"GOD SAVE THE QUEEN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9182, 11 October 1888, Page 6

"GOD SAVE THE QUEEN."

THE refusal of THE CORK band TO PLAY IT. THE London correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, writing on August 24, says:— . One of the most popular of the three Exhibitions now •' running" in London is the Irish. It is excellently managed, is conducted on an extensive scale at Olvmpia (the scene of "Buffalo Bill's'' triumphs), and as it embraces a large number of novel and ■interesting features it has been very popular. It was opened with some misgiving, for the anti-Irish feeling is very bitter in London, and some delicate diplomacy was necessary to have it countenanced by influential men without having it supposed that they were Home Rulers, or that their connection with the Exhibition had any political significance. Fortunately these difficulties were overcome, and the Exhibition has been successfully conducted under the auspices of a committee which includes Gladstonian Liberals, Lib-eral-Unionists, and Conservatives. Everything went smoothly until last Wednesday, when the refusal of the Cork Band to play " God Save the Queen" led to a scene in which it only needed the striking of a single blow to have produced a fearful riot. Two or three accounts of this scene have been published, but I prefer to take the principal facts from that furnished by the secretary of the Cork National League, who is a member of the reporting staff of the Cork Herald, to which paper he telegraphed a report of the proceedings as he witnessed them atOlympia. According to this authority the trouble commenced during the day, when the band were suddenly called upon to take part in apiece of music known as " The British Army and Navy Quadrilles," which includes such airs as " Rule Britannia" and "God Save the Queen." "It need hardly be said," states this account, " that the request met with a pointblank refusaland the explanation of this refusal is that "while entirely ignoring the political aspect of the question, they should strenuously object to the bandsmen being called upon to play any selection which they had not previously rehearsed, and upon which their merits as a corps of amateur musicians might possibly bo criticised." Everything then went smoothly till the evening, when the scene alluded to occurred, and is thus described in the report above quoted : —"After they (the band) had concluded the programme they were asked in the most solemn manner to wind up with ' God Save the Queen.' The bandsmen simply laughed at the idea, and were preparing to pack to leave for the night, when some few Orangemen, who have managed to have a status in the Exhibition buildings by reason of being employed to attend some of the exhibits, tried to create a disturbance, and a row almost seemed inevitable. The Cork men, however, showed no sign of wavering, although they would undoubtedly be largely outnumbered. They said they would rather be walked on than comply with such a request, and in a short time a crowd -collected round them; but there were in the number several friends and sympathisers. Nothing serious, however, occurred, and the bandsmen retired without being molested to their lodgings. It appears that since the Exhibition has been opened it has been customary for the band which winds up the day's performance in the choral hall to play 'God Save the Queen,' and the Exhibition officials took it for granted that the Cork band would do likewise ; but, as has been already indicated, they were mistaken, and in order to make the best of it they were obliged to get tho Exhibition band, which had been playing in the grounds outside, to come into the main hall and play the tune." I think it would rather startle most people in Australia to be told that a public band, engaged to play at a public exhibition of a distinctly non-political character, had declared that they " would rather be walked on " than play the National Anthem. And the members of the band were certainly as good as their word, for they prepared themselves for a riot in which some of them might have been "walked on" to their hearts' content. The affair was widely reported about next day, and a rumour got abroad that a large body of Orangemen at Hammersmith, in the neighbourhood of Olympia, were being organised to attend at the Exhibition that night and compel the bandsmen to play " God Save the Queen" or swallow their instruments. The bandsmen immediately took precautions for their own safety, with the result that several hundred Irishmen from various parts of the metropolis were in attendance at the Exhibition in the evening, and special arrangements had been made by the authorities to have a force of 400 policemen promptly 011 the spot if required. Towards half-past ten o'clock (the hour when the National Anthem is usually played at the Exhibition) some 2000 or 3000 people had gathered in the vicinity of the band stand. It was an exciting moment as far as the crowd was concerned. Great brawny men, with awkwardly-con-cealed weapons up their sleeves or under their coats, prowled about with suspicious silence and scowling glances. There was no enthusiasm. There was a vague sense of impending disturbance —something of that kind of feeling that possesses us when there is thunder in the air. 0110 ill-advised act at that moment would have wrecked the building and cost many of those present their lives. Fortunately the tact of tho Exhibition authorities averted such a calamity. The Cork Band were relieved of the necessity of playing the National Anthem, which was given instead, with unusual spirit, by the Exhibition Band, amidst a wild burst of enthusiasm on the part of the majority of the crowd, who found an outlet, for their pent-up excitement in an enthusiastic rendering of "God Save the Queen." The secretary of the Cork National League candidly says :— This arrangement probably had the effect of preventing any disturbance ; but it should be added that if there had been a row the Orange faction would not have had it all their own way, judging by the large number of Irishmen who brought with them dangerous sticks, and who remained promenading in the vicinity of the band."

There is some curiosity to know what explanation the band have to offer for this extraordinary conduct. Two explanations have been given, one guarded, and the other more outspoken. George Brady, the bandmaster, states that he was very careful in drawing up the programme which was sunt to the executive of the Exhibition, in 1 which was accepted by them, to exelude all airs of a party character. By the Nationalists in Ireland "God Save the Queen" was considered as much a party tune as "Boyne Water." He omitted from his programme such tunes as "God Save Ireland," and other popular Nationalist tunes, because of their political character, and for the same reason did not include "God Save the Queen," and therefore refused to play it. A similar objection was applicable to some of the selections, including the " British Army Quadrilles," ithout taking into consideration the fact that that composition was not included in the pieces which his band had agreed to play. If he had known that the band were expected to play such pieces ho would never have entered into the engagement and brought them over to London. Moreover, they had never learned to play •' i iod Save the Queen."

The other explanation has been given by \k\ Doolan, the secretary and organiser ■ : the band, who lias been interviewed mi the subject. " Do you think," lie •said, •' we are going to play ' God ' Have the Queen, and the ' British Army : (Quadrilles' with Dillon on a plank bed and ; Maudeville mouldering in his grave ? ' God I Save the Queen' is played by the soldiers ! after they have been assisting at some cruel | eviction, or breaking up a peaceable meeti ing. If we went to America we should play i ' The Star-spangled Banner' or ' Yankee j Doodle,' because the Americans are our I friends ; or if we went to France we should ! play the ' Marseillaise' but we can't play ! ' God Save the Queen' until we are at peace i with England. Our old instruments were i smashed when the police batoned us on the i occasion of Mr. W. J. Lane's release from j prison. Many of our men were then brutally J knocked about by Balfour's bludgeoners, and | what an idea after that to ask us to play 'God I Save the Queen.' My opinion is they knew i we would not play that or ' The British Army Quadrilles.' Our object is not to insult the English people or their Queen. We are simply maintaining a principle. I saw Mr. Peter O'Leary, who is the representative in Cork of the Exhibition, last week, and said to him, ' I hope j there is none of the flunkeyism across there I about" God Save the Queen " and things of

that sort, because we should not play them, and we have reason to remember that that business almost caused the Cork Exhibition to bo a failure.' Mr. O'Leary replied, ' No, we leave our politics outside the door,' and as an instance of this mentioned the fact that a fortnight before Lord Arthur Hill personally conducted Mr. Gladstone round the Exhibition, though entirely opposed to him in politics." Lord Arthur Hill, the honorary secretary to the Exhibition, first directed that the band should be expelled from the Exhibition, but he has since agreed, as a compromise, that as the band have only a few days more of their engagement to serve, they should be asked to play only non-political airs. Upon this the Times waxes indignant this morning, in the following strain: — We are impudently told that " God Save the Queen "'is a " party tune " which the Barrack-street band from " rebel Cork " neither could nor would play; and— is much more astonishing— excuse, which is in itself an insult, has been accepted as sufficient by the managers of the Exhibition, including Lord Arthur Hill, the Comptroller of Her Majesty's Household, and the representative in the' House of Commons of the loyal county of Down. This is an act of weakness whicli, so far from doing away with the damaging effect of the premeditated outrage, is likelv still further to injure an undertaking which had the goodwill of all Englishmen and Scotchmen as well as all Irishmen, and which was kept clear of politics on the Unionist side. I am bound to say that a good many intelligent Irishmen and Home Rulers in London take a similar view of the affair.