THE GREAT IRISH PROBLEM

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3509, 8 December 1913, Page 5

THE GREAT IRISH PROBLEM

PROSPECTS OF A SETTLEMENT.

PREMItR’S MORE HOPEFUL VIEWS

IMPORTATION OF ARMS FOR-

BIDDEN.

A SIGNIFICANT PROCLAMATION

[united press association—copyright] (Received Dec. 7, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 7. Mr Asquith (Premier), speaking at . Manchester, held a, much more hopeful view of the prospects of a settlement commanding the consent and ; goodwill of ail parties on a basis of his Ladybank and Leeds speeches and Sir Edward Oar.son’s latest lines, which suggested an avoidable and humiliating minority, a remark which he was sure Sir Edward G’arson would agree, would also apply to the majority. He agreed with Sir Edward Carson on the necessity for avoiding in the Bill any possible separatist or federal tendency. He endorsed the younger Pitt’s declaration that the quality most needed in a Premier was not eloquence, knowledge, or industry, hut patience. He deprecated tlie -following of short, if attractive, cuts, and hurried and precipitate committals. He said he was not going to he hustled. He denied in his Leeds speech the withdrawal of anything he had said at Ladybank. He had been vainly looking for weeks for some corresponding and not irreconcilable statement on the Opposition side, and had unexpectedly found it in Sir Edward Carson's latest speech at Manchester, which declared that no settlement must humiliate or degrade Ulster and Ireland must not be treated differently from any other part of the Kingdom, and must have the same protection in the - Imperial Parliament, and no Bill establishing the foundation of ultimate separation. An Urgent Case.. “I do not find anything in these general conditions Wherewith, on principal, I am disposed to quarrel,” declared the Premier. “Ireland’s case is urgent and must come first. The Imperial Parliament’s supreme and unquestionable authority must be retained. The Liberals have supported Home Rule, for generations because they believed it- was not a steppingstone to separation, hut a preventive of separation. Tlie Government is prepared to consider, with a view to meeting every reasonable oheetion, any stipulation in the Bill, such as that relating to tjie Post Office, which, the Unionists consider, has a. separatist or anti-federal tendency. I regard Sir Edward Carson’s declarations as a significant and hopeful feature of the situation, and I cannot but express the belief- —nay, the expectation—that a free and frank discussion on the limits indicated in my Ladybank sneecli with Sir Edward Carson may lead—as Heaven grant it will —to what all desire far more than tlie prolongation of an embittered controversy—namely, a settlement commanding the consent of all parties.

“'Whether the minority’s apprehensions are well or ill-founded they exist and are genuinely and deeply telt and constitute, until abated cr removed, the one formidable obstacle to selfgovernment !•” Arms in Ulster. The “Gazette” publishes a Royal proclamation signed by Thursday’s Privy Council prohibiting the importation of arms, ammunition and gunpowder into 'lreland. Unionist M.P.’s at Belfast decided to organise a motor service for the disposal of the provisional government to transport troops in the event of hostilities. A second proclamation prohibits coastwise carriage. Neither proclamation applies to articles intended for sporting or other unwarlike purposes. It is reported, that 80,000 arms are already stored, and, judging by the number of revolvers purchased by Belfast unionists and Nationalists during the past fifteen months their possession lias become a popular craze. Tradesmen in Londonderry booked order* last spring for 3000 revolvers. Government agents ' have recently been inquiring in Ulster and reported that apart from local supplies ammunition is short.

Unionists in Ulster claim that- sufficient rifles and several maxims have arrived. The “Chronicle” hopes that the arms proclamation will promptly be followed by action against army offi,cel’s hereafter using rebellious language and states: “A more outrageous spectacle has never been presented than that of influential Conservatives endeavoring to sap the loyalty and undermine the discipline of the Army.” The paper rejoices that Lord Derby, Lord Selborne and Sir Edward Carson have markedly dissociated themselves from such violent anarchical courses. Flo Bluff! The “Daily Telegraph”, commenting on Alt" Asquith’s speech, says the Government has waited until Ulster is armed before believing slie is not bluffing. ~ . , Other papers consider the proclamations belated. Unionists in Dublin regard the proclamation as the Government’s recognition of the seriousness of the situation in Ulster, and as ki prelude to ail possible steps t-o avoid a calamity and civil war.