Lord Robert Cecil reminded Mr. Clynes that Protestant Ulster was
just as much entitled to " self-determination " as Nationalist Ireland. He said that we should gain the respect of America only by doing what we thought right in Ireland. Our first duty was to restore order. The Bill would tend to make it more difficult to enforce the law. With a Sinn Fein Parliament, Southern Ireland would be a paradise of smuggling. It was fantastic to enforce a scheme of self-government on a country which rejected it, and whier was in a state of violent unrest,. Lir. Chamberlain, replying to Lord Robert Cecil, said that he had nothing to recant in his Unionist faith, but the policy of 1905 was no longer possible. Mr. Clynes had talked of coercion. Was it coercion when they hanged a murderer ? Ireland was suffering from too little, rather than too much, coercion. It would not suffice to repeal the Act of 1914, which nobody wanted. The new Bill -did not divide Ireland on religious lines, but gave Irishmen the chance of removing the historic di vision.
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