ULSTER'S RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "
SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your candid statement in regard to the rights and privileges of Ulster under the 1920 Act has been highly appre- ciated by the Loyalists, who feel that their case is not properly understood in England. When we were asked to accept a Parliament for Northern Ireland, we were told that it would be a final settlement of the Home Rule question. Pledges to that effect were given by Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Birkenhead and others. Ulster was not to be coerced or interfered with. The elections were held in May last, when the Loyalists returned forty of their candidates, the Sinn Feiners six, and the Nationalists six, the total number of seats being fifty-two. In June the King with the Queen visited Belfast and opened the Parliament. His Majesty on that occasion was pleased to say :—
am confident that the important matters entrusted to the control and guidance of the Northern Parliament will be managed with wisdom and with moderation, with fairness and due regard to every faith and interest, and with no abatement of that patriotic devotion to the Empire which you proved so gallantly in the Great War."
The whole machinery of Government was accordingly set in motion, and since then the various departments dealing with Finance, Education, Commerce, Labour, and Home Affairs have been got into full working order.
Are we now to be told that the 1920 Act is not binding? That it can be altered by a Treaty-entered into between Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. -Collins behind the back of Sir James Craig? That the Northern area can be carved and curtailed in such a way as to render it impractical from a Parliamentary point of view? A great deal of nonsense is talked about certain parishes or districts in the Northern area being largely Sinn Finn, and that, therefore, they should be placed within the Free State. What about the 80,000 Protestants in Donegal, Cavan, and Monaghan, not to mention the thousands of Protestants in Dublin, Cork, Sligo, and other places in the Smith and West of Ireland? Are these people to be allowed to vote themselves into the Northern area? Or are Mr. De Valera's followers, who are strongly opposed to a Free State, to be permitted to establish a Republic?
The Irish independent, Dublin, which supports Mr. Collins, in an article on Saturday last, 11th inst., stated:—
According to the Constitutional procedure in all National assemblies the minority is bound by the majority."
Let the Sinn Feiners in the North be bound by the majority (as indicated at the Parliamentary Election), and they may rest assured, as stated by His Majesty the King, that the Northern Parliament, with Sir James Craig as Prime Minister, will always act " with wisdom and with moderation, with fairness, and with due regard to every faith and interest."
(Secretary, Ulster Unionist Council).
Old Town Hall, Belfast.
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