LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
WILL ULSTER FIGHT ? [TO 11111 EDITOR OF TH1 "SrEarATort.1 SIR,—I am an Ulster Nonconformist minister and a life-long democrat. I am opposed to Home Rule, but should it come I would be willing to submit to it and make the best of a bad business. But that is not the mind of 90 per cent. of my co-religionists in Ulster. Orangemen and non-Orangemen
alike, they have made up their minds that under no circum-
stances will they have Home Rule. People who think that the Protestants of Ulster don't mean what they say, but are only indulging in bluster &c., are under a huge delusion. I have lived in various parts of Ulster and I know the people well and how they feel in regard to Home Rule, and I want to say with emphasis that they regard the question for them as one of liberty or slavery. I am speaking from direct personal knowledge when I state that there are in Ulster over 200,000 men—ministers, magistrates, merchants, lawyers, doctors, mechanics, farmers, in fact, the flower of Ulster Protestant manhood—under solemn oath to shed their blood rather than submit to the rule of a Roman Catholic Parliament in Dublin. These men may be ignorant and fanatical, but I tell you they are in earnest and will perform their vows to the uttermost. The hour the Home Rule Bill becomes law—if such an hour ever comes—a Provisional Government for Ulster will be pro- claimed, and these 200,000 sworn and armed men—for they are armed to the teeth—backed by four times that number will carry out the decrees of that Government and do their utmost to make them effective throughout the length and breadth of the province. Some people will smile when they read this and take it as a joke just as they did when they read the decision of the Uletermen not to allow Mr. Churchill to speak in the Ulster Hall. People as a rule don't joke when they feel that their liberties are imperilled, and, rightly or wrongly, that is the feeling in the mind of 90 per cent. of the Protestants of Ulster in connexion with Home Rule. It may be replied that the Provisional Ulster Government will be unworkable. Possibly. But so will Home Rule. The Protestants of Ulster may not be able to carry on a Government of their own, but they are able to make the rule of a Dublin Parliament impossible ; and nothing is more certain than that they will do so. Of course Ulster Unionists cannot fight the British Army—British bayonets and bullets would be more than a match for them— but is the present Government prepared to shoot them down and turn this fair and prosperous province into a blood-stained desolation in order to make Home Rule effective P I know it is said that the Government will put Belfast and, if necessary, North-East Ulster under martial law. But it will not only be necessary to put Protestant Ulster under martial law, it will have to be kept under martial law unless it is allowed to remain under the Imperial Parliament or to set up a provisional government of its own.
I am not a politician. I wear no political label, I never take any part in or attend political meetings, and never even vote at a political election. I am not connected with any political club or organization, and my closest friends could hardly tell what my political opinions are. But I am a close and constant observer of what is going on in the world, and especially in tbo world around me, and to my mind, utterly unbiassed, the rule of a Dublin Parliament can be forced upon the people of North-East Ulster only by British bayonets and bullets, for they regard such rule as slavery of the most degrading kind, and it is impossible to convince them that it would be any- thing else. If the Government are determined to shoot and slay these sturdy dour sons of the Covenanters of Scotland —thousands of them—and deluge the fair fields of North-East Ulster with Protestant blood, let them carry their Home Rule Bill, for I can assure them that nothing less will ensure its triumph here. When the Protestants of Ulster say, " We will not have Home Rule," they mean what they say ; they are in dead earnest and are ready to make good their words with their lives. Let the Government take them as being in earnest and be in earnest themselves and reply, " You will have Home Rule, for we will compel you with bayonet and bullet to have it." But is Ulster to dictate terms to all the rest of Ireland? Speaking for myself I would reply, "No, not at all." Give Ireland Home Rule if you think it is the right thing for Ireland, but allow Ulster to remain under the rule of the Imperial Parlia- ment. Such a course of procedure would, I believe, bring peace and give satisfaction to the rank and file of Ulster Protestants.—I am, Sir, &c., ULSTER DEMOCRAT.
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