IRISH CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 82, 6 April 1914, Page 5

IRISH CRISIS.

HONEST MISTAKES

MADE BY THE ARMY. MR. ASQUITH SATISFIED. CAN COUNT OK THE FORCES. UNIONIST DEMONSTRATION. THE ELECTION DEMAND. (By Cable.—Tress Association.—Copyright) LONDON, April 5. The. Premier, Mr. Aequitli. speaking at Ladybank yesterday. ridiculed the '■legend that the Government had selected the moment of its making proposals to settle the Home Rule question ito engineer a plot to provoke Ulster. There had been a. genuine misunderstanding and honest mistakes regarding the army, but, ho had gooj re.ioon to know the zeal and devotion 10 duty pervading the military and naval funcf. "I am certain." ho Baid. "that t.hev can 'be counted on, from the highest to the lowest without exception, to undertake any duties which they may be required to discharge. I pray that the army ie not to bwome a political instrument. 'It has no place and no voice in framing our policy or moulding our laws. ARMY AND POLITICS. "The true doctrine of array administration was laid down by the elder Pitt 170 yeans ago. My duty is to see that the army is fit. in the present cv«*rshifting conditions, for rts primary duty. The army will hear nothing of polities from mc. In return I siwH expect to [hear nothing of politics from the arniT." , i The responsibility of preserving domestic peace, he added, lay with the. magistrates and 'the police. The array's aid oould not and ought not to be. invoked except in an emergency, which, happily, wae rare. When such' occasion* arose it was the duty of thf soldier to comply with the demand of the civil power. The present Tory doctrine fit ruck at t!ie very root not only of army discipline, but of democratic government. SPIRIT OF LAWLESSNESS. Mr Asqiiith added that if they recognised the existence of dispensing and discriminating power in the officers they must recognise it in the men and also in judges, magistrates and civil sonants. New dogmas would lie invoked whenever the spirit of lawlessness claimed the. right to stop the machinery of society. He quoted his speech nt St. Andrew's in 1010 dealing with Home Rule as justification in dealing with the bill under the Parliament .Act. Settlement by eoi.'S*nt was desirable in the interest of the country, bu , . they must have pe-aec with honour. He concluded by advocating devolution applied over nil parts of the United Kingdom. He regretted that the democratic party had lost several by-elections. With great issues ahead it was time to put aside comparatively trivial differences; then the united democrats would be irresistible. UNIONIST DEMONSTRATION. A remarkable Unionist demonstration took place in Hyde Park to-day. Despite the heavy rain 22 profusions, representing 7R London constituencies, with bands and flags, marched to Hyde Park.

The speaker*, who utilised 14 platforma, included 'Mr. A- .1. Balfour, Mr. Bonar Law, Sir Edward Carson, Lord iMilner, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Ixird Sclborne. and Mr. F. E. Smith. The Stock Exchange organised processions to Hyde Park, and leading conservative clubs, including the Carlton. sent large contingents, who commingled wrth groat parties of East End workmen. Sir K. H. Carson denied that the array belonged to tiie Radicals. The Government had no right to use the. -forces of the frown when it refused to take a vote of the people. "LIUPUT NAPOLEON." Lord Charles Beresford said that if the army were used against Vlster. It would break the navy as well as the army. Mr Churchill bad organised a plot* against Ulster. This l.iliput Napoleon was a man of unbalanced mind, absorbed by a frenzy of vindictiveness against Ulster because Belfast refused to receive him. Lord Milner said that in earlier civil wars the combatants bad beliefs and convictions, but if there was fighting in I'lstor the contending parties would be fundamentally agreed in attarhment 4 n tlie Flap. Throne and Empire, but would be hurled against en<h other in fratricidal conflict owing to the sinister pressure of ikr Government, which h&tcd Ulstcnnen and the army. SUFFRAGETTE RIVALRY. Itesolirtions were carried protecting against the army being- u?ed in slvoot down, the Ulster volunteer*, and dc-. manding a general election. The me.eting3 concluded by the singing of "God, Our Help in Ages 'Past." and the Na-tiona-1 Anthem. There were some interruptions from Labour sympathisere, ■who sang the "R^dFlag." The suffragettes held a rival procession, and the meeting of the two factions resulted in d'isturbanoK, Alre. Drummond and others being arrested. A meeting held in London last nig Tit to establish a league of British covenanters was presided over by Mr. W. Long. Earl Roberts was elected preeident. On rising to thank the meeting lie was cheered for several minutes. THE TUjSTER VOI/OHTEEBS. Sir E. H- Carson wae greeted with an ovation. He. described the Ulster volunteers as being very largely trade unionists. Viseouut 'Milner declared that the time wae short, -but there was still time to rase a. siorm of protest and compel &n appeal to the country. Lord Bobert Cecil, speaking at AshweJl la&t night, said the army wae not the instrument of the Government, but of the. Crown. Soldiers and civilians were equal before the law. Aβ regards obedience 10 orders a soldier must consider whether these are lawful or not. SIB E. CARSON'S MESSAGE. Sir Edward Caraon, in a special message to Australia, eta&ee that it i* difficult to conceive a more deliberate mi*~

representation of facts than ilr. John Redmond's message cabled to Australasia. The Nationalists' disgraceful aitack upon the army is quit* consistent with the record of men who never lost an opportunity to insult British soldiers and the flag, and among whom are still men who fought beside England's enemies in South Africa. Viscount Moray's statement in the House of Lords sufficiently belies Mr. Redmond's insinuation. Speaking on the Government's behalf on Monday. Viscount Morley said that there had not been a single case of disobedience to orders by any officer or man in connection with rece.nl event*. The conduct of 'the troojie had .been exemplary. OFFICERS' ALTERNATIVE. The Government, on its own initiative, continued Sir Edward Oareon. gave lie officers at the Curragh camp the alternative of fighting against the Ulster loyalists or rrsigning their conunieeions and being dismissed. The omVens were free to choose. They chose the la tier course, although they thereby forfeited their pensions and ruined their earoere, which 'in many eases involved a total loss of livelihood. Such self-sacrifice is a twt of sincerity. These 70 officer* preferred to sacrifice themselves ratber than to lead troops against loyalist subjects of the King, who would rally under tlie Union -Tack. ■Let it lie clearly understood that ilie array had l>eon dragged into tho preeent struggle only because the Government did noi dare to test the people's opinion by a general election as a referendum before forcing its infamous proposals through Parliament. SIDELIGHTS ON " CARSONADE." "XEW MODEL" FORCE OF 2o0.000! After making extensive inquiries in Ulster concerning "C'areonism" in its various phases, the Hon. George Peel, son of the famous speaker, grandson of a Prime Minister who played no small part in the hi.-tory of Ireland, and himself the author of several clever political essays, recently published in historical form an illuminating account of

"the Carsonade." H is a study is Con-stitution-mongering which should give Unionists furiously to think, and perhaps if they have a sense of humour, to smile.

Ulster lire-breathers have complained that their preparations have been reonly wi:b ridicule by their opponents. Here we have "a neglected account of the military and civil dispositions of Sir Edward Carson, from the date when lie accepted or assumed authority at Craigavon. in September 1011, up to the present time."

It in based almost entirely upon extractn from leading Unionist newspapers and from the ppreche* of Sir Edward himself, of Lord Londonderry and Captain Craig, "'the Romulus and Remus of lister." i>nd of other bulwarks of the Unionist party. Chapter and verse are piven for each quotation. And yet never was satire more pungent than the history so built up.

In the first chapter Mr. Peel reviews Sir Edward's military system as established in Ulster. He shows the number of the forces which "in Ulster alone were declared by the highest authority to number altogether in the summer of 1913 no less than 200.000 men 'at the lowest estimate.'" With the addition of forces in the rest of Ireland, in Great Britain, or in the Colonies the total is placed at 250,000.

Afr. Peel goes on to summarise the methods of training, the staff work, and other such details, giving an outline of the "wonderful preparations" which enabled Mr. Walter Lon<» a few weeks ago to eulogise Sir Edward Carson for "forming an army which, lie believed, would prove in its personnel, in its training, and in its equipment to be in no way inferior to the best army that their country could put into the field." If only Sir Edward could 'be pursuaded to take the Territorial Forte in hand! OVERSEA FORCES. From the Ulster army—the "X>w Model,' , Rβ he aptly terms it—Mr. Peel passes to describe "the raising of an army in England under distinguished auspices, which force, on mobilisation, would embark at Liverpool for co-opera-tion with the home army of lister." In the third chapter he turns to the origin of Sir Edward's civil power: —

"It was on August 27. 1913, that Sir Edward Carson announced the final organisation of his military system. Yet it was on September 24 following that he proclaimed thr details of his Civil Administration. Thi:s while Bonaparte took three and a. half years of strenuous '.abour fram the date of Marengo for ihc ordination of his Civil Code in 1804. the Hibernian leader apparently accomplished a similar task ill than a mouth."

(Constitutions arc not made, but grow, and tbe growth of that of L'lster under the guMinjr hand of its lawyer Lycurgus, is traced through a bewildering series of events by Mr. Peel. He tolls of the resolution passed by the "heterogeneous corporation" of the Four Hundred appointing a mysterious commission of five to frame « constitution, and of Sir Kdward's definite announcement that he himself had "recommended" this course to the Four Hundred. "This plainly indicated that he did not derive his authority from the Four Hundred, but. vice, versa, and that, the "compact' of Craigavon must hold the field as the basis of the imperial right." Follows the story of the Cansonian ■■proclamation" of Mr. Churchill's Belfast meeting and the signing before '"an army of photographers" of the Solemn League and Covenant which "besides , furnishing the colour of popular sanction in Ulster to the. royal proceedings would obviously give breaihing space to perfect the army." The Covenant, with its emergency exits, its limited liability and its carefully wrap-ped-up, vague and retrospective sanction of the doings of the Four Hundred and the Five—those "constitutional troglodytes"—is then dissected. SHADOW OF DEMOCRACY. As Augustus "clothed himself with a constitution" so did "King" Carson put upon him the armour of democracy, but so ill did it fit and with such bad grace did lie wear it that it could not hide the cloven hoof: "He began to represent himself as a man of destiny: a being not his own master, but controlled and captured by forces more potent than himself ... a voice echoing willy-nilly the exigencies of a democracy at bis back . . .All thU vos a. method of political insurance. He was beginning to represent himself to be, not the organiser, but the organ, of an insurgent public."

Then comes a time of consolidation and progress during which "the orchestra began to perform melodies not mnch less strident than before, but., at any rate, more aborted and less primitive. "Eelijrion' was one of these latter and "Representative Government' the other."

The new "religion" eummnrOy eonsis ted of two trnotn vociferated in cc>nstint crespendo froai many roaring pal-

The first of these two tenets apparently was that, if you' differ from your neighbour politically, yon are at liberty to hai. * ,i, without stint. And the second wai»UuU, if your hatred does not terrify liW-'into submission to youT political wishes, then you may take up arms against him in the last report. On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets of Belfast.

On September 24, 19?.:!, the Provisional Government was presented to the world, and there was a "very complete muster of the Four Hundred—representative, in fact, of all classes except the people: the people were not there." Mr. Peel wittily describes the orgy of committee and board-forming which followed: — •More confounding still, the Standing Committee itself dived under water and reappeared instiinter as the Executive Committee of the Provisional Government. Dripping \vij,h various nomenclatures the Provisional Government now stood on the bank and shook itself, and even- drop seemed to be transmogrified into a committee, or an official, or a board, of sorts. SELF-CREATED BUREAUCRACY. "A solf-created aristrocratic bureaucracy without a Civil Service beneath it nr a Parliament above." ie Mr. Peel's description of the '"constitution as it emerged in all its provisional splendour.

The Carsonade, says Mr. reel, in his epilogue, "U the embodiment of a double hatred. It is aimed at those who would substitute Patriotism for Ascendancy: if i= also aimed ul those who would rightly benefit by that wise act. Thus to the (arsonader there are two anathemas—the Englishmen who would entrust Ireland to Irishmen, and the Irishmen who would joyfully accept that boon. Could the "Ulster problem" be stated more tersely or with more truth? "At the moment the crater of anarchy is on the boil. Let us take our precautions, and then pass on to our goal."