The New York herald., 1922-07-09

- HERALD after spending two
=. months in ireland studying the
- conditions existing there now.
a These he describes in a vivid
and graphic way and in complete
4 detail.
Special Correspondence to THE NEw York
Copyright, 1929, bv THE NEW YORK HERALD
-1 New York Herald Bureau.
London, June 2S.
r RELAND is said to be "the key
to the British Empire" Ulster,
= at any rate. is the key to Ireland.
<sTo the British statesman the solution
of the Ulster problem means the solu-
.tion of the empires most vital tan
talizing problem-Ireand Facts in
texorably seem to point to the conclu-
sion that the position of Ulster in the
future Ireland may determine the
future of the British Empire itself.
We are about to see a complete
rolte face in the century old policy
of the British statesman to Ulster.
1t is a volte face which has only be-
gun to show itself within the last
few months and is quite unmarked by
the average man. but it will yet
change the face of Ireland. and with
lit the face of British politics. For the
first time the policy Of Ulster is not
the policy OF Downing Street.
Mr.. Lloyd Georges policy, UP to the
time of the treaty. was, despite all
'official" protestation, to keep ireland
divided and to retain Ulster in the
northeast corner as watch dog of the
empire. That was the object of the
partition act. 1t was England's his
toric policy. During the negotiations
it came to him for the first time that
so long as Ulster stood outside Ire
land the empire would be imperiled,
because no southerner ultimately
would be satisfied with any settlement
which did not apply to all Ireland.
Only united Ireland with a policy
friendly to England could constitute a
life insurance policy for the British
Empire.
Sir James Craig and Lord Carson
both knew of this cnange of policy,
and. as a matter of fact, Lloyd George
himself, with the hundred year policy
of placating Ulster making powerful
.subconscious suggestion. had been
forced to promise Lord Carson at one
of those little Downing Street break
r-fasts some time earlier that under no
circumstances should Ulster be "let
down." the Premier's feelings on that
occasion probably being much the
same as those of an honest house,
holder upon being faced by gentle
manly foreigner who has invited him
self to breakfast although threatening
both his happy home and his life ~
Now listers nose for rats" has be-
come a representative organ, and
Ulster, smelling the rat of a new
policy, just raised hell" Hence Sir
James Craig's message to his Cabinet
on November s that "he felt the situa-
.tion was SO grave that the respon-
.sibility should be shared by the whole
northern Cabinet" and his later pas
'sionate protest in the House of Com
mons: "Ye are betrayed" whilst his
colleague. the Minister for Labor.
stated "A disgracefu betrayal of
Ulster has been attempted by the
Coalition Cabinet"
Ulster. not the south, has always
been the pistol pointed at the heart Of
the British Empire. 1t is true that 1t
rs a pistol unloaded. but no English
Statesman has yet learned this-only
Ulster and southern Ireland know it.
United ireland Essential
To Reasonable Settlement
But before decade is out England
Ia Co. hot he
Ulster pistol is a stage pistol. because.
having begun to discover that the Irish
question will never be settled unless
there is a united Ireland to settle 1t,
she will have begun to bring gentle
pressure to bear upon "the lady across
the way" who. resenting as always
the slightest compulsion. will do what
even men so widely divorced as Griffith
and De Valera have always believed
she will do and as Irish leaders have
more than once told the writer-throw
herself con dmore into the arms of
southern Ireland.
This will be stridently denied by the
fisherman, but that IL will become ac-
complished fact, beyond equivocation,
will be due not only to resentment of
pressure but to two other still more
subtle and potent factors.
The first of these is the almighty
dollar. The south at least believes, as
/ have gathered in conversation with
"A. E." George RusselD, Arthur Grif-
nth, Eamon de Valera and Erskine
Childers. that the way to the Ulster
heart is through the Ulster pocket.
The modern fisherman clings to the
British connection. partly because he
hates Rome and partly because he be-
lieves II pays. Once Ulster. with her
hard headed Scottish canniness. real
ICES that. as Lloyd George stated at
Carnarvon on October Q last, in free
ireland. united, the income tax would
be 35 cents instead OF $3.50. and that
as an integral part of the united Ire
land she would escape the other bur-
dens OF imperial taxation. she will as
surely attach herself to the motherland
as lodestone draws iron. Tire other
reason is the reason psychological.
For Ulster is Irish" She is not
English. ss anybody can find out who
cares to call the fiery Antrim man IAN
Englishman." She is not Scottish, al
though she has a strong vein of the
Scottish Celt. blood brother to the
Irish Ceit, In her. She is Irish--and in
sense Irish Of the Irish. The re-
ligious difference is but transient--the