But the remedy for this is not to cut Ireland adrift and
leave the two sections to fight it out alone, but rather to maintain the
existing constitution as the best guarantee that the balance will be
held even between them.
Sir Horace Plunkett has well summed up the real needs of rural Ireland
in the formula "better farming, better business, better living." He has
himself done more than any other single man to bring the desired
improvement about. I am not ashamed to acknowledge myself his disciple,
and in the measures for which I was responsible during my time in
Ireland, I ever kept the practical objects for which he has striven
steadily in view. In a speech which I made shortly after taking office I
used the phrase "killing Home Rule with kindness." This phrase has been
repeatedly quoted since, as if it had been a formal declaration on the
part of the incoming Irish Government that to "kill Home Rule" was the
Alpha and the Omega of their policy. What I really said was that we
intended to promote measures having for their object an increase in the
material prosperity of the country; that if we could thereby kill Home
Rule with kindness, so much the better; but that the policy stood on its
own merits, irrespective of any ulterior consequences.
Pages:
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393