THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 173, 20 January 1912, Page 5

THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

THE HISTORIC ULSTER HALL. RESENTMENT AT Ml CHURCHILL'S , VISIT. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, January 18. Irritation at Belfast in connection ■with Mr. Churchill's visit is chiefly ' due to the proposal to use the Ulster Hall. Little feeling would have been evoked if he had intended to utilise St. Mary's Hall, where the Nationalists are in the habit of assembling. Captain Craig, M.P., states that Ulster is determined that Mr. Churchill's meeting shall not take place, and every ingenuity will be displayed to prevent a rebel crew dishonoring the historic Ulster , Hall. , Mr. W. T. Stead, writing in the Pall Mall Gazette, instances a recent magisterial decision binding over a man to * keep the peace because he proposed to make utterances calculated to provoke a |: breach of the peace, and states that the 1 decision leaves Mr, Birrell, Chief Secre- 1 tary for Ireland, no other course than 1 legally, to prohibit Mr. Churchill from speaking at Belfast. ARMS FOR ULSTER, 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 fund, which was opened some time ago by the Orangemen of Garvagh, met in the Clinton 1 Memorial Hall on the evening of the 20th ult. A suitable 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 of ammunition. They have also purchased a number of LeeEnfield magazine guns from the Garvagh Rifle Club, the latter body having changed to a lighter weapon. Air-guns "have also been provided for the purpose of practice during the winter nights amongst the members of the lodges in hall. Wiring on December 3, the Daily News Coleraine correspondent says:— Most careful' inquiries elicit no corro-} boration of the rumoured large importa-! tion of rifles or ammunition into Gar- ' vagh. Prominent Orangemen are averse to giving exact details. They admit that the contemplated purchase of a cannon was abandoned in favor of rifles, but these have not yet been obtained on an extensive scale, nor is general arming intended at present. Two dozen military rifles, and a similar quantity ; ysed ,by local clubs will be used in practice by lodgemen during the winter. Undoubtedly many Orangemen seriously coiiteniV plate active resistance to Home Rule, and drill books have been. circulated in tne rowdily, 1 but 'anything like organised drilling parties cannot be at work unless indoors, because the constabularly would immediately report public proceedings on such lines.