No Sinn Feiner wants any fantastic system of Federalism. He
wants practical independence. So, at prevent, do the Nationalists. In spite of Mr. Lloyd George's denial that Conscription and the grant of 'Home Rule are in any way dependent upon each other, the interdependence of the two is so obvious in practice that the breakdown of one would mean the breakdown of the other. How- ever, the failure to secure from Ireland the men we require for the Army, though in every way to be deplored, would show us finally who were our friends and who were our enemies. The most remarkable fact in the situation is that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy has placed itself definitely at the head of the anti- Conscription movement. There is a triple alliance between the Nationalist leaders, the Hierarchy, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who have together become the trustees of the Irish National Defence Fund.
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