Speaking at a Liberal demonstration at Kilmarnock yesterday week Sir
John Simon declared that "we Home Rulers" did not aim at the humiliation of the minority but at the reconciliation of a nation. He defined their position by saying that, while ready to give respectful heating to any sincere proposals for compromise and accommodation, they would not abandon or qualify the principle that there must be in Ireland and for Ireland a local Parliament for local purposes with a local executive responsible to it. He depre- cated any refusal to attend to argument, admitting that the Ulstermen, though violent in language, were "sincere, deter- mined, and high-principled men." Every contention put forward by the Ulster minority should receive most indulgent treatment, with one exception—the discreditable and improper suggestion which sought to bring the Crown into this dis- cussion. A Constitutional Monarch held his great position secure precisely because not he, but his Ministers, were responsible for the course of political policy. That is sound doctrine admirably expressed.
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