We quite agree with Sir Edward Carson that Belfast is
the key of the situation, or, as we wrote last December, unless the Dublin Parliament has got the rich city of Belfast and the manufacturing districts of the North to tax it will be bankrupt in six months. But, as we argued then, the first step is not the formation of a provisional Government, though that may have to come. It is the resolute demand for a separate Parliament or separate treatment for North-East Ulster. We believe now, as we believed then, that if the loyal Ulster men take up that attitude they can smash a Home Rule Bill. In fine we cannot do better than repeat our advice of nine months ago :—
" If, however, the people of North-East Ulster, though unwilling to be thrown out of the United Kingdom, have in the last resort asked for self-government, and have had that request refused, they will have immensely strengthened their right to resist, and will have given the voluntary Government which it is understood they mean to create in the event of the attempt being made to rule them from Dublin a sanction which could not be obtained in any other way."
Previous page
