THE O'CONNOR MEMOIRS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20255, 15 May 1929, Page 10

THE O'CONNOR MEMOIRS.

REMINISCENCES OE " T.P.*

"PASSION WORSE THAN EVER"

FORSTER ASSAILS GOVERNMENT.

ALLEGED DEAL WITH PARNELL. (Copyright.) No. XXVI. The situation in the Houso of Commons that followed the Phoenix Park assassinations was very mixed. Bitter passion, which one would have thought would be stilled in face of this gigantic event, broke out worse than ever. Ihe «" Kilmainhain Treaty " appeared to the Conservative Opposition a splendid weapon to uso against the Government; there was something, of course, inviting in bringing out the contrast between a Coercionist Government which had imprisoned Parnell and his colleagues, and which had by speech as well as by action sought to identify the Irish leaders with encouragement of the disorder that was then devastating tho country, and theso same gentleinon entering into confidential and friendly communication. On this theine Tory speaker after speaker dwelt. One of the fiercest speeches on this theme was uttered by Mr. Balfour, then a slim, rather shy, rather unconfldent young member. It required the Parliamentary courago which ho always possessed to stand up against the mighty Gladstone, then in the zenith of his inexhaustible powers of rhetoric—even passionate rhetoric. [Mr. Gladstone was then 72 and Mr. Balfour 34 years of «ge-3 I still remember the pause—it looked like a shrinking from the odious word—which Mr. Balfour made before he applied to the transaction the words "an infamy" —a terrible word, it need scarcely bo said, which stung Gladstone to the quick. Gladstone in a " Tearing Passion." Gladstone got up in a tearing passion—bo far as anything can be callea passion in a man who, when ho was on his legs, had always a cool bearing and at least an appearance of inner composure. He lashed at his young assailant. Some of his hits evoked the frantic cheering of „liis friends, but to mo they appeared rhetorical rather than effective. For instance, Mr. Balfour had made his attack under cover of a motion for adjournment, that somewhat innocuous method of getting an excuse for a speech. Gladstone, with eyes flaming, with scorn in his tones, having described the terrific indictment of Mr. Balfour which was really an indictment of the good faith of the Government, and, to use Mr. Balfour s own words, the attributing to it of so terrible a thing as infamy—said that Mr. Balfour was satisfied in presenting such an indictment with the miserable expedient of a motion for adjournment. Around the " Kilmainhain Treaty there raged day after day tempest after tempest, attack after attack. ThiDgs looked so black, there was such universal suspicion in the air, there was such a natural horror at any communication, especially of a friendly character, with a man who had been so much denounced as Parnell, that the weapon was undoubtedly very effective, and no man appreciated this fact more than Mr. Forster, who had left, of course, the Treasury Bench on his resignation of office as Chief Secietaiv. " Conspiracy " or " Organisation." Mr. Forster struck the first blow, and one of the most eifective, in the scene in which Captain O'Shea played a most important, and by no means a successful, part. The chief charge of the Opposition was that letters had been exchanged indirectly between Parnell and the Government Captain O'Shea stood forward as the chief repository of this correspondence, and was called upon to produce the letter of Parnell. The first of these deadly stabs was dealt by Mr. Forster by reading a memorandum, which he had written, of ji conversation with Captain 0 Shea. This memorandum contained the suggestion that Captain O'Shea had undertaken " that the conspiracy which has been used to get up boycotting and outrages will now be used to put them down." Captain O'Shea objected that he did not use the word - conspiracy," saying " organisation is, I believe, the word I used." This apparently fatal admission of connivance, if not of absolute connection, between Parnell and the organisers of the disorders and murders was followed by even a deadlier thrust. This was the exposure of a request that a man who was in flight should be brought back to Ireland to help in putting down the murder organisation. He was,/said Mr. Forster, "a released suspect against whom ■we have for some time had a fresh warrant, and who, under disguises, ha 3 hitherto eluded the police, coming backwards and forwards from Egan to tho outrage-mongers in the West." Mr. Forster's Deadly Ammunition. The man whose name was not then mentioned was destined to play a most important, and even sinister, part in later events, but for the moment he was suspected of being the man who, passing through Ireland periodically disguised as a priest, suggested and organised some of the sanguinary crimes that were then the horror of tho world. Mr. Forster signified. that his sense of the proposal, that he should employ a man suspected of murder to put down murders, was too horrible. "I did not feel myself," he said, " sufficiently master of the situation to let hiin see what I thought of this confidence, but again told him that I could not do more at present than tell others what he had told me." Tt will be seen what deadly ammunition Forster supplied to the enemies of the Government, and of Parnell; and, above all, what support his speech gave to tho plea of the Opposition that Gladstone and his colleagues were now willing to shake hands with murderers. A good deal of discussion took place afterwards on Mr. Forster's conduct in thus revealing to the House of Commons a memorandum presented bv him to his colleagues in the Cabinet. There was, I think, a general feeling, except among the heated partisans on the other side, that Mr. Forster was rather playing a questionable game, obeying his passions, and, above all. his passions for vengeance against Mr. Gladstone and his former colleagues. by revealing a confidential memorandum. Mr. Gladstone Denies a Deal. ,< Mr. horster aimed another, and perhaps even a more sinister, blow at his old friends. After various challenges, Captain O'Shea got up (o read the letter, often referred to, which he had written. After he had read it, Mr. Forster, with his skilful instinct for striking with apparent innocence an ugly blow, asked Captain O'Shea to read another sentence, which apparently Captain O'Shea had omitted. It was a disastrous sentence which contained the words; "That with the Government's readiness to bring in the Arrears Bill, and order (he release of the prisoners, they might be able to cooperate with the Liberal Party." . The terrible import of these words was j that, they seemed to implv that which Mr. j •Gladstone had always denied and Mr. forster had always suggested, that there * vns n deal between the Government and Parnell. . Mr. Gladstone was able fo show that in ?i - rf 1 ' ' l ' s ' ie ' ,a d refused to accept I °ff p r. and desired that, it, be expunced from the whole transaction. But Mr. orster had already done very evil damage to the reputation of the Government. (To be continued daily.)