Prime Minister Asquith on the prospect of partition for four Ulster counties after Home Rule - Let me first say—I am dealing with the suggestion which has in fact been made—there is the question of the exclusion of Ulster, or rather the exclusion of these four counties. We have been told, I think quite honestly and properly told by those who profess to speak, and I have no doubt do speak, for the dissentients, that the exclusion of Ulster, or these four counties of Ulster, would not in the least degree mitigate their antagonism to this Bill. If their premisses are correct, if they believe that an Irish Parliament, elected by a majority of the Irish people, would be guilty of persecution and oppression they are perfectly right, because the people who most need protection upon that hypothesis are not the people who live in those four counties—they can very well look after themselves—but the people scattered throughout the length and breadth of Ireland. The exclusion of Ulster, upon the premisses of the opponents of this Bill, affords no solution of any sort or kind whatever. What other suggestion has been made? The hon. Member for the London University just now suggested a General Election. Will that solve the difficulty? Will it? [An HON. MEMBER: "Try it."] Yes, if you win we know exactly what will happen. My right hon. Friend (Mr. Harcourt) properly corrects me; we do not know what will happen. I should not be very much surprised if something exceptional happens; but for the moment it would involve undoubtedly the disappearance of this Bill. We are agreed upon that! Suppose the result were that we were to win, what then? Suppose you did give them [the electors] a chance, and suppose the result were that we were to win, is that going to stifle, or subdue or get rid of the hostility of Ulster? [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] I quite agree with the Leader of the Opposition, who, I think, intimated last Session that it might deprive the Ulster minority of a certain amount of moral, and possibly contingent, very contingent, material support from the Unionists of Great Britain. That is not what they care about. The people who repeated the celebrated pledge of my right hon. Friend the Member for Dublin University (Sir E. Carson), the people who have signed the Covenant—are they going to abandon their attitude because a majority of the electors of Great Britain think they are wrong? [An HON MEMBER: "They are not."] If they are not, what is the use of asking for a General Election? The right hon. Gentleman the Member for the Strand Division (Mr. Long) had a letter in the papers a day or two ago in which he stated that quite explicitly and plainly; and I am sure he adheres to that. Let us face the situation as it actually is. I do not say there is anything new in it at all. On the contrary, it is what I have said, throughout. What it comes to is this: This is a claim on the part of the inhabitants, or a majority of the inhabitants of four counties in Ireland, to interpose, in defiance of the express opinion of a majority, however, large and however often repeated, of the electors of the United Kingdom—it is a claim to interpose an absolute veto. I say to the House of Commons there is no legislative assembly that would tolerate such a claim.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 16:41:48 +0000
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