HOME RULE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1096, 20 January 1912, Page 3

HOME RULE.

London, Jan. 17

The shipyard workers at Belfast have determined to take a halfholiday oh February 8, and propose to take possession of the streets in the neighbourhood of Ulster Hall and prevent Mr Winston Churchill’s speech.

The Unionists are arranging for 5000 stalwarts to occupy Ulster Hall days beforehand, and for 75,000 men to pack the streets. A Protestant Home Ruler recently sent the following paragraph from the Northern Constitution of Coleraine to the London Daily News ; “The ‘Cannon’ Fund. —The committee of management of this tund, which was opened some time ago by the Orangemen of Garvagh, met in the Clinton Memorial Hall on the evening of the 20th ult. A suit able weapon of the ‘big gun’ style not being procurable, it was decided at a previous meeting to invest the money in small arms, and after considerable discussion the meeting agreed to purchase 24 Martini-Henry military rifles of 450 calibre, with a supply ot suitable ammunition. They have also purchased a number ot Lee-Enfield magazine guns from the Garvagh Rifle Club, the latter body having changed to a lighter weapon. Airguns have also been provided for the purpose ot practice during the winter nights amongst the members of the lodges in hall.” Writing on December 3rd, the Daily News Coleraine correspondent says : “Most careful inquiries elicit no corroboration of the rumoured large importation of rifles or ammunition into Garvagh. Prominent Orangemen are averse to giving exact details. They admit that the contemplated purchase of a cannon was abandoned in favour of rifles, but these have not yet been obtained on an expensive scale, nor is geueial arming intended at present. Two dozen military rifles and a similar quantity used by local rifle clubs will be used in practice by lodgemen during the winter. Undoubtedly many Orangemen seriously contemplate active resistance to Home Rule, and drill books have been circulated in the locality, but anything like organised drilling parties cannot be at work unless indoors, because the constabulary would immediately report public proceedings on such lines.