IRISH TROUBLES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 291, 12 May 1914, Page 7

IRISH TROUBLES

SOLEMN' ULSTER PLEDGE AND COVENANT.

Inasmuch as we, Jhu duly elected do- f legates and members of the Ulster Unionist (Council, .representing all parts of Ulster, are firmly persuaded that by no law can the riglit to govern those whom we represent be bartered away without their consent; that, although the present Government, the services ami sacrifices of generations of our race having been forgotten, may drive us forth from the constitution which we have, ever loyally upheld, they may not deliver us bound into the hands of our enemies; and that it is incompetent for any authority, party or people to appoint as our rulers a government dominated by men disloyal to the Empire and to whom our faith and traditions are hateful;.. And inasmuch as we reverently believe that, as in times past, it was given our fathers to save themselves from a like calamity, so now it may be ordered that our deliverance shall lis ■by our own hands; to which end it is needful that we bo knit together as j one man, each strengthening the other, ond none holding back or counting the cost;

Therefore we, loyalists of Ulster, ratify and confirm the steps so far taken by the special commission this day sub : mitted' and explained to us, and we reappoint the commission to carry on its work on our behalf as in the past;

We enter into the solemn covenant appended, hereto, and, knowing the greatness of the issues depending on our faithfulness, we promise each to the other that to the uttermost of the strength and means given to us, and not regarding any selfish or private interest, our substance or our lives, we will make good, the said solemn Covenant;

~-And we now bind ourselves in the steadfast' determination that, whatever may befall, no such domination shall lie thrust upon us, and in the hope that by the blessing of God oiir. union with Great Britain, upon which .are fixed our affections and trust, may yet be maintained, and that for ourselves and for our children for this province and for the whole of Ireland, peace, prosperity and civil and religious liberty may be secured under the Parliament .of the United Kingdom and of the King, whose faithful subjects we ase and will continue all our days. THE COVENANT.

The following is the text of the Covenant:—

Being convinced in onr conscience that. Home. Rule would be disastrous to the material wollbcing of Ulster, as well as to the whole of Ireland, subversive to our civil and religious freedom, destructive to our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire.

We whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster loyal subjects to his gracious Majesty King George the Fifth, humbly relying on the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently trusted, hereby pledge ourselves in solemn covenant throughout this our time of threatened calamity to stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all the means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up Home Rule in Ireland. In the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we . solemnly and mutually pledge ourselves to refuse, its authority, in sure confidence that God will defend the right. Hereto we subscribe our names, and further we individually declare that we have not already signed this Covenant.