KITCHENER AND CARSON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14205, 6 February 1915, Page 2

KITCHENER AND CARSON.

ULSTER LEADER STRIKES

TROUBLE

An Australian paper publishes an interesting item of news, which, strange to say, did not find a place in the great Australian dailies, and explains why Ireland has been given a wide berth by anti-Homo Ruler Sir E. Carson since tho outbreak of hostilities in Europe.

Immediately following on his appointment to the Army Council, Kitchener, as Director of Martial Law, requested that certain prominent public men, Carson amongst them, should be called before the Council with a view to inducing t.licm to follow a certain lino of action. Of thoso invited to attend before the Council on a specified day, Carson was the only one who bad the temerity to ignore the invitation, with the consequence that when he arrived at his office the following morning he found an armed guard waiting'to conduct him before Great Britain's War Lord. The businesslike attitude of his compulsory escort induced Carson to promptly reconsider his decision not to attend before the Army Council, and in a few minutes he was ushered into the presence of Lord Kitchener and the other members of the Council.

Kitchener, who is a man of few words, brusquely informed Carson that the Council had arrived at the conclusion that it would be in the best interests of the J-impire if he (Carson) would refrain from visiting Ireland during the continuance of the Avar in Eumpc, and invited hi in to give the Council an undertaking to that effect.

Carson treated as preposterous the idea that he, Sir -Edward Carson, should be forbidden to visit Ireland, and told Kitchener that, Army Council or no Army Council, it was his intention to visit Ireland the following week in order to receive the freedom of tho city of Belfast, which the grateful burghers had decided to con for on him.

Kitchener reminded him that he, Kitchener, was sole director of martial law in Great Britain, and asked Carson if ho was aware of the penalty he would incur if ho attempted to visit Ireland in defiance of the Army Council's order.

Carson inquired the nature of the penalty, and was told that if he attempted to visit Ireland he would be instantly shot. Then Carson played his trump card. Laughing satirically, he told Kitchener that if he searched the army he would not find a firing squad to shot him—Carson .

But the laugh died away in his throat as Kitchener rose, and, towering over. him, said in oven tones: "Then, if I cannot get a firing squad to shoot you, move one foot towards Ireland and I'll shoot you myself!"

Carson has not yet received the freedom of the city of Belfast, nor has he made any attempt to visit Ireland since his momorablo interview with Lord Kitchener.