TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NEW HOME RULE BILL. THE new Home Rule Bill, the full text of which is now before the country, is the inevitable sequel to the demand of the Irish majority for " sell- determination." Granted that that demand should be honoured, we do not ourselves see how there could be a much better Home Rule Bill than the present one. Before we go further let us say, however, that it is our firm conviction that in this instance the fashionable phrase " self-determination " has been used for a wrong purpose and in a misguided sense. The marked religious and racial divisions in Ireland, with all their accompanying bitterness, jealousy, and mistrust, have hitherto made it impossible for Irishmen to carry on their own affairs amicably or effectually. The best solvent of all the Irish difficulties has proved to be the incorporating Union, because it, has provided a system of government which has divided Irishmen as little as possible. We have never pretended that it was an ideal solution, for no solution can be ideal which leaves a great number of people in a perpetual state of disaffection. All we have ever said is that the Union rightly holds the field because no better solution, nor indeed any other nearly so good, has been invented. Under it Irishmen have been treated not only with impartiality and consideration but with generosity. We are still of that opinion. As, however, the British people seem to think that the demand of the Irish majority for self-determination must at length be granted, it is the duty of all those who are scrupulous to have every political doctrine applied with justice and as accurately as possible to see that self-determination, while professing to remove old injustices, does not create new ones.
If self-determination be truly applied in Ireland, what must necessarily happen ? Surely it is obvious that those parts of Ireland where the Roman Catholic and Nationalist (or Sinn Fein) populations are predominant, though they lave a right to determine their own fate, have not a right to determine the fate of a solid block of Irishmen elsewhere, considerable both in numbers and in wealth, who would rather die fighting than submit to a supreme Roman Catholic and Separatist Parliament in Dublin. Such a block is to be found in the Six Counties which form the North-East portion of Ulster. The chief merit of the Bill is that it applies the idea of self-determination with logic. In our judgment, this logical basis is the only one upon which a future conciliated Ireland can be built up. Conceivably the Southern and Northern Parliaments which are provided for in the Bill will unite in the end. If the Bill should become law, that unity is the consummation for which all men of goodwill must work and pray. No one would be more devoutly thankful than we should be if at last a means were found of uniting Ireland. But whatever happens we must in the meantime cling firmly to the logic of self- determination because it is the only way to justice. The people of North-East Ulster must not be bullied or denounced if they decide, as they have a perfect right to do, that it would not be safe for them to accept the pro- posals of the Bill. They are the judges of their own fate, and nobody can possibly assume the role of judge on their behalf. We should not be using language too strong if we said that we have been disgusted by recent attempts in several English newspapers which used to be Unionist to ignore all the natural heart-searchings and misgivings of Ulster Protestants and Unionists, and to regard them as a mere piece which must somehow be fitted into the jig-saw puzzle of Ireland. If Irish Nationalists have their cravings for national self-expression, so have the Ulster Unionists their cravings for their own form of self- expression, which is to be loyal to Great Britain and as closely as possible attached to Great Britain.
No fair-minded observer of the movements of thought in Ulster can say that the Ulster Unionists are merely,. intransigent. They do not claim for themselves a right to veto self-determination in other parts of Ireland. They know how pressing are the national aspirations of most Roman Catholic Irishmen. A Separatist Irishman once said to the present writer : " English people go on talking about the generosity of the Land Laws in Ireland, about the over-representation of Ireland at Westminster, and about the handsome Exchequer grants made to Ireland for things which Englishmen have to pay for by local tax- ation. I admit all that. But it does not touch the real grievance of Ireland. We want to be a ' nation,' and we will never be satisfied till we are a nation. Till you under- stand that you understand nothing." That is the kind of argument which is certainly not being ignored by Ulster Unionists now that the movement apparently has the support of a majority of Englishmen, including many who used to call themselves Unionists. Whether Sir Edward Carson will advise his friends to abstain from voting on the second reading of the Bill, or whether he will advise them to accept the Bill at the outset, we do not know. Rumours that he will do one or the other are certainly signs that he earnestly wishes to do what seems best in the circumstances for his country and for the whole Empire. There is no more monstrously per- verted legend than that which represents Sir Edward. Carson as a wild and bigoted man, selfish and ferocious like the extreme Sinn Fein leaders. For our part, we feel absolutely assured that if Sir Edward Carson and his friends decide that they cannot accept the Bill, they will do so for sound and well-considered reasons. In that event we shall have to say that North-East Ulstermen cannot be browbeaten, even though some of our news- papers which have abandoned their Unionism may resort to such unfair pressure. What an outrage this would be ! We can hardly believe that even those who have aban- doned their belief in the Union, and are content to pooh- pooh North-East Ulster because it is convenient to do so from the point of view of party politics, can really have forgotten that the people of North-East Ulster did not, like many of their compatriots, stab us in the back during the war, did not turn their principal city into a shambles in the name of revolution, have not attempted to exter- minate innocent policemen as though they were vermin, and have not merely kept the peace within their own borders but have maintained a splendid patriotism and an affec- tionate allegiance to the United Kingdom through good and evil report. If ever it came to deciding on the merits of the case between the interests of these people and the interests of the Shin Feiners, Englishmen would earn obloquy for all time if they decided against Ulstermen just because they have not committed outrages and have not wearied us all by their importunity. As regards the Bill itself, it follows the expected lines. It provides for the establishment of two Irish Parliaments —a Northern and a Southern—and a Council of Ireland. The object of the Council is to bring about " harmonious action between the Parliaments and Governments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland." Northern Ireland as. defined in the Bill is to consist of the six North- East Ulster counties. The Council of Ireland will consist to begin with of delegations of 20 Members from each of the Parliaments. The President will be appointed by the King. The constitution Of the Council is subject to modification by the two Parliaments. Clause III. of the Bill, which is very important, enables the two Parlia- ments to establish a Parliament for the whole of Ireland in place of the Council of Ireland. If this United Parlia- ment should be established, it might consist of either one or two Houses. The Northern and Southern Parlia- ments are each to consist of a single Chamber called the House of Commons. The Ministers are to be called the Executive Committee of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively. Each Parliament is to hold -a Session at least once a year. The Southern Parliament will consist of 128 Members and the Northern Parliament of 52 Members. The electorate will be the same as the electorate for the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Elections will be conducted on the system of Proportional Representation, each elector having one transferable vote. The normal life of each Parliament is to be five years. Peers will not be disqualified for membership of either the Northern or Southern Parliament. The number of Members to be returned by Ireland to the Parliament of the United Kingdom is 42. As for finance, it is provided that so long as the Irish contribution to the Imperial Exchequer continues to be 18 million pounds a year, 56 per cent. of that' contribution shall be apportioned to Southern Ireland and 44 per cent. to Northern Ireland. These figures, which have of course been carefully adjusted to correspond to the existing facts of taxation, will be an eye-opener to those who have pretended that North-East Ulster is an inconsiderable community which can fairly be ignored in any scheme of national self-determination. If the Irish contribution should change from 18 million pounds a year, a Joint Exchequer Board is to make a new apportionment corre- sponding to the taxable capacities of the two areas. The legal clauses provide for a separate Judiciary in each are ), with a High Court of Appeal for the whole of Ireland. But in a few cases an appeal will lie from the Irish High Court of Appeal to the House of Lords. If questions should arise as regards the powers of the Council of Ireland, the doubtful points will be submitted to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Act is to come into operation on the first Tuesday in the eighth month after the month in which it became law. The two Par- liaments are to meet not later than four months after the Act has come into operation. The last clause of this new Home Rule Bill repeals the Home Rule Act of 1914.
We hope that the House of Commons will give par- ticular attention to the protection of Unionist minorities in the South and West of Ireland. This is a matter of conscience and huinanity which demands the most careful consideration. Under the sweeping generalizations of that popular phrase " self-determination," small minorities are delivered over to the mercy of their stronger neigh- bours. But it must be a primary duty to secure that a generalization shall be prevented from inflicting the wrongs which it is notoriously capable of inflicting.
It would be ridiculous to predict, after all that has happened, that the Sinn Feiners and Nationalists will behave with reason. All we can say is that if they are able to behave rationally they will accept this Bill, and will make it a starting-point for evolving the new pros- perous and happy Ireland of their dreams. No one wants to hold out against a united Ireland if unity can possibly be attained. Sinn Feiners and Nationalists decry the very notion of a Northern Parliament because they say that it will be an adamantine self-regarding body which will tend to harden rather than diminish the existing divisions in Ireland. .Yet, as we have shown, the logic of self-determination absolutely demands the creation of this Northern Parliament—unless of course North-East, Ulster should be allowed to remain simply as an English county without a Parliament at all, for that too would be a-method of self-determination. It would be wise of Nationalists and Sinn Feiners to accept what is in reality a splendid opportunity, perhaps the best they are ever likely to get, and to attempt to work the scheme with such temperate- ness and efficiency tliat they will deprive Englishmen and Ulster Unionists of all desire to stand in their way. The decision of North-East Ulster, by which we say frankly we shall consider it a duty to be guided, hangs in the balance. The leaders of the South and West, if they are capable of statesmanship, will turn even the present moment to their advantage by dissociating themselves from the terrible crimes which are still shaming the name of their country.
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