THE ONLY WAY WITH IRISH CONSCRIPTION. T HE Government have fallen
into serious difficulties with their Home Rule Bill, as we never doubted that they would. It was originally proposed that it should be introduced into the House of Commons on Monday, but now the date of introduction is indefinitely postponed. Only two Parliamentary weeks remain before the Whitsuntide recess. Rumours are even being printed in the newspapers that the Committee which is drafting the Bill has got no further than a preambllin favour of a general federalization of the United Kingdom. This is very small beer after so much talk, and we cannot help being reminded of the twin brothers, Cornelius and Humphry, the poet and the painter, in Sir Walter Besant's story, The Golden Butterfly, which was very popular thirty years ago. The painter talked all day of the great historical picture which he was going to paint, and the poet talked all day of his great epic poem which was to be called " The Upheaval of Alfred." But the painter never got any further than the title of his picture, nor the poet further than the title of his poem. The only thing which seems to have been settled by the Government, though even this has not been officially announced, is that Mr. Shortt shall be the new Chief Secretary for Ireland. And here we come up against an almost incredible fact. Will it be believed that the Chief Secretary whom the Government have apparently chosen to carry out the policy of Conscription in Ireland is one of the minority who voted against Conscription for Ireland in the House of Commons ? It seems so mad that we should be disinclined to believe in the reported appointment of Mr. Shortt were it not that in these days it is almost necessary to go on the principle credo quia impossibile. The Parliamentary Correspondent of the Daily Chronicle naively remarks that the fact that Mr. Shortt voted against Conscription ought to " recommend " him to the Nationalists. We can quite believe it. With such signs and tokens as these flying about, can one seriously believe that the Government mean to introduce Conscription in Ireland as they promised whether or not a Home Rule Bill be passed ? Consider this passage in the House of Commons :- " Mr. PRINGLE : Do the Government intend to apply Conscription to Ireland in view of the fact that the right hon. gentleman's successor (Mr. E. Shortt) voted against it in the House ? (Laughter.)
Mr. DUKE : That raises so many questions that I cannot attempt to deal with them. (Laughter.)"
It may not be amiss to suggest that as the Government in practice are observing a parallelism and interdependence between Conscription and Home Rule, they might observe a similar parallelism between their new Lord-Lieutenant and their new Chief Secretary. As Mr. Shortt has voted against Conscription, they might at least be careful to appoint as Lord-Lieutenant a strong Conscriptionist. Of course it will be said on behalf of Mr. Shortt that he is not necessarily opposed to Conscription, and that he voted against it tactically because he thought that Conscription ought to wait upon the actual establishment of Home Rule. We allow whatever weight is possible to the argument, but honestly we cannot see anything in it. The Irish Home Rulers, like the Repealers before them, are men who have carried on the game of threats so long that it is only natural for theta to watch the faces of their opponents to see what effect the threats are producing. Let a single muscle of the British countenance relax or tighten and the Irishman reads the lesson he wants. He knows whether he can proceed with a good hope of threatening with success, or whether he must call off and think of some new form of threat either more ingenious or more terrible than' the last. Since this is so, nothing is more certain than that the Sinn Feiners and the Nationalists will regard the fact that Mr. Shortt voted against Conscription as a sure sign that it will be worth while to try to frighten him out of existence. Nevertheless it cannot be remembered too often that the promise of the Government to treat Conscription and Home Rule as quite independent stands.
The only way with Irish Conscription is to apply it at once. What the Government ought to have done was to take Ireland by surprise, and for our part, though we an well believe they would have had some trouble, we do not think they would have experienced by any means an insur- mountable amount of trouble. Even as things are, they have to keep a large number of troops in Ireland, and goodness knows now how long they may have to keep them there. Even if there had been a very sharp tussle on the introduction of Conscription, it would not have been likely to last very long. Under the present management of affairs the resistance of Sinn Feiners and Nationalists solidifies every day. The longer the Government look at the Irish bank, the higher it will appear to be. They ought to have rushed it, but the only possible plan now is not to delay any longer.
' Of course the • Government hope that by first introducing Home Rule they will bring the Irish insurgents into a better state of mind. Upon what grounds is this hope based ? Although we can find no satisfactory grounds whatever, we can find several considerations which tell against the hope. In the first place, an Irish Parliament would almost certainly refuse to sanction or assist Conscription. All Uri speeches and manifestoes of the past few weeks in Ireland forbid us to believe anything else. All that the Government would achieve by creating a Parliament in Dublin would be the establishment of a rallying-point for Irish resistance. At present resistance is scattered and incoherent; however clamorous. An Irish Parliament would be an organized entity. Our next consideration is that, according to all the evidence, no Parliament would be accepted in Ireland unless it had practically sovereign powers—such powers as no British statesman has ever dreamt of granting to Ireland. The only Bill that would please Sinn Feiners and Nationalists would fail to make the reservations as to the fighting Services which are essential to the safety of the kingdom—the reserva- tions which have invariably been inserted in Home Rule Bills. Moreover, even to try to please Sinn Fein is wholly to sacrifice North-East Ulster.
A writer in the Daily Telegraph says that it is to the Sinn Feiners that young Irishmen who wish to be saved from Conscription look for protection. There has been " a land- slide," he says, " into the Sinn Fein camp." We suspect that an enormous number of men profess Sinn Fein sentiments for the simple reason that they dare not resist a popular Movement. The power of intimidation in Ireland is very great indeed. But every day that the Government delay permits this power to bring fresh men into a fatal allegiance towards which they have no natural inclination. When a strike was declared in Ireland lately, as a protest against Conscription, it was noted that loyalists in great numbers as well as disloyalists took part in it. Probably in their hearts these loyalists resented the whole idea, but in districts where they were outnumbered they allowed themselves to be mistaken for assenting parties. Possibly a few of the weaker spirits may even have worn the white flag (suitable emblem !) of the anti-Conscriptionists and the badge bearing the inspiring words : " Conscription ?—Not d—d likely 1 " There is, in fact, a duel between Sinn Fein, which is conscripting men right and left into its political camp, and the Government, who could carry on the duel with much more spirit, and we believe with complete success, but who as a matter of fact are holding their hand. How can such a duel end ? If the Government do not want to be forced by circumstances to abandon the whole of their Irish policy, they must stop trying to draft a Bill which can never be drafted to the satisfaction of Ireland, and think only of applying Conscription in Ireland as quickly as possible.
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