We do not feel in the mood to waste words
on the speeches made in the Irish debate of Wednesday, but we must record that Mr, Redmond's vote of censure was negatived by a majority only three short of two hundred (303-106). What matters at the moment is not Mr. Redmond's whinings, or Mr. Devlin's ravings about Britain's wickedness .in not allowing Ireland to bring fire, famine, and slaughter upon the six-county area of Ulster because that area desires to remain part of the 'United Kingdom and to bear its fair share of the burden of Empire. [Wednesday's debate, we may say in parenthesis, made it clearer than ever that this is what the demand for Home Rule really means. The twenty-six counties will not look at selfgovernment unless they are :given therewith the right to harry, tax, and dominate Protestant and loyalist Ulster.] What matters now is the question whether the people-of Ireland are to be made to. bear their share in beating our enemies and preventing the ruin of the nation and the 'Empire, or whether they are to be allowed to 'impose an extra, burden upon the people of England and Scotland, and also, though in a lesser degree, of the Dominions, because they are too spoilt to fight, too busy with the deluge of prosperity which the war and immunity from -military service have brought them, too self-centred even to support that gallant two per cent.. of Irishmen who are doing their bit so 'brave)/ in the trenches.
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