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Private and Confidential 10th June 1916 My Dear Willis, Thank you for your letter of 7th, All you say is perfectly true, but our leaders have
made us acquainted at private meetings with an amazing and
alarming state of things which makes it impossible for us to take
the steps that most of us would like to take, and which, under
circumstances as presented by you we ought to take. It appears
that diplomatic complications of a very serious sort have convinced
the whole Cabinet, including the Unionist Members, that it is
necessary to give John Redmond some form of Home Rule to come
into operation at once. The whole Unionist Press with the
exception of the "Morning Post" has taken up the cry that the
Irish question must be settled out of hand. The majority of
the Unionist Members of the House of Commons are now of the same
mind in spite of all our friends can say. The only life-buoy
that is visible in this hostile flood of things is a provisio
which even most of the Radical papers make, that "Ulster must not
be coerced." The only question before us here at present is,
shall we authorise arson to enter into conference with Redmond
and Co. for a settlement on the basis of the exclusion of six
counties in Ulster, with regard to which Lloyd George professes
to have arrived at a preliminary tentative agreement. In the
present state of British public opinion it is clear that whichever
party refuses to treat on the basis of Lloyd George's proposals
will incur odium and diminish its chances of getting anything 2 it wants in the future . If Carson receives the authority of the Unionist
Council to treat on this basis it will, of course, be understood
that he will make the best bargain he can as regards details
and safeguards for the minority in the part of Ireland not
excluded from the Home Rule Act. The Unionist Council with
whom the decision in this matter rests is a very diplomatic democratic
body, and it will be impossible to raise landlord points there.
If the Unionist Council on Monday decide to accept the proposed
basis of negotiations Redmond will still have to get his supporters
to do the same, and to me it appears that the establishment of
Home Rule is still some way off. Of course on the face of it, the mere proposal that Home
Rule should be granted now as a consequence of the Rebellion looks
like sheer lunacy. The reasons behind the curtain which have
induced Walter Long and Bonor Law Law & & a Chamberlain to agree to this apparently
mad step must have been of extraordinary force. Of course if
the country was ruled by a Pitt instead of an Asquith a very
different course would have been pursued, but we must take facts
as they are. I think the landlords must sit tight for the present,
but I agree with you that as soon as it appears to be settled that
an Amending Bill to the Home Rule Act now on the Statute Book is
to be brought at once, we should have an emergency meeting
to see whether it is possible to get anything inserted in this
Amending Bill on the point you mention or others to save land
lords from ruin. Yours very truly,