THE ALLEGED BETRAYAL OF THE SOUTH.
WE desire here to say a word to those who argue that the House of Lords and the Unionist Party, by assenting to the Exclusion of the six counties from the Home Rule Bill—for, remember, they cannot now be excluded without the assent of the Lords—would be betraying the Protestants and Loyalists in the South and West. Such an accusation of betrayal is surely a great misuse of terms. We fully admit the duty of the Unionist Party to do the very best they can for the Loyalists and Protestants in the South and West and in the counties of Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan. We contend, however, nay, we can prove, that in the exist- ing circumstances the Unionist Party, by consenting to Exclusion, far from betraying the Southern Pro- testants and Loyalists, will be doing the very best that can be dune for them. No doubt if the Unionist Party had the power to maintain the Union in the whole of Ireland, and could destroy the Home Rule Bill, it would be most unjust to give Exclusion to the six counties and abandon the cause of the Union in the rest of Ireland. But as every sane man knows, these are not the alternatives. The Unionist Party and the House of Lords are not in a position to prevent the passage of the Homo Rule Bill. Though we .believe, as we most firmly do, that the only true solution of the Irish problem is the maintenance of the Union, we must face the facts and not feed ourselves on delusions. As we have said, the alternatives before us are the possibility of obtaining the Exclusion of the six counties and of the Bill passing exactly as it is at the present moment, with the absolute certainty of civil war iu Ulster as the result.
We are convinced that, as things stand, civil war would be the greatest disaster that could possibly fall upon the Southern Unionists. As a far-seeing Protestant correspondent in the South of Ireland lately wrote to us, the position of Loyalists in the South while civil war was raging in the North would be horrible beyond words. The excitement in the South and West would be very great indeed, and any news of a Loyalist victory in North-East Ulster, or of some anti-Roman Catholic movement there, which it is no good disguising from our- selves must be the result of civil war, would ba certain to call forth fierce reprisals in the South. The extreme Roman Catholics and Nationalists, the men of the Ancient Order of Hibemians, in the South would say to themselves: " We cannot go North to help our coreligionists there and to teach the Ulster traitors a bloody lesson, for we have no organization to do that, and the Imperial Government not only will not help us to do so, but puts obstacles in our way. What we can do, however, is to make the Protestants here feel the strength of our arms. They are traitors to Ireland and shall meet the traitors' fate." And it is certain when this was the temper of the extremists in the South, the Government would not only be drawing all troops from the South and West, but the great bulk of the police. In other words, at a moment of great excitement, and when the vindictive passions of the extremists would be stirred to the depths by rumours of the maltreatment of the Roman Catholics in the North, the Protestants and Loyalists in the South would be left absolutely defenceless.
Granted that we cannot defeat the Home Rule Bill as a whole, which is undoubtedly the situation at the moment, Exclusion, instead of being the betrayal of the Southern
Unionists, is our only way of protecting them. It is clear that under Exclusion the Loyalists and Protestants in the
North would hold as hostages for the good behaviour of the
South and West a very large body of Roman Catholics and Nationalists. These Roman Catholics and Nationalists would not be touched as long as there was no persecu-
tion in the South and West, but their presence must be a restraining influence on the Dublin Parliament and the Dublin Executive. If Exclusion takes place, they must make an effort, in Sir Edward Carson's phrase, to win the excluded part of Ulster, and the only way to win the six counties would be by showing the North that the Dublin Government could hold the balance with absolute fairness between the two sections of the • population. To return to our point. Exclusion could only be called a betrayal of the South and West if Unionists here or Unionists in the North had the power to stop the Home Rule Bill by any means other than an actual recourse to civil war. As they have not got it in their power, and as civil war, as we have shown, must bring terrible disasters on the South while it was in progress, we say with absolute conviction that the best friends of the loyal minority in the South and West are those who, like our- selves, advocate Exclusion as the only way of preventing civil war. Civil war if it comes will be a matter not of a few days or weeks but of ninny months of turmoil and if social agony. The proper way to convince the Loyalists of the South and West that what we are proposing is not betrayal, but protection for them, is to ask them to con- sider seriously how they are to live during those months of agony, and how, completely isolated as the bulk of them are in a population that would then be bitterly hostile, they are to obtain help. Wo are convinced that the most far-seeing of the Loyalists in the non-excluded area have already realized this fact, and that as soon as they think the matter out properly it will be realized by the remainder.
Once again—we care not how often we repeat A- tha most dreadful fate that could possbly be in store for the Loyalists of the South and West is civil war in the North, and civil war unquestionably there will be unless we can obtain Exclusion. But the Loyalists of the South and West may say : "But why cannot you get us a General Election or Referendum rather than Exclusion?" Our answer is that the Government have refused both these perfectly sound and reasonable plane, and have made it clear that on these points they will not yield, for the very good reason that they know that to do so would mean absolute defeat. The only door which in their recklessness and cowardice they have not barred is Exclusion, and therefore, as practical men, Exclu- sion is the only demand which we can now make with any hope of success. If we make it with sufficient persistence and in good faith, and if the Loyalists of the South do not give the Liberals an apparent excuse for refusing it by an injudicious opposition—see how the Radicals have snatched at the straw held out to them by an inept article in the Irish Times—we shall get Exclusion, and thus avoid civil
war.
Previous page
