Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-12
BOYNE DAY SEES
HOPE FOR IRISH
Home Rule Measure to Come
Before Parliament Next Week
May Lead to Permanent
Settlement

Il for a renewal of ancient bitterness be-
tween Unionists and ationalists-should
ebe memorable In the annals of Ireland as
synchronous with an official announce
ment which gives hope of the first tangi-
BILE step toward disentangling the Gov.
ernments Of Great Britain and ireland
since home rule became a big parlia-
mentary issue forty years ago. Only two
days ago Premier Asquith announced
that next week the bill for a home rule
plan, to remain in force during the war
and for None year thereafter, would be
introduced in the Commons The bill ex-
cludes the six of the nine counties of
Ulster in which the Protestant Unlonists
greatly exceed in number the Catholic
Nationalists; these six counties will not
be ruled by the8Dublin Parliament
The new Parliament will be constituted
by transferring the 7s members repre-
senting the Irish home rule counties in
the British Commons to Dublin. The
total Irish representation is tO3, of whom
25 sit for the six excluded Ulster coun-
ties But the 7S will retain their MEM
bership In the Imperial Parliament at
Westminster Ia, typical British anomaly. 1
| as the Irish Parliament will not have
much work to do at first Considerable
| representation of the Unionist interests
in the south and west of ireland will be
| provided through the nomination of their
| representatives to the Irish Senate. A
year after the war is over this arrange.
| ment will come before the Great Inn
perial Conference which will adjust the
| government of the British Empire
1t is not likely, after the entering
wedge of a separate Parliament has been 5
driven home, that there will be any with (
drawal Of authority over purely Irish
affairs from the Irish legislators Yet
nothing is certain in this most ticlslish
of British problems, and thousands of
Irishmen in this country as we'll as at
home will find no satisfaction in the tenn
porary arrangement, and the permanent
home rule plan to be devised by the
conference will probably be only a signal
for another agitation for an entirely in
dependent Irish republic
Facing a World of Critics
In this agitation England will act
under the eye of America in way that
she has never experienced before. Even
more significant than the criticism that
mas DeeU dlIleu at Germany Is tne world
wide criticism of England, for denuncia-
tions of Germany have been mostly for
specific acts of individuals, while the
swelling chorus of complaint against
England in which even many who wish
her to win have voice, strikes at the very
fabric of her governmental and social
system. If this war is being fought to
determine whether the British or the
Prussian civilization is to survive;
whether this is to be an "Anglo-Saxon
world" or a "Prussian world" America,
which evidently desires it to be the for
mer. will make her influence felt, as the
most populous English-speaking nation.
for the extension to Ireland of an au-
tonomy that England is professedly
fighting to give to Belgium-that is, for
a realization of that "Anglo-Sa world"
of which the virtually autonomous gov
ernments of Canada, Australia, South
Africa and New Zealand are only be-
ginning in the right direction.
The Legislation of 1914
If Ireland is added to these self-gov-
erning democracies it will be only through
humility and self-critcsm learned by
England through the price she must pay
for victory In war For there was no sign
of these virtues up to the moment that
the Great War postponed an Irish crisis
that was heading toward civil war. Few
persons recall now that English troops
fired on a crowd of Nationalists in Dub
lin. killing four persons and woundingA
60. on July &C. only two days before the
war broke out. This event, occurring
camp, with nearly 100000 Orangemen
under arms in Ulster and many thou
sands of Nationalists forming volunteer
regiments and receiving arms from gum
runners, never has received attention pro-
portionate to it's importance, as the Euro
pean conflict wiped 1t out of the news"
by calling the possible participants in 3
civil war to the battlefields of France.
1t is worth while reviewing the events
which made the Boyne Day of 1914 a
day to be dreaded, When the British Par.
lament met in February 1914. to take
up the Irish question Walter Long chal-
lenged the Premier TO submit home rule ,
to vote of the country. He said 100000
men were ready to die in Ulster rather
than submit to Dublin Parliament. AS
quith replied that the home rule bill had
been twice passed and would automatl.
cally become law that year on its third
passage.
There followed the agitation of Sir Ed,
ward Carson, which stirred up Ulster TO
the point of open rebellion. Asquith
feared to press the bill TO an issue. He.
offered compromise after compromise. He
suggested that the various counties in
Ulster hold referendums on the question
whether they should be included in the
Irish Government. This Ulster rejected.
many British officers resigned
their commissions rather than fight
against Unionists in Ulster Matters APP
crisis in that July which saw
the first shots fired on the Danube. King
George at last took a hand-an amazing
breach OF precedent. He called a round
table conference at Buckingham Palace
and delivered to the opposing leaders an