The Irish standard., 1911-05-27
John Redmond Says His Objection
is Rather That it is Far
Too Moderate.
No Possibility Under it of Passing
Legislation Opposed to Pop
ular Demands.
House of Lords Will Still Have
Power of Delaying Bills
For Two Years.

Tory leaders delight in appealing to
the sympathy and support of their
countrymen by endeavoring to show
that if the Veto bill passes there will
be no check on hasty and inconsider-
ate action on the part of the House
of Commons. They would have the
people believe that under the provi-
sions of the Veto bill no safeguard by
which the rights of the people can be
protected will be left. Mr. John Red
mond, however, shows that the actual
case is not nearly so bad as the Union
lists would have the people believe. In
the following extract from speech
made before body Of Welch liberals
he makes this point clear:
My objection to the Veto bill is that
it is far too moderate a measure. The
Veto of the House OF Lords is not de-
stroyed, but only limited. The power
Of the House of Lords to reject a bill
is not taken away. Under the Veto
bill they reject the measure; they can
reject it second time and it has to
be passed a third time in the third
Session in the House Of Commons, and
two years must be occupied under the
-Tetu btft,- 1T ts not until the bill
has been passed the third time in the
House of Commons in three Sessions
and two years have elapsed in the dis
cussion of it that it can be passed into
law over the heads of the House Of
Lords.
Tho British Electorate Were
Consulted.
1 say this is moderate proposal,
and there is no possibility of any bill
surviving that procedure unless it rep
resents the real will of the mass of
the people of the country, and yet Mr..
Balfour says that not only have you,
the electors, not been consulted, never
heard of Home Rule, but that it is to
be carried without consultation with
the House of Lords, although for two
long years it has the power Of rejec-
tion and delay. Now under these cir
cumstances it seems to me piece of
political impudence for any one to
make the statement that the "plot' of
the Government is to pass Home Rule
without consulting the electors and
the Second Chamber.
Thank God we are near the end of
this Irish question. That question
| which has kept apart the people of
two lands in misunderstanding and Of
ten in enmity, that question which has
poisoned the whole relations between
Great Britain and Ireland for more
| than a century. 1t has paralyzed and
| sterilized your own Parliament 1t has
| stood in the way of every great So
cial and political reform needed by the
mass of the people of England, Scot
| land and Wales. 1t has weakened and
| disgraced the British Empire in the
eyes of the world. 1t has ruined and
depopulated Ireland, and turned a
| brave, and by instinct and nature a
| loyal race into rebels against an EN-
pire which they themselves had as
| much share in building up as the peo-
pie of any other part Of the Empire.
This wretched system has been MAIN
{oi iv, he int Of ho
form of class and religious ascend
ency, hut today, as Mr.. Griffith has
said, today is the day of the Democ-
racy.
An Accused Edifice Of Oppression 10
Ireland.
When the franchise was extended 1t
| was said that King Demos had come
of age; it was a mistake. Until the
power of the House Of Lords is curbed
and limited the Democracy will not
have come of age, but when the Veto
! bill is passed then for the first time
| the Democracy of Great Britain will
| really be masters of their own coun-
try, and their first work will be to
pull down the loathsome and plague
spreading and accursed edifice of op-
preston and misgovernment in Ire
| land. Now what is to go in it's place ?
You may say to me after all: You
have been talking in generalities, per-
"