17 JANUARY 1920, Page 2

Lord Meath concludes :- " A strong organized Government in

the North of Ireland, friendly towards England and the loyalists of the South, would prove to the world that there existed in Ireland two opinions, and by influencing the public: opinion inside and outside of Ireland would prove a far more effective means of protection against oppressive legislation in the South than the presence in a single Legislature of a few loyal men, whose votes would be swamped by an overwhelming majority. Looked at from the point of view of the Irish Nationalists, it is not in their interest to transfer to their own side the sore which they now keep open in the aide of England, for there can be no doubt that if Ulster were forcibly united to the South in a single Parliament, the Northerners would make legislation in Ireland as difficult and as impossible as the Nationalists now attempt to do in England.

or these reasons, amongst others, as a Southern Irish Imperialist, I regretfully find myself unable to see eye to eye with Lord Midleton and his supporters. . . . Under these circumstances, I believe that the proposals of His Majesty's Government are worthy of the support of all Southern Irish Imperialists, even though their material interests may, perhaps, in some degree suffer through the accident of residence."