The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-08
Asquith's Refusal to Re ceive Cork Delegation May Cost Government Support
IlaMIHmhmf TMFmGlrmHm miF
(BY TIMOTHY !. O'coNNoR.

AeD'A"' NVN'' f-Ihe Brime Minister a few days ago informed MT. ". o'Brien that he did not intend to re- ceive the Jeputation from Cork which the member for that city had organ ized to call attention to the threaten ed deadlock in land purchase. The government, said Mir. Asquith, were already acquainted with the views of the deputation, and intended. shortly to submit their proposals. When ask ed whether there was a precedent for refusing to receive 8 deputation, Mir. Asquith replied that all his time would be taken up with deputations if he acceded to every request that was made. Mir. O'Brien then threw the responsibility for the failure of the act and the disappearance of the pros poets of peace In Ireland on the gov ernment If their proposals "smashed' the agreement of 1903- This declara- tion was cheered by T. M. Healy. Mfr Crean, Mir. Sheehan. and Thomas o'DonneIl
 Subsequently MT. o'Brien sent let ter to the press in which he said: Nobody in the House-least of all Mr. Asquith himself--took seriously tho excuse that Prime Minister who had just been spending the afternoon re-
 
 eloud-eompelling. deputation on local option in Scotland. could not spare an hour to listen to a joint deputation of landowners and tenants. acknowledg- ed to be the most remarkable that ever proceeded from Ireland upon a topic so urgent as the choice between paclfica- tion and Qn MT. Birrell's phrase) hell" which the Ministry have to make. Nor can it be believed that an ad- ministration whose success in Ireland depends absolutely upon the co-opera- tion of the combined forces presented by the deputation, put this affront upon them willingly in the mere gaiety of their hearts. The explana- tion Is more simple one. Mir. Asquith's action was dictated to him by Mir. John Dillon, who, two days bee fore Mir. BirreIl's letters to Mir. Butch- CT and myself. published in The Free mans Journal a bull of major ex-com. munication against the union of iand- lords and tenants on the peace plat form fin Cork. and gave the government the broadest hint that they must hold no barley with the deputation. Influence With Asqulth. How effective his influence was with MT. Asquith. whom Mfr. Dillon had just championed in a public speech at the expense of the Pope and the Archbishop of Westminster, is proved by the Jocility with which the Prime Minister banged the door In the face of the forces of conciliation. and had been indeed already proclaimed with something like a groau by Mr. Birrell. who in his letter to me said. 'we have to bear In mind that there are other parties interested in the question of land purchase in Ireland who will not regard themaelves ae be- 1 ing represented by your .deputation, The "other parties" as everybody In Ireland knows. are parties who are Interested in land purchase in order | to obstruct and wreck it. Among either the classes or the masses gen. orally in Ireland there is no difference as to land purchase. It is all but universally recognized as the founda- tion stone of peace and progress. But within the Irish party itself. ever since the 'spFetae injuria formae" of the land conference, there have been two opposite currents of opinion. Some of us-and if hearts could be searchel I think a majority of us-who believe in working the land purchase act and Mir Dillon and his friends, who--from equally patriotic motives l make no ouestion-believe in shipwrecking ft; they who believe that our agrarian set- clement would be the death of Home Rule. and we who believe 1t would be the death or the opIeStiVHS "
 Rule.
 As those who are known in Ireland as the Purchase Blockers" do not consider 1t judicious to take the pub- lie fully into their confidence, they urofess platonic belief in some nebuIous form of land purchase, but having satisfied these public exteen~ cies by report presented many months ago to the treasury, and
 have faieAm every precauIion to stihe any rurthef protest against the purchase strang- ling proposals of MT. Runcimaps Treasury Committee by expressly for- bidding, any agitation on the suoJect, unless four other demands which they know to be. humanly speaking. lm- possible this session. shall have first been conceded. It is upon the de- mands of this small but influential band of politicians that MT. Asqutth haa refused even the poor courtesy oI A hearing 10 the greatest allied forces of qualification ever assembled Tn IT'S land "since"--in Lord Moriey's phrase -"since the arrival or StronBpoW Ssa the Irish shore "
 Keeping The Promises.
 hone not to be misunderstood ik say that should Mir. Asquith's pro- posals bear out the foreshadowings or Mr BIrreIl's letters; in more precise terms. if the British Exchequer shoulo repudiate the very modest liability proclaimed by almost all the most con- spIcuous Liberal leaders of 1905, ana shatter what I persist in calling 1he Treaty of l903--the happiest and most fruitful ever entered into between the two countries-by whiting away the hours. increasing the tenant purenas- CTS annuities. and letting the process of abolishing Irish landloriism drag along until doomsday. 1t VIII nov oo possible for those of us wno nave hitherto striven for peace to stand any longer in the way of the forces WnlsH @ inc government will have themselves Iet loose. Our part will have been done, and any responsibility or will be at an end.
 Tn connection With the recent evic- lions on the oGara property, Lisa 5alv County Roscommon.a peacetui Set tienent has been arrived at, and the evicted tenants restored to their homes. Tba terms of settlement are that all arrears are to be wiped out on pay r1ent of two years rent and half the cess by those owing more than four vears'' rent Those owing three oH anI proportionate reduction others according to the amount aus The landlord agrees to sell to eitns the ConEested Districts Board or v. Estate Commissioners, and the tehane to buy at a maximum on the sana. z terms on which the Congested DisttiSss " RoarA nurchased the Murphy and pc Greyne estates. To enable the eNtots1 w to get back to their homes and saVS tbeir already damaged harvest tnP Rev. Father Mcguire guaranteed z, /. Al :. ,.o,o., For tha landlord, which,