23 MAY 1914, Page 2

Mr. Radyard Kipling was the chief speaker at a lJnionist

meet. ing held at Tunbridge Wells last Saturday afternoon. In the course of his speech be said that the Cabinet were in the position of u firm of fraudulent solicitors who had got an unlimited power of attorney from a client by false pretences, and could dispose of their client's estate as they pleased. The only drawback to- the situation was that their majority was not big enough to make them independent of the Irish Nationalist vote, so the Irish Nationalist vote was bought by means of the Home Rule Bill. He did not for one instant blame the Nationalists, who had never faltered in their persistent and passionate hatred of England. Ulster was the flint community in the realm to realize that this Home Rule Bill meant life or death, but that Bill was equally one of life and death to every freeman in these islands. Ireland was sold to-day; to-morrow it might be the turn of the Southern Counties to be weighed off as make- weight in some secret bargain. Nothing was impossible in a land without a Constitution—except peace.