"A Grave Issue."

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 78, 23 March 1914, Page 5

"A Grave Issue."

CHANCELLOR HITS HARD IN HUDDERSFIELD. “ULSTER, A SPOILT CHILD”

POLICY OF SCURRILITY AND TITTLE-TATTLE.

[By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] [United Peisb Association.] (Received 'B.IO a.m.) London, March 22.

, Mr Lloyd George, speaking in the afternoon at Huddersfield, said a grave issue had arisen in the history of democratic government. The country was confronted with the greatest issue since the Stuarts, and representative Government was at stake.

In answer to a question as to whether the progressive Bills which the Tories opposed, would be honored or thrown into the waste-paper basket. Lloyd George said: “If Liberalism flinches an inch before those insolentarrogant plagues it will be unfit any longer to be the instrument for the control of their great Empire, and it was time it made way -for a sterner and more highly-mettled body of British progressives. The Government mean to confront this defiance of popular liberties with resolution and unwavering determination, whatever will be the hazard. We are not fighting about Ulster; we are fighting for all that is essential to civil liberty. Orangemen professed to be shocked that force should he vised for setting up a great, free, self-govern-ing Parliament in Ireland.

“When,” asked he, “did Ulster acquire detestation'/of coercion? Coercion presented no sorrows when the Orangeman evicted Catholic peasants for non-payment of extortionate rates. Ulster was a spoilt child. She had heard so much about her volunteers that she thinks them something terrific. The Government’s proposal was to give‘her time for the swelling to subside. Tbe Opposition rejected the Government’s offer with contempt, and indignation. As regards the referendum, the Opposition, had one in 1910. He doubted whether the majority of the Opposition were anxious for a settlement. If Ulster was. settled, they would have no policy left. Scurrility and tittletattle never carried a party anywhere except into the gutter.”

V/AR OFFICE DENIALS.

SPECIAL MAGISTRATES SWORN.

(Received 9.0 aan.) London, March 22

The,War Office denies the issue of an ultimatum to officers in Ireland \ that they must serve or resign, and that it has no information as to wholesale resignations.

Special magistrates for Ulster are being sworn in ‘at Dublin Castle. One hundred and fifty Royal Engineers from Dublin, with trenching and pontoon apparatus, entrained for Belfast. •

An examination of Curragh magazine revealing' a deficiency of ammunition to a large amount, including hundreds of thousands of rounds for small arms, an order has been issued to search the ordnance storemen in Ulster as they leave work. The removal of mounted troops from Curragh has been cancelled owing to the resignation of the officers. Earl Galloway proposes a national subscription to compensate officers for sacrificing their commissions, because they j refused to do the Government’s dirty work.

Sir Edward Carson conferred with the leaders of the volunteers, and arrangements were completed for mobilising the force. Sir John Simon, at Manchester, denied that the moving of troops was provocative. The days of vague negation of Home Rule were over. A sentry shot a soldier who was late for roll call while scaling the barrack wall at Newbridge. The man is in a critical condition.

A demonstration in Hyde Park against the us© of the army in Ulster has been arranged for the fourth of April. The speakers include the majority of tho Unionist front. bench )nen. '■NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS.” Mr A. Birrell (Irish Secretary in 1907), speaking in London, declared that the military would never bo used except on behalf of the integrity of the King’s dominions, assisting tho civil power to maintain order, and securing to every minority, Catholic or Protestant, the protection to which it is entitled against the fury of religions bigotry or savagery, political or partisan. A CRITICAL SITUATION. Twenty-five thousand troops are available in Ireland. General Sir Arthur Paget (head of the Irish command) is in comamnd of the principal regiments involved in the resignations. The sth and 16th Lancers, and the 4th Hussars, composing -ie third brigade, are under General Kearsley. All. the regiments in Ulster are ( English, under Count Gleichen.

Two torpedoors landed 150 soldiers at Carrickfergus Castle from Dublin.

ARMED WITH BALL CARTRIDGES

The Press Association states that volunteers guarding Craigavon, armed with rifles and bayonets and ball cartridges, stood at the salute as the

Dorsetshire Regiment passed. Many of the Dorsetshires returned the compliment. Mr Redmond, in the interests of the Nationalist cause, insists on u.e abandonment of tiie Derr parade.'

Ten rounds of ammunition have been served to every officer at Cnrragh, where the 16th Lancers and 4ta Hussars are armed with carbines, instead of the usual lance and sword. Five officers of the 105th Yorkshire Light Infantry embarked at Kingstown for the North.

The guards at Londonderry have have been trebled, and ball cartridges served.

Many inhabitants of Enniskillen, waving Union Jacks, gave a rousing welcome to two hundred of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry Regiment. Another draft has reached Nowry, where troops have not been stationed for eight years.

Sentries at Ehrington barracks have been trebled, for the first time since the abortive Fenian rising in the ’sixties. “THE TIMES” COMMENT. The Times, in a leader headed “Gambling in Human Lives,” states: “Hie debkte, on Ulster has brought armed conflict a few steps nearer. Mr Asquith’s reply was inadequate to the point of childishness.”

WAR OFFICE PRECAUTIONS.

Loudon, March 22

General Sir Arthur Paget has arrived at Curragh. Negotiations are proceeding with the- resigned officers, ft is reported that Brigadier-General De la P, Gough is commanding the third cavalry brigade at Curragh. Several officers at Aldershot have resigned. -It is stated at Aldershot drat the South-Western Railway Co.. ias been ordered to have trains ready :o move ten thousand men to Glaslo\v and other ports, . whence they can be transported to Ireland.

“UNDETERRED BY THREATS.”

Messrs Lloyd George and John Burns and Sir John Simon (AttorneyGeneral), in speeches delivered recently, emphasised the Government’s determination to pass Home Rule, undeterred by taunts arid threats.

TME DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT.

The Pall Mall Gazette’s Belfast correspondent telegraphs that when ;wo companies of tho Dorsetshire Regiment were paraded on Thursday ,ind were notified that they were being transferred to near the volunteers’ manoeuvring ground, they hurried with their rifles to the barracks square and saluted, exclaiming, ‘‘We want no Home Rule here!”

Tiie Dorsetshires are confined to )arraeks at Holywood, a seaport town md watering place near Belfast.

IMPORTANT CONVERSATIONS;

Lord Roberts visited Buckingham Palace and later the War Office.

The King also gave an audience to Field-Marshal French (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) and Colonel Seely (Secretary for War). The Army Council met on Saturday.

The Premier is in frequent consultation with Colonel Seely and Mr Churchill.

CONFERENCE AT DOWNING STREET, (Received 10.5 a.m.) London, March 22. Mr Asquith, Mr Churchill, Colonel Seely, and Mr Birrell held a. long consultation at Downing Street today. HISTORY-MAKING EPOCH. Tlie Observer states that General Paget on Friday asked BrigadierGeneral Gough, commanding the Third Cavalry Brigade at Curragh, whether he was prepared to march against Ulster and gave him two hours to decide. Gough resigned on the spot, and the resignations of the officers of the Third Cavalry Brigade and Horse Artillery, with five exceptions, followed. The Observer recalls John Churchill’s action in 1688, and the British officers in 1777 during the American Revolution.

John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, was England’s most illustrious general in the reigns of Charles 11., James 11., William 111., and Anne. Ho first saw service against the Moors, and from 1672 to 1677 ho distinguished himself in operations in the Netherlands. On returning to England honors were showered on him, and in 1685 he was created Lord

Churchill of Sandridge hy King

James. He materially assisted in Monmouth’s rebellion. Marlborough continued to serve fames with fidelity until the arrival »f William, to which prince lie attached himself. This action has been stigmatised as one displaying the height of ingratitude, though Marlborough argued that" he acted properly, having regard to the religion and constitution of the country. It is undoubted that it was hopeless for him to oppose the determination of the. majority of Englishmen to change the lynasty. In 1689 William created him Duke of Marlborough, and appointed him commander-in-chief of the English forces in the Low Countries. He afterwards served in Ireland, but in 1692 lie was suddenly deprived of all employments and imprisoned in the Tower. He was soon back in favor again, and when Anne came to the throne he prosecuted another successful campaign against Spain and France in the Netherlands. In 1711 he returned to England and was once more deprived of his employments. Ho went into voluntary banishment, but returned to England, and was received into favor following the deatli of Anne.

Mr Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), in the course of his speech said that doubtless there would ho bloodshed, and that was lamentable, but the' cowardly abdication of the Executive’s responsibility would bo worse. Law and order must prevail. “We are not going to have Britain sunk to Mexico’s condition,” he said. “If Ulster seeks pe v aco, she knows where to find it, but if every concession is spurned, if Ulster becomes the tool of party calculations, if the civil and Parliamentary systems are brought to a crude challenge of force, if reckless chatter ends in the ■disclosure of a sinister revolution, then let us go forward and put these grave matters to proof.”