The Washington herald., 1920-06-06
Chief Secretary's Arrival
Banishes Dublin S Hopes
For Revision.
OPPONENTS HELPLESS
Passage Into Law Will Ef-
feet Division of All
Ireland.
Cwashin kton Herald-Public Ledger
servfce-special Cable Dispatch.)

Cwashir kton HeraId-Public Ledger
serviee-special Gable Dispatcho
Dublin. June 5.-Simultaneously
with the arrival of Sir Hammar
Greenwood, new chief secretary,
Dublin awoke to the fact that the
home rule bill is going to become
a law, practically as 1t stands. A
month ago the welI-informed of all
political parties and the press were
saying: Nobody in Ireland wants
thiA. bill, therefore it cannot be-"
Only the Anti-Partition League,
claiming the allegiance Of two or
three members of Parliament, will
offer amendments aiming at the
enlargement of the bill into some
thing like a dominion home rule
scheme.
Opponents Lack Prestige.
These men have neither ability
in debate nor political prestige and
without the active support of Ia
Dor or the Independent Liberals,
which they are not likely to get,
they will be steam-rollered into OBJ
liyion. To put the matter In nut
shell, Parliament is either deter
mined or resigned to the fact that
the home rule bill must go through
according to plan"
The whole nut and kernel of the
measure is the division of Ireland
into its component parts, Protest
ant. Industrial, Ulidian, UlsteI,
Catholic, agricultural and Iberian
Ireland. There is one thing only
that the British Parliament can do
at the present time-it can force
Ulster out of the union. The home
rule bill does that.
Irish Egg Unscrambled.
Now the English politicians have
unscrambled the Irish eggs, bad
and otherwise. They will make a
pretense Of interesting themselves
in the details, but the retails are
really not their business.
Some claim to have seen separa-
ton coming for fifty years. The
forces that direct the destinies of
people and the broad course of his
tory are unaffected by the blunders
of statesmen or the bargains of
politicians
What will be the effect of the
passing of the home rule bill in its
present form? The setting up of
Parliament in Dublin puts England
and Ireland at arms length for the
first time and forces the abandon
ment of the fiction that tanks and
tin hats are present in Ireland by
the wish of the law-abiding Sec
ton of the Irish people.
Britain Has Power.
The British Parliament might be
prepared to deal harshly or un-
Justly with the Irish people. 1t
would never consent to deal ridicu-
lously with them
Sim Fein, as the party constitu-
tionally in power in Ireland, is in
no position to defy the British en-
pire. By the simple process of pro-
hibiting the export of coal to Ire
land the British Government can in
two weeks send half the adult
population of Ireland into the bogs
to dig peat.
BY refusing to allow Irish prod
ucts to be unloaded in British ports
or carried on British bottoms the
British government could In
month ruin every farmer in Ire
land.
Compromise Predicted.
The result, of course, will be a
compromise. Southern Ireland will
be permitted to assume the out
ward show of complete self-deter-
mination. On the other hand, she
will recognize the suZerainty of
the British empire and the right
of the British Parliament to settle
the foreign policy of Ireland to
control, in case of war, its naval
and military forces. In short,
Southern Ireland will get for itself
the Dominion's home rule that all
Ireland would not accept.
The Irish question, insofar as 1t
concerns the relations of Ireland
and the rest of the United King
dom, will be settled. Irelands in
ternal questions-the fight between
law and anarchy, between Sim
Fein and labor. between the church
and the progressive educational
lists, these fights will remain to be
fought.
Copyright. 1920, by Public Ledger Col