ULSTER THE STUMBLING-BLOCK.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—Mr. C. Eason, in your issue of November 26th, questions the accuracy of a statement in my letter which appeared in the Spectator of November 12th. Mr. Eason does not seem to have read my short communication with that clarity of understanding which I trust he possesses. I made no reference to the proportion of Protestants to Roman Catholics either in the six counties or in all Ireland. My assertion was that probably over one-third of the inhabitants of the island desire to remain citizens of the British Empire, and I believe I sub- stantially underestimated the proportion; among these are many Roman Catholics and practically all the Protestant Home Rulers. For example, in the six Ulster counties at the elec- tion in May, 1921, out of 131,228 non-Unionist voters, no less than 45,263 voted against the Sinn reiners in spite of the gun- men. Again, in Belfast, at the same election, 19,315 dauntless Home Rulers voted against the Republic, which only secured 18,751 voters. I do not therefore quarrel with his statement that the Protestants of Ireland only number 26.14 per cent. of the whole population, for his observation is irrelevant. Ills assertion that the Protestants in the six counties only amount to 18.7 per cent. is so grotesque that I can only assume that it is a slip of the pen. As a matter of fact, the figures for the six counties are :—Protestants tka.58 per cent., Roman Catholics 34.42 per cent.
Mr. Eason brings in the Subject of religion, which I had purposely avoided. I feel justified, therefore, in drawing the attention of your readers to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has created a precedent for the partition of Ireland. Its action will be interesting to the numerous Irish patriote who live in the past. During the siege of Rochelle in 162; envoys from Ireland proposed to Cardinal Richelieu to cede Ulster to France and to separate Ireland from England. After Richelieu's death the negotiations were resumed, and the envoys, one of whom was the Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland and another an Irish Bishop, actually signed a cession of Ulster to France! The curious reader will find the occur- rence recorded by the well-known French historian, F. A. J. Mazure, in his history of the English Rebellion of 1688. There are indications that the vendetta against Ulster is failing the truth is leaking out at last; politicians and journalists are hastening to jump with the cat. At Leicester and Tonbridga and in the Sunday illustrated papers we find the omens Propitious. The British public have long been kept in ignorance of the true state of affairs, but once they realize the depravity of the proposed bargain to buy the apparent allegiance of Sinn Fein by selling Ulster they will, as they have always done in the past, rally round their friends and deal faithfully with their deluders.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Ax UISTERMAN.
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