NAILING A LIE TO THE MAST

Evening Star, Issue 15514, 9 June 1914, Page 3

NAILING A LIE TO THE MAST

In the course of the censure debate on Mr Bonar Law's motion, Lord H. Cecil said it was impossible to forget that the Nationalist party, which now professed so much admiration for the British Army, cheered loudly when the British Army was defeated in the Transvaal, and when Lord Methuen was wounded and taken prisoner. ("Oh, oh!" and "It is perfectly true.") Mr Dillon said it was not true that the defeat was cheered. Lord H. Cecil: If the hon. member denies that, it shows that his statements are worthless. Mr Dillon : That is a very offensive observation. I was sitting here, and the Secretary for War was reading the tele gram announcing the British defeat. Ho got to the passage in which there was a great eulogy of General Delarey for the extraordinary generosity with which he had treated 'Lord Methuen, and five Irish members loudly cheered that passage. I reproved them on the spot, and warned them of the misunderstanding that would follow. That was the explanation they gave. me. Mr J. Campbell (U.): What about Ml Redmo;id':> message to Philadelphia? Lord 11. Cecil said tbe hon. member had v.oi made his case at all better. It was notorious that the whole attitude of tVie Nationalist party was hostile to th« lividxh Army at that time. "Die exprerf>ion of opinion he had quoted was merely the inn t extraordinary of many simila! instances. (Opposition cheers.) —A Charge and Counter Charge. — At the same sitting Mr Cave (U.J read from ' Irish Freedom ' the following as indicating what the Nationalists thought of the British Army: What the English Army offers to Irish dupes' and traitors. A guilty conscience. An unclean life. A miserable death. Have you ever seriously thought ol the advantages of treachery? Send for special book of lies. Join the most immoral and most d» graded force in Europe. Go over to the English Garrison. —The Price of Treachery.— • Irish traitors don't cost much U England. A red coat. A dishonored name. A besmirched character. When broken and useless they will b<J thrown on to the streets, to seek refuge in the workhouse. Ministerial cries of "Most unfair!" and " There is no name to it!" Mr John Dillon remarked that on tha occasion of the last Home Rule Bill Lord Wolseley sent to the Duke of Cambridge a letter, which Earl Roberts endorsed tfia other day. It contained this statement t " Of one thing your Royal Highness may rest assured—that if the men 01 Ulster are subjected to the rule of a race they hate as much as they despise them, they will fight." Was it the last word of British statesmanship that that spirit should b* perpetuated ! Lord Roberts ought to be ashamed of himself—{loud Ministerial and Nationalist cheers) —for endorsing such, sentiments towards the Catholic' Nationalists of Ireland, whom he had led to victory on a dozen battlefields, and without whose valor and loyalty he could not have won a single victory. (Nationalist cheers.)