Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-08-12
THE GREAT PROBLEM
England Seeking TO Reach a Far
Settlement 'S4'0-
MAIN TROUBLE IN NOW IN ULSTER
Age. Old Question Is Now Being Con-
sidered in a Way Which Seems TO
Offer Hope of Reasonable Settlement.


We have all grown so used to think
ing and speaking Of the Irish problem
as insoluble that the sudden SHIFT In
England and Ireland to what while It's
brief effect lasted was an almost uni
versal confidence in a successful solu-
ton was perhaps nothing more than
an inevitable reaction
But such a pessimistic view would
pl obably be erroneous. There Is now
In the Irish situation an element that
has not been in it before, and that Is a
distinct, and preponderant will to peace
on the part Of the leaders Of both peo-
pies. OF course, there has long-been
an earnest desire that something be
done, but the present feeling is some-
thing a good deal more insistent than
that. 1t looks as though Ireland were
really likely to profit after all by the
ideas so much in the air during the
peace conference. THE principal ALI
lied and associated powers" would be
ashamed to look each other in the face
again If they went to war among them
selves in the near future, and by the
same token the British empire feels
that 1t is absolutely bound to settle this
Irish question, difficult as II Is. ''e.}3g
Indeed, one Of the outstanding
changes wrought by the war Is reveal
ed in the altogether differentH eoneept
ton of the British empire, and chiefly
in the empires own estimation Of y.
self Almost overnight the British and
colonials have come to think of them.
selves not as subjects of common
empire whose seat is at Westminster
but rather as a group of nations united
in interest, traditions, institutions, ana
in most cases, in origin. The tenuous
thread of the supremacy Of the British
parliament is hardly more substantial
than the kings rightof veto. AS CO.
hesive force 1t has been replaced by the
feeling of community in the union OF
English speaking nations. Nsfsgys
Therefore it Is Quite natural that, 1t
should have been the colonial empire
to which England turned for friendly
| Intermediary in the eternal Irish trou-
! BILE. Jan Smuts is probably the fore
most public man in the whole colonial
empire, and there are few so qualified
by their part in their own, country's
history and their own career to look at
the Irish problem so nearly eye to eye
with the Irish themselves. Long be-
fore he ever dreamed that he was to be
premier of South African nation
SHUTS had fought the English and re-
sisted England's rule quite as hard as
the most devoted Irishman; in the
events that brought on the final death
struggle between the English and the
Beers he was a large figure, and had
known at first hand the old question or
race conflict which seems to peryade
the Irish trouble, and in his own coun-
try's conflict there was religious
question, JUS. as there Is in Ireland.
slim Jamie" lived to see, and
strangest of all to administer. domino
ion home rule for South Africa, one OF
the results of the memorable flowing
tide" that swept the Liberals into
power early in the century. The I'M
pressive thing is that Shuts now SO
thoroughly believes in 1t. OF this he
gave clear demonstration when he os~
ganized his "ragtime army" that end
ed the German power in Africa. Con-
seauently Premier Smuts 10 one Of the
few Britishers or colonials who 'cotfd
really go and talk with the Irish ma
tionalists about their struggle and the
proffered dominion home rule, counting
on a wholly sympathetic reception.
Lloyd George and De Valera have al
ready spent several hours in confer
ence, and while nothing has yet come
of it, it is reasonable conviction that
the British empire, only yesterday in
sisting on being the largest stockhold-
er in the league Of nations, will hardly
fail to prove her ability to handle her
own age old domestic trouble in such
way as to make it cease to be a trou-
BILE.
OF course, the real trouble Is with
Ulster. 1t is hard for US Americans to
understand that the Ulster problem
can be so serious and apparently so In
scrutable as it seems to be. 1t Is the
chief remaining difficulty in the Irish
4 settlement, the irreducible minimum OF
absolute independence demanded by
the irreconcilable Sim Feiners SEEM
ingly having gone by the board. On
the problems presented by this Ulster
stumbling block SHUTS cannot speak
in the light of parallel previous expe-
rience, and indeed previous experience
is Of little use there in any event
Our confidence in fairly near solu-
ton of the Irish problem is based more
than anything else on the sense Of
young and vigorous manhood that has
come TO the British empire in its new
conception, imagination and picturfng
of itself, and that it simply Is not 60
ing to let the problem remain un-
solved.
A. -. t., n