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Show HOLE BILL Being Fought by the Protestants in Ulster Couifty London, March 16. The Irish home rulo bill is not to be Introduced In the house of commons before Easter. Thus far the mcmberB of the ministry minis-try rave kept the secret as to the do-tails do-tails of the bill entirely to themselves, unless perhaps the Nationalist leaders lead-ers havo been given a hint as to how far the government is prepared to go. Mr. Churchill delivered a. long speech In Belfast without lotting very much out and ho has been followed" by Mr Blrrell, the Irish secretary, who has said even less Ho, however, did tell the country that the bill was to be in- I troduced by Mr. Asqulth, the premier in this respect following the oxam- '. pic of William Ewart Gladstone, who personally Introduced his homo rulo bills, and that "this was proper, as tho bill was no departmental measure, but an important and an authoritative act of tho whole Liberal party " The preamble or first clause will set forth that tho bills sets up on Irish soil an Irish parliament, a houso of commons and a senate, with legislative legis-lative authority over the whole range of purely Irish domestic affairs. This was hardly news What the people have been" asking Is what safeguards havo been inserted to protect tho Protestant Pro-testant 'norlty in Ulster, and more pnrtlculany what are to be the financial finan-cial arrangements Tho ministers have assured the Ulsterites that the safeguards against religious intolerance intoler-ance will be sufficient without having as yet stopped the agitation againut the bill in Belfast and the surrounding country However, this will not be tho government's greatest difficulty, for tho non-conformists in England aro not giving their fellow religionists in Ireland the same support that they did in previous home rule campaigns. What will trouble the ministers are the financial arrangements. Nationalist National-ist .members speaking in Ireland late ly have been demanding full fiscal autonomy, au-tonomy, a demand that the government san hardly grant and a refusal of which might cause the bill to be rejected re-jected by the Dublin convention, as was the Irish councils bill. The government gov-ernment might grant the control of excise or inland revenue, but to hand over tho control of tho customs would be to court the opposition of some of their own English and Scotch free trade supporters. It has been suggested sug-gested that a way might be found out of the difficulty by Introducing a provision pro-vision that complete free trade should be continued between the two countries coun-tries and by giving the Irish parliament parlia-ment the povor of varying tho rntos of customs duties on foreign imports, while withholding the power to var the articles on which duty Is now levied lev-ied If the demands of Ireland as to financial arrangements aro not satisfactory, satis-factory, Mr. Redmond might piofer to oppose the bill before submitting It IU UIU UUUVVIIliUH- Besides the alleged unfairness of placing Protestant Ulstor under a government gov-ernment which, by tho nature of things, would be largely made up of Roman aCtholics. the Unionists aro fighting the government on the finances. fi-nances. They point out that the trade of Ireland has incroased enormously In recent years and that now England gets a very appreciable portion of her food supplies from tho sister isle. So long as Ireland remains In tho union no enemy could stop that supply, on which England's very life might depend de-pend no enemy, that Is, except an unfriendly government In Dublin, which could stop the export of food to England when she needed it most Ulster, too. thev saw should have something to say about the disposal of tho customs collections, for, whilo she pays something over $10,000,000 annually an-nually in customs, tho rest of Ireland contributes under $5,000,000. It is estimated that tho expenses of government In Ireland aro about $53,-GOO.OOO $53,-GOO.OOO and the Income from the island isl-and $41,000,000. Tho balance has eomo out of tho pockets of tho other members mem-bers ot tho union and the govornmont In its bill purposes that Ireland should bo granted a subsidy for fifteen years to cover tho deficiency. Then there are tho old age pensions, paid by tho Imperial exchequer and tho billion dollars invested in land purchase and other mattors of finance, very ono of which offors a difficulty to the fram-ers fram-ers of a homo rulo bill. To satisfy all, of courso, is impossible, and oven to satisfy a sufficient number of members mem-bers of tho houso of commons to make homo rulo possible this year, Unionists Union-ists say. Is out of the question. Therefore There-fore they aro looking for a general election in the summer. Both sides aro campaigning In England, Eng-land, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, but still Ulstor remains by far tho most Interested. Excitoment has cooled down since Mr. Churchill s visit to Belfast; but the Unionists havo no intention in-tention of allowing this, the greatost asset in their campaign the Intention Inten-tion of Ulstor to fight-toloso Its force To keep up the fighting spirit, therefore. Mr. Bonar Law tho Unionist Union-ist loador. is to visit Belfast on Eas-tor Eas-tor Tuesday and address a great open-air open-air gathering, as did the first lord of tho admiralty He Is to bo supported sup-ported by the Duke o Abercorn. Sir Edward Carson and others Preceding Preced-ing the meeting there Is o oagreat demonstration of "onS" ?h 5a" ' rado through the city. Should tho pa-JX pa-JX iaK Trough the Nationalist sec-i sec-i ;V,c may be noeded, uB they weroTrngMr1: Churchill's visit It is expected that there will be in the parade 100,000 members of the Ulster , Unionist council, Loyrtl Orango lodges lodg-es and Unionist clubs of Ireland. Should the bill be accepted by tho Nationalist convention, or even If rejected re-jected be proceeded with, tho debate In the commons will rank as ono of the great parliamentary duels. With Mr. Balfour out of tho house, as he has been since the opening, Mr. Asqulth has been tho master of debate. Mr. Balfour, however, is coming back for the home rule bill and will take a prominent part In the earllor discussions discus-sions The two great speeches will thus be delivered by tho old opponents j and tho harder subsequent fighting left to Mr, Churchill, Mr. Lloyd George and other nilnlators on one side and Mr Bonar Law, the Unionist leader, Sir Edward Carson and other front-bench front-bench Unionists on the other side. |