Dividing Ireland: World War I and Partition

214 THE IRISH CONVENTION AND CONSCRIPTION
fact, and act upon it’, concluded the News-Letter, ‘they cannot
attempt the solution of the Irish problem with any hope of
success’. 42 The News-Letter tackled the complexities of the
problem, explaining that what was commonly being called
‘Federalism’ was in fact ‘devolution’—its opposite. The United
States and the Australian Commonwealth were federations, it
pointed out, because in each case separate states agreed to create
a common parliament and to transfer some of their powers to it;
but the United Kingdom was one state, governed by one parliament,
and what was proposed by Unionists using the term ‘federal’ was
to create truly subordinate legislatures and devolve upon them the
power of dealing with local affairs. 43
In rejecting anything which resembled Dominion status for
Ireland, the Belfast News-Letter dismissed the argument that such
self-government had made the Dominions loyal and prosperous,
highlighting the absence of any historic British-Dominion quarrels,
as there had been between Irish Nationalists and England, because
the Dominions’ political and religious ideals did not differ from
England’s, while those of Irish Nationalists did. Quebec, the
French-speaking Province of Canada, had self-government, yet,
claimed the News-Letter, this had not made it loyal and contented.
It concluded that if Quebec had Dominion status it would be
practically certain that Quebec would be less and not more loyal,
and that, similarly, an Ireland with Dominion status would merely
be another Quebec with infinitely greater power to embarrass
England and the Empire. 44 Dominion status was merely ‘another
name for independence’. 45 The News-Letter, in asking where the
Nationalist demand in the Irish Convention differed from that of
Sinn Fein, answered ‘Only in the recognition of His Majesty as King
of Ireland. If…the demand were conceded, the Irish kingdom could
do everything which an Irish republic could do’. 46
The conscription crisis
In March 1918, the political calculations of the Government and
those participating in the Irish Convention were shattered by the
German offensive on the Western Front, which destroyed any hope
of the Convention’s Report being implemented. The British army,
in one day, suffered a stunning setback, with the enemy
overrunning over ninety-eight square miles of territory, and
penetrating, at the furthest point, to a depth of four and a half
miles. This was virtually equal to the advance that the British and
French armies had made during the entire Somme campaign of
1916. On 21 March 1918 alone, British casualties were 38,500,