A FIRM HAND FOR IRELAND.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your suggestion that Sir William Robertson should be sent to Ireland to control the country during the enforcement of Con- scription, which is so necessary if the good name of Ireland is to be preserved in history, and which is only just to Great Britain, our Colonies, and our Allies, is one of the most sensible proposi- tions I have read for a long time. Our present Chief Secretary is no doubt full of amiability and good intentions, but he has no experience of Ireland or Irishmen, and has not been at all a successful governor of my unhappy country. Every one is inclined to blame the Irish people for the present very unsettled prospect; but in reality the fault lies at the door of successive British Governments, who have passed from one madness to another, until their conduct has become almost criminal in its folly and weakness. What Ireland wants now, and has always wanted, is a firm, wise, fearless, and determined Chief Secretary. When such a man is at the helm, as when Mr. Arthur Balfour and Mr. Walter Long were Chief Secretaries, Ireland is perfectly quiet, contented, and happy; but when weakness, irresolution, and carelessness are the distinguishing characteristics of the Chief Secretary, as daring the ten years of Mr. Birrell's unfortunate reign, everything goes to ruin, and the horses, goaded to madness, run away with the coach, just as the Irish people have practically done since the disastrous rebellion of 'April, 1916. Mr. Duke was sent over to undo some of the mischief, as a safe man and an astute lawyer, but he has been almost as great a failure as Mr. Birrell, notwithstanding his evident good intentions. Every con- sideration therefore points clearly to the necessity of a firm, clear- sighted statesman to take charge of Ireland in its present most unsettled and perilous state, and no one could possibly fill the posi- tion more admirably than Sir William Robertson, or, if another name might be mentioned, Mr. Walter Long, in whom every one in Ireland has confidence. The Government seem determined to pass a Home Rule Bill of some kind or another, based on the Majority Report of the Convention. Well, if they proceed on these lines, I fear they may as well save themselves the trouble as far as Ulster is concerned. The Majority Report goes far beyond the Home Rule Act of 1914, and if adopted would mean almost Colonial Home Rule. The sort of Bill Ireland requires is Federal Home Rule, some scheme which will easily fit into a Federal plan for England, Scotland, and Wales—a measure, in fact, which will permit us to administer our own local affairs and give us full power to develop our own country, within the Empire; but we do not want to be practically divorced from the Empire, from which we have received such enormous benefits, as we would be if we accepted any of the schemes suggested by the Convention. No scheme of Home Rule which surrendered Customs, Excise, or the Post OrEee out of Imperial keeping could possibly work satisfactorily. The appointment of an Imperial Court of Appeal, composed of Judges appointed by the British Government, would be another necessity, as would be the abolition of the jurisdiction of country Magis- trates. A Federal scheme of Home Rule should be modelled on the system of the Canadian Provinces, and with the safeguards I have mentioned, along with the offer of increased representation for Ulster and the Southern Unionists, as very fairly proposed in the Convention Majority Report, might receive the sanction and approval of Ulster. I am confident no other plan is ever likely to prove workable or acceptable to the majority of the people of the Northern Province.—I am, Sir, Ice.,
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