The New York herald., 1922-07-09

least, they had the doubtless advent.
tious aid OF the searchlight OF a war.
ship to help them in their nocturna
operations!
But ever since that time of long
ago. just before the great war. wher
John Redmond was drilling his south
ern hosts and Ulster preparing fol
civil war. guns. ammunition and wal
material Of every sort and description
have been pouring into Ulster. 1t ID
pouring in as / write. much Of it via
England, with the result that . most
curious situation has arisen, bott
British statesman and Ulster leader
like second Frankensteins, fearing the
monster that has been conjured up.
The writer at least believes that al
heart the Ulster leaders are tired and
sick of the terrible pogroms of the
past months. But the Ulster leader
like so many others, is always faced
with the danger of his cohorts getting
out OF hand" Originally, i have no doubt
that Sir James Craig. shrewd and
not unanenable to argument. at the
time of his conversations" with Mi
chael Collins, was anxious to avoid
battle. murder and sudden death as
between If7shpen. but when he and
others-took up the historic Strong
position of Ulster. and hell broke loose
he and his confreres had as much
chance to stem the flood they had
loosed as man would have to cork
up Niagara.
Also, at the beginning. the British
statesman, viewing with a certain
amount Of joy concealed, tempered
with fear. the earlier doings in Ulster,
gradually, as machine gun sputtered
and rifle cracked, began to realize that
here was a conhagration that might
extend to the Empire and so at all
costs wished to put out the flames.
Leaders on Both Sides
Working for Agreement
II e result is that, despite all the
present fighting and despite the SEEM
ing "untamableness" of the Ulster
leaders. both Ulster and British states
man are working and will work for
the quenching of the flames Of re-
ligious and political partisanship, and
before two years are gone we shall see
a quiet Ulster and the dawning of a
United Ireland AS it might be put,
'it isn't what happens to-day but what
will happen in the future that mat
ters in Ireland" The pulse of Ireland
rises quickly, but it falls as quickly.
Another factor which, in sheer self
preservation, operating in ireland as
in less .fevered countries, will force the
warning sections in Ireland together is
the factor of emigration and unem-
ployment.
Nearly all the "facts" of Ulster as
known to the world are not facts but
fictions, one OF them being that 1t Is
from the south the Irishman chiefly
emigrates, whereas to-day, as before
the war, the biggest flow Of emigra-
ton is from Ulster. Fifty-six per
cent. of Irish emigrants for 1919, the
year after the war, have been from
Ulster. and since 1851 no fewer than
1,192.177 emigrants left the northern
province. During the decade preced-
ing the last census In 1911 the emf
grants from Ulster were double those
from Leinster and double those from
Connaught. These are the official fig-
ures.
One of the last statements in the
Ulster Parliament by the Minister Of
Labor showed that between a fifth
and quarter of the working popula-
ton of the six county area are unem-
ployed. as against 13 per cent. for
Great Britain and Ireland as a whole,
the Minister remarking that these
were appalling figures" These fig
ures are largely due to the partition
Of Ireland and to the southern boycott.
Every Ulster business man knows
that. and every Ulster man so soon
as he realizes it will do what he can
to remedy it in the only way pos
SHELBY securing a United ireland.
When in addition to the above it is
remembered that nearly one-half Of
the population Of the pre-war Ulster
was Catholic and Nationalist, with 10
per cent. of the Protestant half also
Nationalist. Ulster at one time return
ing seventeen Nationalist to sixteen
Unionist M. P.'s. and that even of the
present six county Ulster the Catholic
population forms 34.3 per cent of
the whole, you have the final clinch-
ing fact which inevitably drives one
to the conclusion that the coming
of Ulster into a United Ireland is only
a question of time.
The solution of the Ulster problem,
which is the solution Of the Irish, is
to let Ulster at the end Of each five
to seven years have the opportunity
given her Of voting herself into a
united Ireland. coupled with policy
Of never under any circumstances
putting compulsion upon her so far
as "the South" Is concerned, and of
giving her preferential economic treat
ment.
We shall see a united Ireland before
a decade, and with 1t, at England's
back. we shall see a friendly instead
of hostile Ireland.
Another article by this writer
on the same subject is to follow
in the HERALD of July r6.1