The Ulster Legend: The Manoeuvres of James

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 16, 6 May 1925, Page 49

The Ulster Legend: The Manoeuvres of James

The Ulster Legend received a rough handling from Mr. Phillip Snowden, ex-Chan- : C cellor of the ■: Exchequer, when the Home > Office presented: a supplementary; estimate ■ ( of £1,250,000 for a grant in aid of the revenues of the Government of Northern Ire- . land. Incidentally, Mr. Snowden : ' made -/it: clear, that the Six-County; Parliament could not justify its existence, -since from the day of its establishment until now, it had proved a constant drain upon the revenues of Great Britain. It appears that the Northern Parliament could not carry on without grants from the Imperial Parliament, a fact which - proves that it is not an Ulster Parliament ■j at all, but is merely a branch office of the ' /Imperil Parliament, the bridge-head which

enables Great Britain to hold a place in Ireland. *■ Mr. Snowden said it was an extraordinary proceeding to be asked to give effect to this hew estimate without one word of explanation or justification, although it could be well understood why there was no anxiety , or enthusiasm on the part of the Home Office or the Treasury to explain it. It was ostensibly a vote for the Special Constabulary of Northern Ireland, but in fact it was nothing of the sort. If it were permitted by parliamentary usage, he would describe it by a very Ugly word. This proposal was the latest concession which had been ground by the Government of Northern Ireland out of the British Exchequer without: any justification whatever, . and quite illegally. From the time of the, passing of the Act of Parliament conferring Self-Government oil Northern Ireland the British Treasury had been subjected to - constant demands from Ulster for illegal financial assistance.

Origin of Colwy n Committee. ■ i} These demands had become so intolerable that in November, 1922/ when the present Prime Minister was Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was suggested that the whole question "should be referred to a special committee or tribunal. That was subsequently done, and later it became known as the Colwyn Committee. It was also agreed that this committee should filially settle all financial questions between Northern'lreland and Britain so as to put a stop to these persistent demands, from the Government of Northern Ireland. Sir- James Craig himself agreed to that, and when Mr. Baldwin wrote accepting the terms of reference to this Committee, Sir James Craig in reply reminded Mr. Baldwin that he had omitted to state the very important matter that the findings of this Committee were to be binding on both parties. - " ." '' ,'' -' Treasury Blackmailed. , ;

P The Treasury was blackmailed into paying for a policeman for every six families. The ~~>k Government of Ireland Act provided that ?i ■; I i any grant out of the public moneys provided Si] . by the Imperial Parliament for Special Conrv - stabulary purposes should cease. Therefore li; it was illegal for that H6use : to make the •jr grant proposed. The. British Treasury had ■ : *§?;i invariably resisted this demand until the

pressure upon it by its political friends be- : came, so strong that it was unable to continue : its resistance. V- The British Treasury had no \ full information : about this / Special Constabulary. He reminded the House that... there was a note . below the Vote stating that the money was to be paid into the Northern Ireland Exchequer as a contribution to the North of Ireland arising out of the present exceptional circumstances. The : , House was asked to vote this sum of one and a' quarter millions and to hand it over to the Government of Northern Ireland Without any guarantee and without any assurance as t> how the money would be spent. /It would be given, not for the purpose of maintaining law and order, but for an entirely different

purpose. The information a few months ago/ was that there were 3000 Royal Ulster Constabulary in place of the Royal Irish Constabulary, of whom something like 2500 were formerly, stationed, in the Six Counties. Since 1921 there had been a large force of Special Constabulary maintained notwithstanding the provisions to which he had referred/and these had been maintained almost wholly at tho cost of the British taxpayer. "In 1922 the British grant was £2,700,000 and in 1924 £1,500,000. This Constabulary force was • entirely under the control of the Ulster Government. It was believed the men numbered 35,000. Nine thousand of these were whole-time men, and the rest received a retaining fee. There was ,a full-time policeman for every 160 of the population of Northern Irelandthat was a full-time policeman for every 30 families. If they included the Special Constabulary they got. a policeman for every six families in Northern Ireland. (Laughter.)

"Illegal" and "Backdoor.': ■■.'■ ' / ~-. What was the explanation It • was that these Special Constabulary were neither needed for, nor were they used for, the maintenance of daw and order in Northern Ireland. It was a backdoor way of illegally getting money from the British Exchequer. Sir James Craig Manoeuvres. '/•■ . It would be well to remember that when he was dealing with the setting up of the Golwyn Committee he mentioned that Sir James Craig called the attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to, the agieement that. the recommendations should be accepted by both parties. The report of that Committee conferred substantial ad- _ vantages; on Ulster by modifying the scale of the - Imperial contribution. The previous Government to the Labor Government ac- \ cepted that report, but as soon as ever that report had been received Sir James Craig . began to . make ~,. an appeal to. the British

Treasury for concessions which he had failed ■to.; establish before the Colwyn ; ; Committee He sprang : ■ a further demand for assistance from the British Treasury for unemployment insurance. --During T the whole time he - (Mr. Snowden) - was at the Treasury Sir James was pressing, that: demand, and only a week or two \ before ho...ileft he made an imperative demandnot directly ;to himself,

because Sir -'James carefully avoided coming into contact with him. Sir James wrote to him, and he was asked to come over.,and

see him ■ (Mr. Snowden) and discuss the matter. Sir James never came, but he went to the other /Ministers of the Labor Government, and then wrote to him to say that ; he had "their assurance; that they would 'agree : that this grant ; should -be. placed upon the; estimates. Sir J. Craig's demand for assistance on behalf of unemployed insurance was submitted to -his:: (Mr. \ Snowden's) predecessor, and three weeks before he (Mr. Snowden) took office /that demand was rejected : on the ground that it would be illegal without alteration of the relations .under which Northern -Ireland and Great Britain operated. .://'" r??r-: v •" •'■•y.' 1 '.■.'•."■'■•■."; '■■'}: ■■"■■' % A "Special Constabulary" Blind. ;,

It was quite true that the' Government which the. Labor Government succeeded: had::? provisionally agreed to place in that year's estimate a sum of £1,000,000 under the Head-1 ing "Special Constabulary,"- but this was | only -.done when'they knew that their days were numbered. Up to last October i there had never; been/ a suggestion to the Government of Ulster that the grant under that head for the present year should be|, more than £1,000,000. How came it to be £1,250,000? It was perfectly obvious % why" the grant had. been raised by £250,000 since November last. Sir James Craig had not , been able to get a special grant towards the relief of unemployment/ and that explained why another £250,000 had been placed, on that vote under the head. of "Special Constabulary." There were charges which Ulster members did not like to see brought to • light. It would be urged, that the vote was simply for the sake of. preserving law and order in Northern Ireland—that was to say

that Great Britain had to find funds' sufficient to maintain one 'policeman for ; every six families in Northern Ireland. That little '', statement of fact entirely disposed of '■ the contention that N this sum was needed for that purpose. He did not expect that the House would reject the vote. The Government had numbers to carry it. .But; if it were submitted to any impartial: body of men to consider the facts he was confident -that".'"ho such v tribunal could be: constituted which would not come to a unanimous decision against the proposal. • ; v:V \ •?!".■';"■ £-, The vote was carried by 233 votes to 112.