WHAT IT MAY COME TO IN IRELAND.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your courteous references in your issue of January 29th to my article in the Edinburgh Review entitled "Ireland the Enemy " have led other newspapers in different parts of the Kingdom to pay considerable attention to the proposal which I there put forward. Several of these critics, however, have failed to observe that my proposal was confined to Southern Ireland, and this limitation was not perhaps sufficiently emphasized in your own comments. My proposal was that Southern Ireland should be permitted to set up an absolutely independent Government, but that we should stand by Ulster at all costs.- Since I wrote, the situation in Ireland has almost every day grown worse, and it is quite clear that we cannot restore the authority of the Crown in Southern Ireland except at the cost of prolonged warfare of a peculiarly barbarous character. I contend that the end to be aimed at is not worth the means by which alone it can be attained. Southern Ireland is a very small country which has for centuries been n thorn in the side of England. Let Southern Ireland go. The only serious argument against this proposal is that there are still some loyalists in Southern Ireland. I reply that some of these loyalists are, in effect, aiding the Sinn Fein movement by putting forward a camouflage which they call Dominion Home Rule. Other Southern Irish loyalists have, in practice, come to terms with Sinn Fein and live comfortably under its protection. If their goods are stolen they pay a subscription to Sinn Fein funds and the goods are restored. I infer that they would equally be able to make themselves comfortable under the rule of a legally recognized Sinn Fein Republic. There remain some Southern Irish who still preserve their love for England and their faith in her. Their case must be met on the principles adopted whenever any rearrangement of international frontiers takes place. We must draw n definite frontier between Ulster and Southern Ireland, based, not on haphazard county boundaries, but on geographical and strategic, as well as on racial, considerations. The present inhabitants on the two- sides of the line must be allowed to choose under which flag they will live, and facilities must be provided for their transference, with reasonable compensation for any losses they may incur. Subject to these conditions I contend that there would be an immense gain to the people of England, Scotland, and Ulster if Southern Ireland were expelled from the United Kingdom and from the Empire.-
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