The Washington herald., 1917-06-24

Sinn Fein candidate. In another q
young woman threatened to burn the
house down over her fathers head
II he did not vote for Sim Fein.
The movement is largely one Of
young men. and young women. II
Is following new lines OF division, not
religious or racial, but causing cleav-
ages within families such as we have
, not seen since the Parnell split. The
trouble 10 that young people in Ire
land, as In every country, know lit
] tie OF the national history Of the last
/ thirty years. What they have been
taught Is the history OF hfty or a
hundred or thousand years ago. The
recent events that would allay the Bit
terness against England they know
nothing about.
But the comparative success of the
! Sinn Fein agitation must be ascribed
to the cumulative effect OF q series
OF events producing the conviction
that the British government does
not mean business, that all the time
Irish people. and that its promises
and pledges are absolutely worthless.
First of all, there was the lesson
taught by Sir Edward Carson. He
tried the weapon Of constitutional agi-
tation, and no attention was paid to
him. Then he started arming and
drilling and preparing for revolution,
and openly threatened rebellion.
Whereupon British ministers, instead
Of Furnishing him and his followers.
| yielded to him and found salvation in
the formula that it Is unthinkable to
coeree Ulster.
This surrender of the government
, caused the Nationalists of Ireland to
believe that you must prod John Bull
with q bayonet before he will listen
| to you. But the most disastrous in
iuence Of all has been the course
followed during and after the rebellion
in Dublin last year. For 800 years
no one hSd been executed in Great
Britain or ireland as the result Of
secret court-martials. Do you realize
| that, up to the present moment, there
has not been published q single word
OF the evidence on the strength Of
which the men who were executed
were convicted and shot? The late
prime minister promised me in the
house Of commons that this evidence
should be made public, but the new
government has refused to honor the
pledge. Then. there were the whole
sale arrests Of men, many of whom
had no more to do with the revolt
than you had. The military swept
the country. seizing men right and
left. taking everybody the police, had
any motive for wishing to get into
prison"
Lord MacDonnell. Of swinford. under
secretary to Ireland for six years, and
warm advocate Of home rule. con-
sented to the publication of his views
regarding the present position of Ul-
ster. so far as 1 know at present"
he said, Sir Edward Carson and his
friends maintain now the same i'm
practicable attitude which they took
up before the war. They insist today,
as in 1914, on partition Of Ireland. and
the exclusion from the Jurisdiction of
the Irish Parliament of all the six
northeastern countries. / have seen IL
stated that all concessions on the
question have hitherto come from the
side OF Ulster. while from the Nation
alist side there has been no conces-
sion at all. That seems to me an
amusing traYesty Of the facts.
What, in brief, has been the attI-
tude Of the Ulster party since the IN
home rule bill in 1872? Their attitude
at the outset was one Of absolute re-
fusal to consider the question Of home
rule on any terms whatever. Their cry
was, We will not have home rule in
Ireland, When public opinion in
events made their attitude untenable,
It was followed by what was called
the policy of the clean-out-the exclu-
sion Of all Ulster from the jurisdiction
OF the Irish Parliament. But there are
several counties in Ulster with popula-
tions as predominantly nationalist as
Limerick or Tipperary, and when this
fact came home to the mind OF Parli-
ment, the clean-cut policy had to be
abandoned. The final claim put for
ward was the exclusion Of the six
northeastern counties, in which the
strength OF Ulster unionism il con-
centrated
But of these six countries, two at
least, Tyrone and Fermanagh, though
having large intermixture OF Union
lists and Orangemen. are still pre-
dominantly Nationalist and Catholics:
and the majority in these counties very
strongly object to exclusion from par
| ticipation in their countrys ParIia-
ment, the goal Of their fondest politi-
cal hopes.
The position. then, is this: II the
six counties are excluded a thoroughly
unwelcome system Of government will
pc imposed upon 40, 19l Catholics and
Nationalists, while IL only the four
truly Unionist and Orange counties
are excluded, an unwelcome system of
government will be forced upon only
it'll Unionists and Orangemen. VIII
any impartial man hold that 1t is
more consistent with British constitu-
play to impose an unwelcome system
! OF government upon the majority
| rather than the minority? The prln-
ciple Of the majority Is the bedrock Of
British parliamentary government.
Why is It to be broken in the case of
Ulster. seeing especially that Ulster
/ Nationalists are thoroughly loyal and
law-abiding people, and have not, like
their covenating neighbors, banded
themselves together to resist the
ibid not Mr.. Redmond and his
party, during the negotiations carried
on with them by Mr.. Lloyd George
last year, concede the principle of ex-
cluding all the six Ulster counties?''
Lore MacDonnell was asked.
They made no such concession" +"
he replied. Those negotiations
They were open to revision at the
end OF the war, and in order 10
preserve ireland effective freedom
OF action at such a revision, it was
provided that Irish representation
at full strength should continue al
Westminster during the war.
On no other understanding than
that the settlement was temporary
could the Irish Parliamentary party
nave secured the agreement of
their constituencies to the propo-
sails Of Mr.. Lloyd George"
How the more extreme Irish
Unionists regard the convention
may be gathered from views which
George Moore, the prominent novel;
tst and a grandson of the president
Of the abortive Irish republic in 17S8,
expressed to me, What do you think
of the new Lloyd George scheme?' I
asked Mr.. Moore.
Monstrous," was the reply. '"The
only agreement possible regarding the
Irish q1estion Is that no agreement Is
possible. The Irish cannot govern
themselves, and that Is all there is to
be said. This convention will lead to
nothing, like the hundred other
schemes that have preceded II. No
lea so much as do, but II Is not pos
| siole that America should understand
the Irish question. None Of us who
have lived in the middle OF II all our
liYes understand IL Ii is tharafnra