TOPICS OF THE DAY.

DOMINION WITHOUT DOMINATION.

EVERYBODY is longing to find a solution of th-i ILI Irish question : nobody wants to prevent that solution being applied if it can possibly be found. The very maximum of opposition to the .policy of solution even amongst the most convinced of Unionists—i.e., those who believe that in the Union we already have the true solution —consists in a state of agnosticism which still leaves the agnostics perfectly willing to test any new proposal, i provided they can get an assurance that there is even a sporting chance of that proposal being effective. Experi- enced statesmen, like experienced doctors, do not naturally care for patent remedies, but here are all the consultants agreed to try any patent remedy, and run very great risks in.doing so, if only one is suggested which offers a reasonable chance of relief to the patient, and does not obviously create worse evils than those which the proposed remedy sets out to cure.

That ought to be a hopeful position, and in one sense we believe it is. Desiring, as we do most intensely, that one more effort shall be made to free the nation from the Irish imbroglio, and determined as we are to raise no factious objections and not to push criticism beyond its necessary and legitimate limits, we are, however, bound to point out that unless there

a distinct change in the way the problem is being ap- ',leached, we shall have not only another failure, but one of the failures which greatly aggravate the disease. At present it is hardly too much to say that "How not to do it " is the description which best applies to the solution campaign that is being begun in a well-known manner and under well-known auspices in the Picas.

On Monday appeared a well-balanced, moderate, and, in spite of a certain vagueness, thoroughly well-intentioned leading article in the Times, advocating the entry into that haven which we all long for—a change in the Constitution that will satisfy Ireland, be just to all her inhabitants, and do no injury to British interests—a scheme which will in effect make us all friends and brothers. Side by side with this appears an impulsive letter from Loid Northcliffe (who we are glad to see is doing well after a serious operation) to the heroes of the Atlantic flight, in which he speaks of the flight being from the ancient Dominion of Newfoundland to " the future equally happy and prosperous Dominion of Ireland." If we are to judge by the, subsequent comments in the North- cliffe Press, the world, nay, two worlds, have been affected by this expression. Every one in America, and most people here, it is hinted, have suddenly begun to say to each other : " After all, why shouldn't there be an Irish Dominion, just as there is a Newfoundland Dominion ? Let us all agree to swear eternal friendship. There is just time to toast A Free and Happy Ireland' before we all go ' dry.' " Alas ! alas ! these " happy and timely gener- alities " go a vet), little way towards solving hard facts. The cloudy mountains of rhetoric and sentiment will no doubt " shape themselves and go " at the lucky word, but from such intellectual one-minute cures we awaken to find that it is only a dream. The application of the Dominion principle to Newfoundland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa was imme- diately and unreservedly successful owing to the fact that the vast majority of the persons conceraed wanted a Dominion, and that there were no physical facts which interfered with its creation. In the ease of Ireland things are very different. It is all very well for Lord Northcliffe to talk about the " future Dominion " Which he no doubt ardently desires, but unfortunately a Dominion is just tho thing which nobody resident (or shall we say militant ?) in Ireland seems to want. The Sinn Feiners repudiate it bitterly. The Nationalists may want it in their hearts, but for the most part they are afraid to say that they want it. The Loyalists of the South are openly opposed to it. The men of North-East Ulster will only assent to it-provided that they are not included in the

-arrangement. To put the matter in another way : The more one inquires into the Irish question; the– more Convinced one becomes that the best, and indeed the only practicable, Dominion solution of the Irish problem is the one which has been so often sketched in these columns.

Let that portion of Ireland in which the local majority are strongly in favour of autonomy be given a system of Dominion government, a system like that which prevails in Canada or Newfoundland. At the same time, let that portion of Ireland in which the local majority do not want to be formed into a Dominion of their own, and who would die rather than be placed under the domination of a Dominion centred in Dublin, but who are passionately determined to remain in the United Kingdom and to send their representatives as now to Westminster, also have its will.

It is now admitted by all sides that if the Nationalists and Sinn Feiners will consent to such an arrangement

—i.e., if they will take "Dominion without Domination "- they can have it to-morrow. But, alas ! when the matter is put to them, based on what every Englishman holds to be perfectly reasonable principles (principles, it may be remembered, which were followed to their logical conclu- sion in America in the case of Virginia when the State of Western Virginia was founded), the Southern and Western Irish fall into a passion, and declare that no power will ever induce them to assent to the partition of the sacred soil of Leland. They fling back in our faces the gift of Dominion autonomy offered to them, unless with it is included the right to put down the resistance of North- Fast Ulster with fire and sword.

In these circumstances it is of little use for Lord North- cliffe, or any other well-meaning person, to talk about Dominion government for Ireland. It is the blue rose, the roc's egg, which every one would like to have but which is quite unobtainable. And here let its say that it is no good for people who are disappointed at this impasse to try to lay the blame upon the people of North-East Ulster. No blame attaches to them. They have told us in the frankest and fullest way that they do not follow in spirit the Nationalists of the South and West. They make no claim whatever to veto Dominion government or any other form of government for the South and West, for the portion of Ireland, that is, which desires it. " Though we think that the South and West will lose, not gain, by separation from the United Kingdom, we have no desire to impose our view of the matter upon others. We should regret partition, but here again we recognize that we have no right to force our view upon others." It is not North-East Ulster, or the Six-County Area, which vetoes the Dominion solution, but the South and West. For what right have they to declare that the partition of the sacred soil of Ireland cannot for a moment be tolerated ? Their blood is no purer than that of the Virginians, yet the Virginians had to agree to partition, and probably would now admit that the change was to the good, and that they are better off as the homogeneous community which they are than if their community were diluted with a population with such different ideals as those entertained by the people of West Virginia. The anti-partition cry in Ireland is indeed either a piece of self-delusion, or else a disguise for the claim to oppress, the kind of claim which defeated Germany still makes in respect of Posen, Slesvig, and Alsace-Lorraine.

When then it is insinuated that all we have got to do is to create an Irish Dominion, it is difficult to refrain from saying, " Thank you for nothing." The trouble is not to draw a Dominion Constitution, but to find anybody who will accept it when it is drawn. To pretend, that things are otherwise is not to produce a solution, but to forbid it, for a true solution can only come from a facing of the real facts and not dream facts.

But if harm has been done by injudicious talk about Dominions, what are we to say about so capital and so humiliating an ineptitude as that perpetrated by the Prime Minister when he not only allowed, but actually facilitated and encouraged, the visit to Ireland of those egregious politicians who call themselves "The American Commission of Inquiry in Ireland " ? These persons, for whom Mr. Lloyd George provided special passports to Ireland, have produced a Report so gross, so fictitious, se poisonous, that it is to be feared that very great harm will be done by its publication in America. That the facts are

all false, and that the Chief Secretary for Ireland has had no difficulty whatever in proving them so, is nothing to the point. In a case like this, give the lie a fortnight's start and you will never catch it up throughout the great American Continent. Especially is this so in the par- ticular circumstances. The fact that the Irish-Ameri- cans can with some colour call themselves an official Commission, and claim that they were given special facilities to see alt that could be seen by the British Govern- ment, will enable their Report to convey an impression which we shall find it almost impossible to counteract. The Irish Deputation in America will meet Mr. Macpher- son's denials by blandly declaring : " Of course the British Government contradict us. That is the way of all Govern- ments, and especially of a Government so tyrannical as the English. The Tsar denied Siberia, but Siberia was there all the same," and so on.

It will be urged, no doubt, that though it is a great misfortune that the minds of the American people should be poisoned by the monstrous lies manufactured by the Irish-American delegates, it is very unfair to lay the blame upon Mr. Lloyd George, or to class this as an example of that levity, and therefore unfitness to rule this nation,

upon which the Spectator is always harping. How could he be made responsible for such people as Messrs. Walsh

and Dunne ? How could he have known that they would behave as they did ? Our answer is that he or any- body else who was not a congenital imbecile must have known, if only five minutes had been spent in considering the matter, that Irish-American delegates belonging to Irish Sinn Fein Societies if allowed to proceed to Ireland would do precisely the kind of things which they did, and would produce exactly the kind of Report which they have produced. The thing was certain from the very moment that their passports were signed.

Possibly a country clergyman might have been expected not to predict accurately the course of events ; but to say that it is unfair to expect a politician of Mr. Lloyd George's acuteness, with thirty years' personal experience of party politics, not to realize the kind of trick that would be played upon him is absurd. The plain, disagreeable truth is that Mr. Lloyd George had not the strength or balance of characW required to think out

even so simple a matter as this. He just said " Yes " to

the American delegates, or to those who pleaded their cause, because it was easier than to say. No." That does not of course condemn Mr. Lloyd George as a bad man, but it does raise grave doubts as to the wisdom of allowing him to exercise autocratic rights of rule in the British Empire. Every man may make mistakes, but

do not let us forget that a few snore mistakes of this hind. and the British Empire would cease to exist. Surely this

is a moment when our Prime Minister might have been expected to use a little care to prevent the snapping, and the snapping in anger, of all the delicate threads of good- will that have been spun between Britain and America during the war. However, we confess that Mr. Lloyd George's blunder over the American delegation is so humiliating and so exasperating that we must forbear saying anything more about it. From these acts of negligence amounting to crime one would fain turn one's head away and pass by in silence. Let us end by a summary of reminders of the essential facts of the Irish question. If those who are trying to solve the Irish problem will only keep these points in their heads, they will, we admit, not get comforting dream solutions, but at any rate they will not incur the bitter disappointment involved in efforts, however well inten- tioned, to grasp the unattainable:

L We cannot give Ireland complete Independence because to do so would (a) imperil the safety and welfare of Great Britain ; (b) hand over the the Ulster Protestants to their bitterest foes.

II. We can give Dominion Government to Ireland because under Dominion Government the integ- rity of the Empire is secure and the danger of Ireland falling into foreign hands is prevented.

III. We cannot, however, create a Dominion for all Ireland, but only for that part of Ireland in which the local majority desires it—i.e., for Ire- land exclusive of the homogeneous area known as North-East Ulster. or the Six-County Area.

IV. If the South and West of Ireland will not take complete Dominion autonomy for themselves unless they are allowed to forbid self-determina- tion in North-East Ulster, we must maintain the status quo.

V. We must remember that the status quo is not a condition of oppression, or ruin, or destruction, but a fair and democratic system of Govern- ment.

VI. Let us clear our minds of the canting belief that a solution can be found for every human difficulty. It is no more true that every political problem has its solution than that 'every disease has its specific cure.