It is not inappropriate as one of a very small band of Unionists in this House that I should intervene at this stage. I cannot help thinking that this House is being placed in a most extraordinary position in connection with this Bill. We are asked by the Government to vote for a Bill which the House does not approve of in order to prevent another measure coming into operation of which it does not approve either. The Bill apparently is not to be treated in this House on its merits, but the Government find apparently the only way out of the difficulty is that the Union with Ireland shall be broken up. As representing a very large body of Southern Unionists, may I be allowed to say that we Southern Unionists in common with our fellow Unionists of the North have opposed this Home Rule policy ever since it was first introduced? Why have we done so? We have opposed it because we saw in it, not only disaster to Ireland, but the gravest possible danger to the future of the British Empire. We have opposed it because we have seen that every movement of this kind has been based on disloyalty, and because every movement of this kind had in front of it the same goal of absolute independence and total separation. There is, I think, in some minds a slight misapprehension as to what is the attitude of the so-called Constitutional Nationalist party on this measure. I would like to remove that. Speaking in this House on the 5th November, 1918, the then Leader of the Constitutional Nationalist party in this House used these words: As regards the demand of Ireland we do not differ in the least degree and never have differed from the demand made by the present Sinn Feiners or by any of the Nationalist Revolutionary parties of the past."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 5th November, 1918, col. 2058, vol. 110.] 2.0 P.M.

A little more than a year ago these words were used by the then Leader of the Nationalist party in this House. I am not aware that they have ever been repudiated by any Member of that party, and no one who has followed these different Home Rule proposals from 1886 to the present time will deny that these words represent 1301 the absolute truth, and that the object and the ultimate aims of that party are what was stated. The right hon. and learned Member for Duncairn (Sir E. Carson) has put before the House in no unmistakable terms the reasons why he thinks that those for whom he speaks will not be willing to place the destinies of Ulster under the control of a Sinn Fein Parliament in Dublin. He speaks for the people of the North. He has a considerable following, and they are strongly represented in this House. The dangers with which they are faced are very apparent. What is the position of ourselves in the South? If the North is not prepared to run the risk of the danger of being governed by rebels, what chance have we in the South of Ireland, scattered as we are in different counties, with no power in the representation and no way of getting our views heard; what chance have we and what have we to look forward to, because in some cases we are not allowed even to live.

We were asked the day before yesterday by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to face the facts, but that is what His Majesty's Government has always declined to do until the present moment. What are the facts? We are also asked by the right hon. Gentleman the Chief Secretary for Ireland to remember that a good many things have happened since 1914. Yes, Sir, a great many things have happened since 1914. Everything that has happened since 1914 has only served to further convince the Irish Unionists of the danger of this policy. Every prophecy which the Irish Unionists made has been fulfilled to the letter. The moment of the greatest agony of the British Empire was the time seized by the dominant party in Ireland to stab us in the back. The moment of the agony of Verdun was seized by them as the moment when they broke out into open rebellion, with the result that they kept many thousands of British soldiers in Ireland who at the time were sorely needed in the line of battle. That is one of the facts that we have learned since 1914. We find, again, that in 1918 there was another German plot in Ireland. We found that the same thing happened then as had happened in 1916. We people in the South of Ireland have often wondered what the English people are waiting for, what further proof 1302 they require in order to demonstrate beyond a possibility of doubt what the loyal people of Ireland have been and are exposed to at the present moment. We want to know whether the Empire is to be dictated to by these hostile people, who are hostile not only to the British Empire, but have also determined to do everything within their power to bring about the downfall of this Empire. All these facts apparently have left the Government unmoved. Apparently they have nothing to do with them and their policy because they now propose to entrust the destinies of Ireland to the rebels, who fought side by side in favour of Germany. It is even worse than that. They have been abandoned by what they called their gallant allies the Germans. The Germans, whom they hoped would have come to their assistance and would have secured the victory, have failed, and they have turned their hopes in other directions.

Where do they now look? They have turned to Bolshevist Russia, and they are now acting in close alliance with those anarchial forces which are spreading from land to land and are doing, and will continue to do, everything they can to uproot our system of society. So that I am entitled to say when I am asked to look the facts in the face and to remember what has happened since 1914, that my conclusion is this—that you are now faced in Ireland with a force which demands, and which will do its best to set up a hostile independent republic, a hostile independent Bolshevist republic. Is it any wonder that Ulster declines to entrust her destinies to such a power as this? Is it any wonder that the Unionists in the South of Ireland look forward to the prospect before them with absolute consternation. Let me turn, for a moment, to the proposals of this Bill. This is not the time to analyse its provisions, but there are one or two matters which stand out in bold relief and enable us to take a proper view of the whole position. We observe some provisions which we have never seen before, and I hope that that is the effect of the realisation of the facts up to a certain point. The echoes of the struggle in 1914 have, to some extent, died away and the facts are now realised at last. They are realised in Ulster. They realise how much they will be affected by these new facts and that is also realised, to some 1303 extent, in the South. The Bill thus contains some extraordinary provisions. The Government will not allow, and rightly they will not allow, the Sinn Feiners to govern Ulster, even though they might be confronted in that part of Ireland with a large and powerful majority, but apparently they are to be allowed to govern the west of Ireland where the Sinn Feiners will be absolutely omnipotent. That is the extraordinary feature of this Bill; that loyalty is recognised technically in the North of Ireland, but when you come to the South the loyal people are surrendered to the forces of disloyalty. Why has this Bill ever been introduced in the circumstances with which we are confronted? I have never heard more than two reasons given for a measure of this kind at this moment. One was that we should try to please America and the other was that the Act of 1914 was on the Statute Book.

I hope it will be a long time before this Imperial Parliament will be prepared to regulate its own domestic affairs at the dictation of any foreign Power, and I hope that we in this House will be still competent to frame our own Constitution by ourselves, and not to do so at the dictation of any outside Power. The real reason, so far as I can see, why this measure is introduced is the existence of the Act of 1914. We are told to remember that the Act of 1914 is on the Statute Book. So it is? But how did that Act get there? Was it the result of the considered opinion of the electorate of the United Kingdom? Was there any mandate for it from the electorate? Nothing of the kind. The election of 1910, as we all know, was fought upon the question of the veto of the House of Lords. Ireland was never mentioned. There was no mandate for Home Rule from the electorate. There was certainly no mandate for the introduction of the measure which subsequently became an Act of Parliament, and accordingly we are entitled to say that the considered views of the electorate were not behind that policy. More than that, we were told that at the outbreak of the War all contentious matters were to be laid aside. We were told even by the then Prime Minister that nobody was to be prejudiced, no political party was to be prejudiced, by anything that was to be done in connection with this matter. 1304 What happened to that pledge? It was treated in the same way as Germany deals with its treaties. But it does not stop there. Does anyone suppose, even if the Act of 1914 was a proper measure in the circumstances of the time, that nothing has happened since then? Are we for ever to be guided by what happened before, and never by what subsequently occurred? Are we to be tied down to something which occurred four or five years ago and in totally different conditions and circumstances? Are we never to be allowed to review the present circumstances or the circumstances of that time in the light of subsequent events? Has what was thought to be, in the circumstances, a proper measure to be proposed and carried years ago, to be now necessarily put into operation.

I can understand this House considering this Bill now upon the Statute Book if it were true that the country was behind it. I can understand that consideration, if the House agreed that it was a desirable Measure, even now in the altered conditions, but I cannot understand this House considering that it is bound by the fact that the Bill is on the Statute Book, now that everybody, in Ireland has rejected the proposal and that the conditions have changed since the time it was passed. It is not supported by anybody in the electorate in Ireland, and yet it is to be put into operation under circumstances which are wholly different from those which existed at the time of the passing of the Act. I have yet to learn that it is any defence of this Measure to say that we are to consider ourselves bound hand and foot; that it is not in our power to deal with this Measure which is now before the House as if it were a piece of honest and necessary legislation. I suppose His Majesty's Government wish to please somebody, but that somebody has yet to be found. I need hardly say you are not going to please the Sinn Feiner. What about Ulster? The Bill places Ulster in an almost impossible position. Ulster has been asked—has been told in effect—that unless she is prepared to be ruled by a Parliament in Dublin, she must take what she is now offered, and what she does not want. She has been forced, sorely against her will, to adopt a course involving not only her own isolation but the isolation of her fellow- 1305 Unionists in the rest of Ireland. And all this in the futile attempt to placate your deadly and implacable enemies! It has been made clearer than ever that loyalty to King and Empire does not pay, and that the real, if not the only, way to win the sympathy and secure the confidence of His Majesty's Government is by treason, sedition, rebellion and crime. What an example to the rest of the British Empire and the world! What does anyone suppose will be thought of this course in other parts of the British Empire where the forces of anarchy are even now at work? That is the example we are going to set at home, and we should pause to think what effect it will have in other parts. It may be that the full disaster may not be sounded in our time, but the House may rest assured that if this Bill is passed and ever becomes law, future generations will curse the day when we here took the first step which led to the disintegration of the British Empire.

What about the date of Irish union? The Bill talks glibly about it. The Bill looks forward to it, and apparently contemplates that at some period not very remote North and South will fall into each other's arms. I take the liberty of saying that neither now nor hereafter can there be any union between the forces of loyalty and treason. If that is the union to which the Bill is looking forward, it is looking forward to a date that will never arrive. So far as any hon. Member in this House may feel attracted by the provision, which apparently contemplates that at some future time there will be one Parliament for the whole of Ireland, he may put it out of his head. Ireland will not be made loyal by this Bill. Those who have fought against their King and Empire will not suddenly become loyal by the passing of a measure which they do not want, and which they will ignore. You will not make the disloyal loyal. You will make the loyal disloyal, because once it goes abroad from this House that the loyal population are going to be abandoned by His Majesty's Government to their bitterest foes, you need not imagine that after that there will be very much more talk of loyalty in southern Ireland.

I have said practically nothing about the Unionists of the South of Ireland. Their fate, apparently, is a matter of small consequence to some people, but, however callous anyone may be as to their future, there is one thing they cannot deny. 1306 Through evil report and good report the Loyalists of the South of Ireland have steadfastly stood by their King and their Constitution. They have never wavered. They did their duty, and more than their duty, in the War. They fought for you, and, like many another gallant Irishman, they died for you. Now, apparently, they are about to receive their reward, and what is it? To be handed over to the tender mercies of those who fought against them. Those who drew the sword to defend you are to be handed over to those who drew the dagger in the hour of your greatest agony, and stabbed the Empire in the back. I have said, and am entitled to say, we have never wavered in our loyalty. We are loyal now. But there are limits even to loyalty, and those limits will be reached on the day when you hand over loyal southern men and women to the tender mercies of pro-Germans and rebels. What will be the position of the Imperial Parliament then? You will have lost your last friends in southern Ireland. You will be confronted then with a country uniformly hostile. The demand for total independence will be intensified tenfold. We will all be asking for it. Why should any man continue to be loyal to those who have betrayed him, and who have handed him over to probable, if not certain, ruin at the hands of his enemies? Are Englishmen going to stand by and see the Loyalists of South and West robbed of their property, ruined if not murdered, driven away from the land of their birth in search of some happier clime, where honour is not yet dead, and where they can at least expect to find some protection for their lives and the small amount of property they possess? This House some years ago voted, with a light heart, some £200,000,000 for the benefit of those in Ireland who never were your friends. Will you do the same now to save from ruin those whose loyalty has ever been unquestioned and unswerving? If not, all I can say is they are doomed.

Let me take a wider view for one moment. We have heard a great deal about national unity. Never, I suppose, in the history of this Kingdom was there a time when it was more essential. Empires and kingdoms have been tumbling down about our ears. The world is in a state of upheaval. Europe is looking to us for help, guidance and example. Is this a time for experiments 1307 in disruption, and are we going to imperil our whole future by embarking upon a policy of disintegration in the very heart of the Empire? One last word I might perhaps be allowed to address to Unionist Members of this House. They belong still, as their name implies, to the great party that was called into existence in this House many years ago to combat the grave perils to which I have briefly referred. They are still Members of that great party led by the great leaders of the past who have warded off this danger and successfully defeated it up to the present. I ask them to face the issue now as they have always faced it before. The issue is, the Union or total separation. The Union, let them remember, is a great constructive policy which always succeeded where it was properly administered. We have only to look back to the days of the right hon. Gentleman, the First Lord of the Admiralty. We always look back upon them with pride and gratitude. Why? He administered the Union, and when he left the shores of Ireland he left behind him, as his successor said, a country peaceable, contented and prosperous. The only safe course for the Imperial Parliament to adopt in the conditions existing in Ireland is to maintain the legislative union. There is no other course. Any other possible course you may adopt will only lead, either to an absolutely independent republic, or bloodshed to put it down. Those are the alternatives which are before His Majesty's Government. The republic will be started, you may be perfectly certain. You have two alternatives. You can recognise it, which is inconceivable. You will not recognise it. You have got to fight. That is the prospect held out to us in Ireland, and that is what we are told is the message of peace. I ask—and I confidently ask—the Unionist Members of this House to remember that they are the custodians of a great trust. They belong to a great party that has great and essential and fundamental principles. I ask them to act to-day, true to themselves, true to their convictions, true to the principles of the great body to which they belong, true to their honour. I ask them confidently to face the issue now, and if the issue is not faced now it will have to be faced later at the point of the bayonet. Now is the time to make up your minds: Are you going to hand over 1308 any part of Ireland to the King's enemies or not? Yes, or no. I appeal to every Member of this House' to act according to his convictions, and vote against this Bill.