His first pledge was to apply Conscription to Ireland, to
apply it at once, and not to let its application be made dependent upon his Home Rule schemes. As he himself put it, Conscription in Ireland is required in order to supply and to meet the vital needs of the war, and is in no way dependent upon any Constitutional change. But obviously there must be a tints-limit for the carrying out of this vital Pledge. If it is not applied within the course of the next fortnight or so, the opportunity will have been lost for ever. Mr. Lloyd George's next pledge, and it is as clear as, and only second in im- portance to, the Conscription pledge, is that North-East Ulster shall never be forced under a Dublin Parliament against her will. This means, of course, that either the Six-County Area must be excluded absolutely from the Home Rule Bill, or, if some scheme of Federalism is adopted for the whole United Kingdom, that North- East Ulster must be one of the Federal units. If that pledge is
not kept in the spirit and the letter, there is no such thing as political honour in this country.
