Chief Secretary for Ireland.

Part of Supply. — [7TH Allotted Day.] – in the House of Commons at on 3 April 1919.

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Photo of Lord Hugh Cecil Lord Hugh Cecil , Oxford University

Very likely they would say that very early in their investigations, but they would find at once that was exactly what the Irish people were not willing to do. The essential thing in the Irish question is to force the Irish people to recognise the hard facts of the case: the Ulster difficulty, the Sinn Fein aspirations of the South and West of Ireland, the strategic necessities of Great Britain, and the national dangers that might be presented by the loss of Ireland. Those are the hard facts. The facts of the case must be recognised, and we shall make no progress until the Irish people face the difficulties and have a settlement which really does take account of the facts. They are always saying, "We must have this, that, or the other," but they do not define the settlement that they want. If they do, one-half of the nation instantly rejects it. Therefore, the suggestion that I make is this: The Home Rule Act should be suspended for five years in order that during those five years an effort may be made to settle the Irish question. Let there be assembled provincial councils in the four provinces of Ireland. That is the way that you can get out of the difficulty that Ulster will not sit with the other provinces. Let the three councils, if they like, sit together and Ulster sit alone. Let them then proceed to propound whatever scheme they think proper for the acceptance of this Parliament. The hon. Gentleman says that the Convention failed, and it is no use trying the experiment again. I think the Convention was full of instruction, even held as it was, but I think it would have been much better if it had been a formal representative assembly, and had sat in public. I do not believe in working democratic institutions except on a democratic basis. I never heard so astonishing a suggestion as that put forward by the hon. Gentleman, that you should have a Parliament for Ireland, and that you should so construct that Parliament that, in the ultimate division between Unionist opinion and Nationalist opinion the minority of one-fourth should carry a question as against three-fourths. Does he really think that such a system could be worked? Unionists are perfectly satisfied with what they have got. They say, "Let us remain as we are."