New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-03-30
Home Rule Bill
Denounced as
Ruin to Irish
SAboninable' Measure Will
Create Greater Chaos i'm
Deplorablc Situation,
Critics Tell Commons
By Frank Getty
From The Tribume's European Bureau

FROM The TrtbMne's European Bureau
Copyright 1920. New York Tribune Inc)
LONDON, March 29.-'With every
seat occupied and the galleries
thronged, the House of Commons to-
day began the second reading of the
Irish Home Rule bill. All agree that
the session will be one of the most
memorable in the history of the EN-
pire, and the life of the government,
which offers the bill, is at stake.
All parties had put on whips and
every member was in his place when
Ian Macpherson, the Secretary for Ire
land, arose shortly after a o'clock and
moved the acceptance of the measure.
Then for several hours one brilliant
critic after another attacked the gov
ernment's proposal until it seemed
that not a trace Of it's original "veneer
of respectability" was left. 7. P.
O'Connor, Joseph Devlin, Lord Robert
Cecil and John R. Clynes, one by one,
took turns in declaring that it was "a
bad bill, an abominable bill" No one
in Ireland, they said, accepted it or
approved it. The measure would only
make greater chaos in deplorable
situation.
Coalition Backs Measure
Throughout the verbal assault there
sat back of the Treasury bench more
than 200 members of the Coalition
party, who paid scarcely any attention
to the speeches by the opposition and
seemed merely waiting to cast their
votes in favor of the bill.
1t was a serious House that sat to-
day. There was marked tendency to
discourage levity. 1t would not have
been an ideal House for Lloyd George
for the Premier likes to catch his hear
ers in a mood when cleverly twisted
phraseology carries more weight than
sound logic.
Unquestionably the sentiment of the
House was with the government, and
the Coalition members never overlook I'd
an opportunity to applaud an inter-
lection by government sympathizer
Yet all the brilliancy Of oratory seemed
to be on the other side.
The speech of Clynes. the labor
leader, moving the rejection of the
bill was capital piece, and kept I
murmur of approval ripping through
the House, but one felt when the
speaker had taken his seat how useless
face of the overwhelming government
majority. Clynes declared the bill was
certain to fail in it's purpose and he
blamed the present government of Ire
land, which he described as govern
ment by imprisonment" He drew
cheers when he said: "The surest way
to get into an English prison these
days is to be elected from an Irish
constituency" He insisted there must
be only one Parliament for Ireland
and, in pointing out the governments
proposal to start with two Parliaments
and work toward one, remarked: III
eventually, why not now?'
Substitute Proposal Offered
Clynes went so far as to offer sub
stitute proposal along lines of domin-
ion home rule embracing maximum
government consistent with the
unity of the United Kingdom and safety
of the government in time of war." His
strongest point was that the growth OF
the Labor opinion, especially in Ul-
ster, was rapidly wiping out narrow
political lines and uniting Ireland as
nothing else had been able to do.
"We have just one right left as an
imperial Parliament to withhold any
longer our approval OF the demand OF
a vast majority of the Irish people,
said Clynes, "and that right is might
Lord Robert Cecil's speech was
equally brilliant. He had no qualiti-
CONTINUED on page hvs)