Sir James Craig, who will be Ulster's first Premier, made
a most important speech at Bangor, County Down, on Tuesday. Ulster, he said, would make the best of the Home Rule Act passed against her desire, but she was not prepared " under any circumstances whatever " to give up her rights under the Act or the bonds of union with Great Britain. The Act required each Irish Parliament to select members of the Council of Ireland. Sir James Craig said that he and his colleagues would go to that Council ; he would discuss there all matters for the benefit of Ireland as a whole with Mr. Do Valera, if the Sinn Fein leader proved to be supreme in the South and cared to attend the Council. " Instead of Ireland being divided under this Act, two families were asked to go into partnership." Whether the Sinn Feiners sulked and stayed away or came into the Ulster Parliament as an Opposition, the Ulster Unionists only sought to see that " fair play should be extended to all within their boundaries." The Ulster Protestants would not take advantage of their new powers to do anything that they would not have done under the British Constitution.
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