Home Rule Crisis

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 31 March 1914, Page 5

Home Rule Crisis

High Tension in Political Circles The Government's Difficulty Mo Sign of Settlement Yet \.<Ce?~"''- Ey CaMe—-Press Associations-Copyright

',? DEMOCRACY ON ITS TRIAL. F ME. LLOYD-GEORGE SUMS LP THE SITUATION. ' A MESSAGE PREGNANT WITH . \ - MEANING. " 'n * London, March 20. Mr. Lloyd George handed a deputa- , Siqn of Young Liberals the following message:— y' "Democracy is on its trial. The right to govern is challenged l>y an \ oligarchy invoking the aid of the I house, of Peers and the officers of the \ Army. Upon the courage and reso. : lution this juncture by the friends of liberty in ail classes - depends the question whether the ' country remains free, or slull in effect 1 'be enslaved by a military despotism."'

DEMOCRATISING THE ARMY. LORD ESHER RIDICULES THE IDEA. Received 30, 10 p.m. London, March 30. Lord Esher, in a letter in reply to Sir John Simons' advice to democratise the Army, suggests that Lord Morley should present Sir John with a copy of his monograph, "Cromwell" and adds: "A democratised conscript army, inasmuch as it is impossible to democratis ea voluntary army like ours, would prove a powerful weapon for fighting on the Continent of Europe, but a fatal instrument for domestic use, in the hands of a tyrannical Parliamentary majority, or those of some political swashbuckler."

THE ARMY COUNCIL RESIGNATIONS. ADVICE OF COLLEAGUES. Received 30, 10 p.m. London, March 30. The Ministerial Whip states that an important debate on the position of the Army may arise to-day, and a very important division occur. The Standard says that Field-Marshal French's and General Ewart's final decision to maintain their resignations is the governing feature of the crisis. While the Government is willing, as Mr. Asquith's speech on Friday showed, to repeat the sense of Colonel Seely's paragraphs, it is bound to decline to stultify itself by reinstating these. On this rock the negotiations will split. Lord Haldane's attempt to find a satisfactory formula has hitherto been.resultless. A meeting of the military members of the Army Council suggested that Sir John French and General Ewart siiouid draft a letter to the Premier explaining their difficulties, and the Premier should, irnecessary, read the letter in the House of Commons to-dav.

A. QUESTION OF HOKOR. - London, March 24. There are peTsistcnt reports abroad *ha* Mr. McKenna wild snot-cod Col unci Seely. The Chronicle has reason to four that Field-Marshal French and General Ewart will persist in their resignations not because of aay difference with tin- Government concerning the relations of the Army and the civil power, but on the point'of honor. ' ' : ~ THE COLONIAL OFFICE. London, March 29. deferring to the possibility 01 Colonel Seely and Mr. Harcourt's exchanging positions, the Times, in a leader ,says: "We have still to hear what the dominions and Crown colonies will say about the reported proposal that ( "lonel Seely should be unloaded upon iiii-in."

i ATTITUDE OF THE RUNG. London, March 2n. vflarold Spender, the journalist, speaking at Cambridge, said he bcii-w-d the (German government kept the RrilUii Government informed regarding the orders for ammunition and riib-s s.-nt to German firms by the rebels in Ulster. thus Germany was a bettor ir.-nd to Britain than those so-called pan:its. The Union Defence League i'mid has now reached £70,000. Mr. Walter Morrison, ffic-rncnitier o! the House of Commons, has offered £IO,OOO towards the fuud for officers deprived of their pensions. The Sunday Times states tli.it after PKe King 'had conferred with Lord Roberts, the latter, acting at the King' 3 request, laid his views on the Army difficulty before Colonel Seely and Fieldifarshal French. The King, while maintaining a strictly constitutional attitude, made it clear to Ministers that wjth him lay the final appeal, and he counselled moderation without resort to depurate measures. The King took couns'-i with the moderates of both parties.

WHAT CIVIL WAR WOULD MEAN. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ARMY. AND ELIMINATION OF THE EMPIRE ' AS A WORLD FACTOR. Received 30, 5.50 p.m. London, March 30. There is a growing consensus of opinion that Field-Marshl French's and General Ewart's resignations from the Army Council arc final. Lords Chelmsford and Sydenham, in a letter, point out that civil war, the destruction of the army, and the elimination of the Empire as a world factor, are inevitable unless the extremists on both sides make concessions.- They urge that ' the leaders' duty is to confer and agree on a fresh solution of the whole Home Rule problem.

N -- ■ ' APPEAL IIV TWO PEERS. TO THE LEADERS OF PARTIES. A SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE URGED. "SAFETY, HONOR AXD WELFARE OF SOVEREIGN AND DOMINIONS." Received 36. 0.30 p.m. London, March SO. Lords Chelmsford and Sydenham remark in their letter that the flew Army order is tantamount to an acknowledgment that irregular questions were put to the officers at The Curragh, necessarily leadiag to an unprecedented quest for assurances concerning the interpretation of the orders which might be given in a certain hypothetical case. The lamentable events of the past week were directly due to an initial blunder which caused anxiety alike to the Government and the Opposition. Surely the Government must now realise that its policy, which was profoundly pe.rtrubing the conscience of a very large part of the nation, cannot be carried out to the hitter end, and extremists in the Opposition must sec that the unbending insistence on their policy of negation regarding Ireland is equally hopeless. The letter concludes: "We firmly believe in true patriotism and statesmanship in the desperate nature oE the situation. But there is a moderate element in the community which may prove to bold the casting vote at a .general election, and demand the adoption of a middle course. We have both been apart from Home politics for many years, but we do know the British community beyond the seas is looking with the deepest apprehension on what is happening in the Motherland. Ts it too late to make this appeal to the leaders of both parties of the .Sjtale .on behalf of the safety. honor and welfare of our Sovereign and I dominions?"

VARIOUS VIEWS. London, March 29. Mr. Runeiman, President i.f the Board of Agriculture, speaking at Camliridge, said that had the Government given war to the dictation of Army officers tliey would have abandoned the cause of democracy more basely than if they had assumed the cloak of autocracy. Those who had politically engineered the- trouble would be the first to regret it if it taught the people to examine the whole Army organisation. Mr. William Redmond, in a letter to the Westminster Gazette, says that the ▼ast majority in Australia, Xew Zealand and Canada favor Home Rule. If the will of Parliament is set at naught it will cause the utmost indignation !£? overseas. Mr. ltedinond asks: "'How '' Many .officers have resigned rather than aid Irisli evictions'" Mr. F. E. Smith, speaking at the Imperial League, said a supreme crisis tad arisen which justified appealing from the despotism of a corrupt Parliament to the arbitrament of the sword. That alone justified the steps taken by Ulster, for which the Unionist v Party and more than half the rcpresentatires of England were responsible. He scornfully repudiated the suggestion that the Unionists had tampered with the Rrmy. >

AUSTRALIAN MKSSACK. ," Sydney, luireh HO. Mr. Ifolman has cabled to Mi: Redmond that Australian opinion wholly condemns the disappointment and delay of the hopes of the Irish' people. It will make Ireland a united nation. Mr. Meagher, Speaker of the New . ' South Wales House, lias cabled that he is absolutely opposed fo the'' exclusion of Ulster and the consequent pernicious ' aercrance of our people.

THE.KING AS GRAND CONCILIATOR. THOROUGHLY CONSTITUTIONAL ATTITUDE. Received 30, 10.35 p.m. London, March 30. The London Chronicle says the King's action in the present crisi-i has been thoroughly constitutional. He has sought to restrain party passions, and in his role as impartial umpire and grand (conciliator his Majesty's one desire has been to see the achievement of an honorable and permanent settlement of the Irish question.

GENERAL COUGH AND THE GUARANTEE. Received 30, 10.35 p.m. London, March 30. A request having reached General Cough to return the written guarantee, the latter has been deposited at the bank. A PREMIER'S PLEASANTRIES. TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

Received 31, 12.35 a.m. Sydney, March 30. Mr. Holman. speaking at the annual breakfast of the Irish National Foresters, said he had heard of a little party which might go on a piratical cruise and perform acts of sedition on English soil. If so, fortunately Darlinghurst gaol was not given up, and it still presided ample accommodation for those who wanted to cool their heels and refrigerate their heads. In the Assembly to-day, Mr. Storey asked Mr. Holman, the Premier, to apologise to the Ulstermen of New South Wales for the slur cast upon then),

THE INNER HISTORY OF THE INCIDENT. TOLD BY MR. T. P. O'CONNOR. MR. LLOYD-GEORGE LEARNS "THE AWFUL SECRET." AND SEES THE THREATENING "ABYSS." Received 30,10.50 p.|m. London, March 30. Mr. T. P. O'Connor, writing on Sunday in Freeman's Journal, Dublin, says Colonel Seely's assurance to General Cough was written on Monday. Co'onel Stoily attached so little importance to it that he did not tell Mr. Asquith about it until Tuesday. Mr. Lloyd George, seen by a friend on Tuesday, was unaware of the communication, and was in high spirits because of 'ho jnagniflcent way the Government had defined the position and upheld the doctrine oi the Parliament's supremacy over tae Army. He went to a CftMnet Council, and there learned the awful secret. He immediately saw the abyss into which the Government was about to fall. Mr.. Lloyd George, u man of prompt decision, saw immediately that the Government must repudiate the fatal surrender of all constitutional principles.

A PHIELY PERSONAL MATTER. MESSAGE TO ARMY OFFICERS. Received 30, 10.55 p.m. London, March 30. It is freely stated in military circles that Sir John French intends to notify commanders that his resignation is purely personal, and that he hopes, for the ■sake of the Army, that the resignations will be limited to those of himself and General Ewart. *

■FRIENDLY FEELING RETWEEX XAYY AXD ULSTERMEX. Received 30, 111.50 p.m. *'■■ London. March 30. The cruiser Foresight has relieved the Pathfinder at Belfast Lough. During the hitter's stay, the members of the Ulster' volunteers' signalling corps, for practising purposes, exchanged numerous message* with the signallers aboard, and when the Pathfinder left hearty messages were exchanged. BLOWS STRUCK AT BELFAST. VOLUNTEERS ATTACKED IN THE STREETS. Received 30, 10.35 p.m. London, March 30. ■Crowds of Xationalists attacked three Ulster volunteers at Carrick Hill, in the Nationalist quarter of Belfast. The police dispersed the Xationalists. One of the volunteers was badly injured and sent to hospital.

ADD IRISH (RISIS ???io- ueO Till'. WAR MIXIKTKi:. Colonel Seclv, whose rcsiirnution was niiidi' ;iml declined, is tlie youiificst son or Sir Charles Secly, and is now in his -I'llh year. He was educated at Marrow :iml at Trinity College, Cambridge; lie was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple 13 years afro, lie is in command of the Hampshire Carbineers, and was serving with the lm])erial Yeomanry in South Africa when, in May, ]!"'>(). Sir Richard Webster was appointed Lord Chief .Justice of Ka»liuid. and raised to the peerage as Lord Alverslone, a vacancy thus occurring in the representation of the Isle of Wii;-lit. In spite of his absence, and with the help of his wife, Colonel Seelv won the seat a- a Conservative, with a four-lieu re majurily. On returning from the war and taking his seat in the House of Commons, lie soon quarreled with the t'nionists on the fiscal (~ou and Chinese labor, and crossed over to the Liberal benches, and it was as a Liberal that he was returned for the Abercromhv divi-ion of Liverpool at the following