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Show H CHURCHILL AND THE IRISH. H Winston Spencer Churchill jilade a masterful address to the H people of Belfast, Ireland. As the voice of the Liberal govcrn-M govcrn-M ment, he went to Belfast, the seat of Protestantism in Ireland, to H officially proclaim! the government policy as to home rule in the un-H un-H happy island. He said the purpose of the measure was to smooth H -the path of the British empire, liberate new forces for its service H and forever do away with, the accursed machinery by which hatred H had been manufactured in the past, H Religious freedom 'will be secured, a representation fair to all H parties in the Irish parliament will be guaranteed, laws and taxes H unjust toseTanrJj' will be guarded against and Ireland will con-BoWtMariW8Tider, con-BoWtMariW8Tider, the terms of the home -rule- bill, an-H an-H .tini S?yChiirchilh,: The armed forces in Ireland are to be con-H con-H oiled by the imperial government, and the imperial government Hjll continue its land purchase and pensions schemes. The clauses relative to religious freedom and taxes will be inserted to relieve panxiety among the Protestants of Ulster. K The government's 'home rule bill, continued Mr. Churchill, would m fat into a general scheme of parliamentary evolution leading ulti-Hf ulti-Hf lately to the federation of the empire. That -was Ihe only way to 1 free the house of commons, from its present congestion. H Mr. Churchill continued that the government is prepared to 1 fight the bill through parliament, and he asked for fair play from M Jthe Unionists. ' B This struggle over homehile for Ireland has been a constantly M recurriug disturbance which.has kcr' the British house of com-m com-m mons in an uproar for years. Iffo one at a distance, the solution of j the perplexing problem seems to!. have been ound by the Liberal 1 party. As Churchill says, the granting of home rule to Ireland will B smooth the path of the British" empire, as the Irish have grown to B bc a power in world affairs'and they are a source of weakness to H the empire while they remain antagonistic. They-might be made a H liberated force for British supreniacy. H John E. Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalists, in his ap- H peal to Ulster, urged the north of Ireland people; "in the name of H Ireland and the British empire, justice and gqod will," to lend ' their aid'"in settling th2 Irish question wisely, well and forever.1 Redmond discloses ability in his selection of words as the thought he conveys by i-hem is a powerful appeal even to the Orangemen, the implacable foes of home rule. AVTi'cn Israeli was ahvc, -and before ho lpst his prestige by .defding to a' woman's chnruisomenile became burning issue in England and GlalistonlJaa&mosSsiccomplishecl his 'aim of according ac-cording s(df4overmnenU.VtoC thp Irish) when llic' House of Lords blocked his way Vith the deiiHi of ''Gladstone, the home rule agitation agi-tation lost much of its strength, but the Nationalists continued their fight, winning reforms in the land laws and finally reviving their cause by having home rule championed by the Liberal leaders to the extent "of their threatening the House of Lords 'with loss of prestige, pres-tige, if the lords continued to exenjise the power3 o'f veto.( .Now. home rule seems . assured, but, strange -to say. the most persistent opposition to, self-government comes from the Irish themselves, them-selves, in the form of a determined protest from the Orangemen. Eeligious hatred that most bitter of all hatreds is the underlying cause of this discord. v . i . . J |