HC Deb 02 August 1888 vol 329 cc1236-7
MR. W. REDMOND (Fermanagh, N.)

asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether he is aware that Colonel Kinloch actually stood on the platform at the meeting in Enniskillen on July 12; and, whether the Government will give instructions to officers in Ireland to keep away from the vicinity of party demonstrations?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. E. STANHOPE) (Lincolnshire, Horncastle)

I have already stated that Colonel Kinloch took no part in the meeting referred to. I agree that it is desirable that the Queen's Regulations on the subject of political meetings should be strictly adhered to.

MR. W. REDMOND

I am really very sorry to trouble the right hon. Gentleman further about this matter. It is a serious case for me, because the allegations I have made against this gentleman have been denied. I wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman, whether he is prepared to say decidedly that Colonel Kinloch did not go to the platform of this meeting, as I have information from people I cannot disbelieve that Colonel Kinloch did go to the meeting, and conducted two ladies there, and that he stood on the platform if he did not make a speech?

MR. E. STANHOPE

I have already stated to the House Colonel Kinloch's own version. What he assures me is that he was in plain clothes, and that he watched the procession going past as a spectator. The hon. Gentleman was good enough to give me for another purpose a photograph of the platform, about which I will make inquiries; but it shows that Colonel Kinloch was not on the platform.

MR. W. REDMOND

I wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman, whether he will state positively whether Colonel Kinloch was not on the platform; and as Colonel Kinloch states he went to the meeting as a spectator, I wish to ask him whether it is not desirable, in a place where party feeling runs so high as it does in Enniskillen, that officers should not even go as spectators, seeing how hard it is for many people to discern between a man going as a spectator and a man going as a sympathizer?

MR. E. STANHOPE

I have already stated that the Queen's Regulations must be fully carried out. Beyond that I do not think it right to deprive an officer of his civil rights.