I reasonable for her to refuse to be placed i under these men. The fact that the ' Bill needed safeguards justified Ulster's j attitude. Mr. Asquith had an ovation on rising, i He lectured Mr. Balfour for taking the i Act of Union as a starting point. He < must look further back and understand the genesis of the Irish question and the demand for self-government. That demand was an organised, articulate and permanent expression of the vast majority of the Irish people. He twitted Mr. Balfour, as a master of art, for manufacturing false dilemmas. He was not troubled by the criticism that the . constitution was neither "fi»h, flesh, fowl or good red herring." If they could meet l ister's claim, whether founded on justice or even on misapprehension, without indicting an injustice on the ' whole of Ireland, they would gladly do i -0; but it was absolutely fatal to democratic government to concede the claim, because if a minority claim were coil- \ ceded the Bill would end in a secular quarrel. He concluded in a peroration declaring that the Bill would exorcise baneful influences. The House listened in hushed >ilem-e until Mr. Asquith reseated himself atnid Liberal and Irish cheers. Mr. W. O'Brien declared that the financial clauses left the Irish Parliament with shadowy taxation powers, but the measure was regarded as a sincere and courageous message of peace. Sir E. Carson was absent, owing to his wife's illness. IX THE HOUSE OF LORDS. Received 17, 1*2.5 a.m. London, January 16. The Duke of Devonshire, in the House of Lords, will move the rejection of the Home Rule Bill.