DEBATE IN THE COMMONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3244, 17 May 1916, Page 27

DEBATE IN THE COMMONS.

LONDON, May 11. In the House of Commons Mr Samuel and Mr Asquith were sharply questioned regarding the executions, and particularly that of Major Skef= fington, whom a section of the news* papers are magnifying into a hero working desperately to stop the fight* ing. Mr Tennant said that 1706 rebels had been deported, and there had been 14 executions. Mr Dillon immediately accused the Government of not keeping its pro= mise that there should be no further executions pending the debate. Mr Asqnith later explained that there had been only 13 executions. 4 telling passage in Mr Dillon's im= passioned speech was where he nar= rated that a number of rebels Mere asked to give evidence against their comrades, and a boy aged 15 years refused. An officer said: " You will be shot." The boy replied l " Shoot away."—(Nationalist cheers.) The boy was blindfolded and placed against a wall and made to hear the click of revolvers. Finally he was asked to answer. Ke replied : " No ; shoot." The troops, relieved, took off the bandage. Mr Dillon added : " This damn* able House ought to be ashamed." He further said: " My son of 17 asked permission to enlist in the army, and I consented. I would never do so now." Mr Asquith's dramatic announce* meat that he was going to Ireland took the sting out of the attack upon the Government. The incident re* called his sensational decision to take over the War Office at the time of the Ulster trouble. Mr Asquith said : " A great body of insurgents fought bravely, and conducted themselves with humanity, con* trasting most favourably with our * civilised ' enemies in the field. The position in Ireland is more satisfac* tory. We have the greatest confi* dence in General Maxwell's discretion to conduct his delicate and difficult jurisdiction. Ireland could not remain under martial law." Mr As» quith said he came to the conclusion that It was his duty to go to Ireland

without delay—not to supersede the Executive, but to consult with the civil and military authorities in order to arrive at arrangements for the future which would commend themselves to the general sense of the Irish and other parties In the House. Mr Dillon's motion was negatived without a division. Mr Hea'y congratulated Mr Asquith upon his decision. He said that those governing Ireland had been grossly misled, and by some of his own countrymen. Others besides the Sinn Fciners might well be called to account. The rising had been grossly exaggerated, and it was suppressed without military skill or judgment and with a wholesale colossal loss of lifi and property.