MINISTERIAL PLOT DENIED TO ATTACK ULSTER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1914, Page 8

MINISTERIAL PLOT DENIED TO ATTACK ULSTER.

THE DOCTRINE OF OPTIONAL OBEDIENCE. LOiNi-'UN, 29th March. Sir <T. A. Simon, Attorney-General, speaking at Blackburn, emphatically denied that there was a Ministerial plot to attack Ulster. He said he \va& yrespnt at every meeting of the- Cabinet and of the Cabinet Committee which diiscuesed the precautionary arrangements. It woidd be a great misfortunes if officers in Ireland were ever asked hypothetical questions. Sooner than admit the officer's claim to pick and choose between tho laws they would support, the Government was willing to face officeitV resignations without number. The ono living problem of 'our time was the better democratisation of the Army. Mr. P. H. Illingworth (Chief Government Whip), speaking at Blackburn, said the Tories had raised an istme threatening the Very foundations of the people. The incidents in the House of Commons Burpassed in interebt and importance anything within living memory, but the Tory Party had welded the coalition into the people's party, and the Army issue would be settled on the Liberal Party's own lines, in its own way. and in its own time. Some of the officers, with the full connivance ot the Tories, had started, the doctrine of opt'onal obedience, namely, that they would support the civil authorities in protecting life and property under a Tory Government, but if .asked to perFofm similar duty under a Liberal Government they would resign. "That insult," said Mr. Illingworth, "we, in due time, are prepared to meet." NO BETTER ISSUE FOR, AN ELECTION. Mr. J. H. Thoma-s, Labour member for Derby, speaking at Derby, said there could be- no better issue for a General Election, than whether Parliament should govern or the Army, encouraged and fostered through aristocratic circles. Mr. Peto (Unionist M.P.), speaking at Colhngbourne. Kingston, eaid that the cry ot "the Army against the people" Was the despairing cry of a discredited party Teady to- wreck the nation in a desperate* gamble to save themselves. BRITISH PUBLIC WILL NOT ALLOW A WAR. Mr. Robert Blatchford, in the Clarion, says that though Home Rule is ridiculous, the Government thought that if it blew *loud enough and marched a few British battalions up a- hill and down again, the Ulster men would lay down their arms and consent to be devoured to make a Liberal holiday. "If Ulster stands to arms," says Mr. Blatchford, " she will win. The British public will not allow a war in Ulster, aud Mr. Asquith knows it." '