The Washington herald., 1914-03-16
Battle May Be Fought in Ireland in Near Future
usTERmzx DETERMINED TO RESIST RULE BY DUBLIN PARLIAMENT AR
Home Rule Question Is Fraught with Difficulties
Before St. Patrick's Day,
1915, Rolls Around, Ar
mics Now Drilling in Emer-
aid Isle May Come to Clash.

London, March 14-Tuesday will be
the anniversary of the legendary
birthday of St Patrick Clashes be-
tween the Catholic Irishmen and the
Prctestants of Ulster Province are
expected, but these are nothing un-
usual for the saints day or ''Boyne
Water" day. The real question Is:
VIII this St Patrick's day mark the
passing OF the long years of peace in
ireland? Will Erin be deluged with
blood, as she has been so many times
before in her long history, ere St.
Patrick's Day comes round in 1915?
The coming twelvemonth is to decide
the question of Home Rule in Ire
land.
On the day when the patron saint
of the Emerald Isle is honored her
leaders will look TO a future dark and
menacing. Ireland is house divided
against itself. Despite the effects al
compromise made in the last two
weeks. the avoidance of hIoodshed is
problematicaL
There are really three struggles for
home rule involved in this question
More than a century ireland has
fought for the ending of British domi-
nation. At the same time Ulster
Province is promising to appeal to
arms before it Will allow itself to be
governed by the Catholic provinces.
Thirdly. the Catholics in Ulster. who
are not few ia number. will not
calmly submit to the rule of the Pro-
testant UIstermen. Cardinal Logue
lived in Ulster and so does Joseph
Devlin. who may succeed John Red
mOnd as leader CT the Irish National
lists. In Belfast itself one of the four
divisions is Nationalist and Catholic.
Triple Nature of Question.
The triple nature of this question
is often lost sight of. But it is the
real reason which prevents the accep-
tance of the various propositions to
separate Ulster from the rest of Ire
land: to give the Catholic provinces
home rule and let Ulster stay closely
connected politically with the rest of
Great Britain
That conditions have come to a pass
no one now will deny. No one has
denied il since December last. when
King George V invoked the customs
consolidation act of 1879 to forbid the
Importation of arms and ammunition
into Ireland.
There are today two armies of volun-
tPcrs drilling in the island. The Ma
tionalist army is the smaller and the
more recently. Its strength is very
hazy. Photographs of corps being in
spected are not Impressive.
But The Ulster army. long derided.
has strength not so problematical
as its opponents. On the evening of
the day when King George officially
recognized the gravity of the situation
by the arms order Sir Edward Car
son. the leader of the Ulster. said in
a speech at Nottingham, England.
that the Ulster volunteers had aggre-
gated 19,co0 a year before and now
numbered 90.GI0. These are the men
actually enrolled and serving. II it
came to an actual clash it is safe to
say, the Ulster leader could count on
more than twice this number.
Two hundred thousand volunteers
are not to be dismissed with a word.
They could cause much trouble even
Tor detachment of the British army
and should the volunteers # the
South Of ireland he sent against them
the conflict would be prolonged and
sangulnary.
Belfast City of Wealth.
1t is to be remembered that the
i'iStermen have in their number most
Of the principal business men of Ire
land. Belfast is the city OF wealth.
the place of mills and ship yards. The
resources Of Ireland would be at the
dispC sal OF the minority in the North,
not the majority of the other prov
inces. Many keen observers believe
this is the principal issue underlying
tn" fight against home rule. They
minimize the church issue and bring
out the fears of the Belfast merchants
that a Dublin Parliament would con-
trive to make Belfast pay all the
taxes and have Dublin and Cork take
all the Offices, lucrative contracts, and
various Patronage.
Yet the church issue is certainly a
strong one In a felicitius compari-
son writer. who had just toured
Ulster. recently. said the Orange farm
ors reminded him greatly of the South
African Beers. bigOted. a bit dull. but
ready to fight to the death with a
rife in one hand and a Bible in the
other. These men are not Celtic by
descent. but Scotch or English. They
came over mostly in the seventeenth