tals in this memorandum, because it
is upon fundamentals there are differences of thinking. Once these are
settled it would be comparatively easy to devise the necessary clauses
in an Irish constitution, giving safeguards to England for the due
payment of the advances under the Land Acts, and the principles upon
which an Irish contribution should be made to the empire for naval
and military purposes. It was suggested by Mr. Lionel Curtis in his
"Problems of the Commonwealth," that assessors might be appointed by the
dominions to fix the fair taxable capacity of each for this purpose. It
will be observed that while I have claimed for Ireland the status of a
dominion, I have referred solely hitherto to the powers of control over
trade policy, customs, excise, taxation and legislation possessed by the
dominions, and have not claimed for Ireland the right to have an army
or a navy of its own. I recognize that the proximity of the two islands
makes it desirable to consolidate the naval power under the control of
the Admiralty. The regular army should remain in the same way under
the War Office which would have the power of recruiting in Ireland. The
Irish Parliament would, I have no doubt, be willing to raise at its own
expense under an Irish Territorial Council a Territorial Force similar
to that of England but not removable from Ireland. Military conscription
could never be permitted except by Act of the Irish Parliament. It
would be a denial of the first principle of nationality if the power
of conscripting the citizens of the country lay not in the hands of the
National Parliament but was exercised by another nation.

22. While a self-governing Ireland would contribute money to the defense
of the federated empire, it would not be content that that money
should be spent on dockyards, arsenals, camps, harbors, naval stations,
ship-building and supplies in Great Britain to the almost complete
neglect of Ireland as at present. A large contribution for such purposes
spent outside Ireland would be an economic drain if not balanced by
counter expenditure here. This might be effected by the training of a
portion of the navy and army and the Irish regiments of the regular
army in Ireland, and their equipment, clothing, supplies, munitions
and rations being obtained through an Irish department. Naval dockyards
should be constructed here and a proportion of ships built in them. Just
as surely as there must be a balance between the i