The daily sentinel., 1912-07-23


cided that faster progress must be
made with the committee stage OF
the Home Rule bill.
The bill went to the committee OF
the whole house on June II, and al
though four days have since been Civ
en- to consideration of the amend
ments offered even the first clause
has not vet been passed. This was
largely due to the fact that the gov
ernment gave the members their own
time for discussion and no attempt
was made to introduce either the
"guillotine' or kangaroo closure,
two means which the minister in
charge has of shortening the debate.
That one of these means must and
will be introduced goes without say
ing as otherwise the opposition could
block the bill forever.
The kangaroo" will probably be
adopted, as ii leads to less friction.
To do this a resolution is passed by
the House in ordinary session en-
powering the chairman of committee
to pick out what amendments he be-
lieves to be most important and al
low discussion on them skipping al
the rest.
The "quillotine" is more ruthless
simply moves the closure when and
stop.
The first and most important
amendment was introduced by Mr..
Agar-Robartes, Cornish member,
woh like many non-conformists OF
Cornwall, fears that his fellow-reli-
gionists would not receive fair play
from the Catholic majority in Ire
land. He moved that the Northeast
ern counties of Ulster (Antrim, Ar
magh. Down and Londonderry
should not be included in the opera
tions of the bill. On this amendment
the governments majority dropped to
So, but this was largely due to the
absence of l6 Labor members and no
fewer than IL Liberals, either
through illness or being engaged in
labor disputes and by-elections in the
country. Five liberals, however, aC-
tually voted against the government.
These were Mr.. Agar-Robartes and
his colleague from Cornwall, Sir Cliff
ford Cory, who is pronounced anti
Home Ruler, and three Scotch Liber-
ais, who have Heretofore been counted
among the supporters of Home Rule.
These latter, like Mr.. Agar -Robartes,
having registered their objection to
Protestant Ulster being included,
will probably support the bill through
the rest of its stages.
Among the Irish Unionists them
selves, outside the House, there was
q. decided difference of opinion on the
adivisability of this amendment, al
though it received the full support
of the Unionists in the House. There
is large body of Unionist opinion
in ireland that believes that, should
Home Rule come, the Nationalist
party would be split into two camps,
Radical and Conservative, the former
led by Joseph Devlin and the latter
by John Redmond, and that the con-
troll of the Dublin Legislature would
fall into the hands OF the Ulster and
Dublin business men. and, therefore,
it would be advantageous to have as
many Ulster members in the House as
possible.
The other amendment, also intro
duced by private Liberal member,
proposed that the provision for a sec
ond chamber or senate should be de-
leted. This was one of the most dan
gerous amendments that could be in
troduCed, as all the Labor members
and large number of Radicals are
pronounced one-chamber men. The
loyalty of the Laborites to the Ma
tionalists, who have in the past been
of assistance to the Labor Party more
than once, however, saved the day
and gave the government a majority
of SO, still 20 below the normal ma
iority, but better than the GO of the
day before
One of the strongest pleas for sin
lfr1a Ha,
the Radical members with Colonial
experience, who claimed that it had
worked well when tried in the Do
minion. Joseph Martin, a former
premier of British Columbia and
member of the Federal House at OF
tawa, was one of the most persistent
supporters of the amendment, giving
the Canadian provinces as example
of the benefits of single houses.
The Unionists supported the
amendment, believing that the Labor
ties would do likewise and that the
government majority would reach
near vanishing point. Arthur Bal
four, who although no longer titular
leader, still often takes actual lead,
spoke on behalf OF the opposition
The house grew merry when he, a
pronounced two-chamber man, want
ed only one for Ireland. He justified
his position, however. with the argu-
ment that two chambers were neces-
sary where great Imperial questions
were considered, but not so in the
case of a Legislature which was meant
to do small, subordinate and local
work"
William O'Brien intends to move
an amendment to clause 2 of the bill