§ MR. EWARTasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 796 What are the reasons which have induced Her Majesty's Government to proclaim the Borough of Belfast under the provisions of the Peace Preservation Act, seeing that there have been no agrarian outrages, and that crime is generally on the decrease in the district?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER ,in reply, said, that the Peace Preservation Act had been applied to Belfast only as far as the sale and the carrying of arms and ammunition went, and not as to the possession of them. That had been done after consultation with the authorities in consequence of the fact that party feeling prevailed in the town some times in the year. One of the strongest arguments in favour of the renewal of the Peace Preservation Act was that danger would arise in places where party spirit ran high at the time when processions took place, and where unlicensed fire-arms were carried. The Government had no reason to doubt the general loyal and peaceable demeanour of the inhabitants of Belfast, but they felt that they would not be justified in neglecting to take proper precautions against armed men taking part in those processions.