§ MR. W. ABRAHAM (Limerick, W.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, on the 18th instant, at Abbeyfeale Petty Sessions, an emergency man, named Lee, was convicted of having been drunk while in possession of loaded fire-arms, and with having presented a loaded revolver at two young men named Walsh and O'Connell; if the presiding magistrate, Captain Massy, remarked that—
Those men employed by the Property Defence Association got licences for fire-arms on the recommendation of their employers, and abused those licences, and that he now saw the bad result of giving licences to men like those before him, and he did not know whether the Government would revoke them;and, whether he will carry out the recommendation of Captain Massy?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)I have already replied to the inquiry in the first paragraph in the affirmative. The presiding magistrate states that he did not represent Lee as employed by the Property Defence Association; nor, as a matter of fact, was he. He did say that the man had abused the trust reposed in him in the granting of the licence, and also expressed an opinion 751 that it might be revoked. The licence is being revoked.