The Times of Wednesday published a letter from Mr. Neville
Chamberlain in which he asked for financial generosity in dealing with Ireland, somewhat on the lines of the letter which we print elsewhere from Lord Meath. But what particularly interested us in Mr. Chamberlain's letter was his suggestion that the Council of Ireland should immediately be furnished with greater powers by amendments to the Home Rule Bill. We are interested in this because we notice that opinion is setting in this direction from different quarters. Mr. Neville Chamberlain wants greater powers for the Council because he regards it as a means and a symbol of arriving at the final goal of Irish unity. But the same demand is being made by Southern Unionists because they see in a powerful Council, which would not be an advisory body but a body with legislative authority, the means of safeguarding
• the minorities of the South and West. We should not be at all surprised if these arguments were very strongly urged in the House of Lords, where the Irish Unionists of the South and West are of course strongly represented.
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