CONSCRIPTION FOR IRELAND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR.—Strange that the Government do not realize that failure to apply conscription to Ireland is not only a discreditable weakness en their part and a black disgrace to Ireland, but renders any settlement of the Irish question on Home Rule lines finally impos- sible. For this failure practically endorses the extreme Sinn Fein contention that Ireland forms no part of the British Empire and is under no obligation to fight for the British flag.
Is it thinkable that the loyalists of Ulster or of other parts of Ireland will ever consent to be governed after the war by those who have repudiated that flag? If the Government really desire to apply to Ireland any measure of Home Rule within the bonds of Empire, let them; even at this eleventh hour, take their courage in both hands and apply conscription to the country. If they fail to do so no measure of Home Rule which they or the Conven- tion can devise can ever win the consent of Ulster and the loyalists, and any such form of government set up must needs be a tyranny of the worst type—government without the consent of the governed.
I am a convinced Unionist, and regard any degree of Home Rule which goes beyond a generous measure of local self- government with the gravest apprehension, but if I wished to render Home Rule in any shape for ever impossible, I should urge the Government to persevere in their policy of " No con- scription for Ireland." There are thousands of young Irishmen who would rejoice to be taken for service under the Conscription Act, but who dare not enlist voluntarily while under the local influence of Sinn Fein leaders. Take these young men, even at the risk of a little local rioting, and send them for training to England, or, better still, behind the lines in France, with the promise that they shall be drafted into fighting Irish regiments as quickly as they can make themselves efficient. You would thus not only gain about two hundred thousand men of the finest fighting quality, but would wipe out a black disgrace which is a gnawing shame in every loyal Irish heart.—I am, Sir, &c., R. F.
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