ULSTER AND THE ARMY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16508, 25 March 1914, Page 8

ULSTER AND THE ARMY.

It is not difficult to understand what ha 3 been happening in military circles of late in regard to tho movement of troops into Ulster. Some too enthusiastic officer has evidently allowed his political feelings to got tho better of his good sense, and his talk of resigning has infected a number of other military politicians. The Unionist newspapers, of course, have assisted in making trouble. Some of the cable messages suggesting reasons for the resignations credib the officers concerned with very little sense. It has been stated, for instance, that Sir Arthur Paget has written to some unnamed person declaring that an attack is going to be made on Ulster and that shortly the whole country will- be in a blaze. The idea of the Imperial Government deliberately ordering an invasion of Ulster and an armed attack upon men who have so far committed no offence that could not be dealt with under the civil law sounds like the imagining of a madman, but apparently there are military men and even i.oliticians who have taken the story seriously. Mr Balfour charges the Government with having bungled a delicate position, but for tho extremo of blundering stupidity it is necessary to go to the Opposition leadens themselves. Sir Edward Carson's heroics may be dismissed for a moment, but Mr Bonar Law's language, more than anything else, has been responsible for the dangerous pass to which the country has been brought, and Air Bonar Law is praised by his followers as an uncommonly canny and level-headed Scot. The evidence of level-headedness, we suppose, is to be found in the ease with which he lias been pushed into the Ulster turmoil by his irresponsible friends. How much of tho picturesque detail of Opposition allegations is due to biased reports and how much to political imagination it is impossible to say, but such stories as the one we have mentioned are simply unbelievable on the face of them. The Paget letter, which was quoted with such effect in the House of Commons by the leader of the Opposition, was a communication from somebody unknown to somebody else, also unknown, in which something Sir Arthur Paget was supposed to have said was mentioned. Yet the level-headed Mr Bonar Law read this letter as if it had been genuine and unimpeachable evidence concerning the intentions of the Government and the War Office. Probably we shall not be far astray if we attribute the gravity of the present position mainly to the alarmist and unfounded assertions of party politicians and party newspapers.