WHEN THE EMPIRE CALLS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 4944, 18 September 1914, Page 5

WHEN THE EMPIRE CALLS.

BRITAIN UNITED. A UNIONIST DECLARATION. Electric Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. London, Last Night. The Right Hon. F. E. Smith, in an interview, said that although the Unionists justly resented the Government’s action, all parties were showing a firm determination to defeat Britain’s common enemy. Until that was accomplished all domestic differences would be laid aside. German diplomacy would doubtless detect evidence of a divided nation in Tuesday’s speeches. It hod shown a remarkable aptitude for mistaking our temper and purpose; but if the German authorities would rightly understand what happened in the House of Commons, they should read Mr Bonar Law’s and Sir Edward Carson’s declaration that our country comes first. Mr Smith added that such utterances represented the deep conviction of the Unionists that a united front must be persisted in so long as there is peril to Britain on land or sea. APPEAL TO IRELAND. PATRIOTIC MANIFESTO. London, Last Night. Mr John Redmond, Leader of the Nationalist party, in a manifesto to the Irish people, says he is confident that Deland is willing to bear her share of the burdens and sacrifices of a just war, undertaken in the defence of the sacred rights and liberties of nations with whom there was much akin. He adds: “Even when no ties of sympathy bound Britain and Ireland, the latter gave hei quota, and more, to the firing line.” Mr Redmonds suggests that Irish recruits should be formed into an Irish Brigade, officered as far as possible by Irishmen, thus enabling Ireland to gain national credit for her deeds, and to feel like other communities ot the Empire, that she contributed an army bearing her name in this historic struggle. Simultaneously with the formation of this brigade for service abroad, it is suggested that the volunteers must be put into a state of efficiency for the country's defence. Thus, at the end of the war, Ireland would possess an army of which it would l>e proud. In conclusion, Mr Redmond appeals to his countrymen of different creeds and political opinions to accept the friend ship so consistently offered them, and allow the great war to swallow up tin* smaller issues. “As our soldiers are going to shed their blood and die at each other s side for the same high purpose, their union on the field mav lead to a union of their homes, end their blood will be the seal that will ruing all Ireland together in one nation.”