HC Deb 19 February 1891 vol 350 cc1084-5
MR. MAC NEILL

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the report of the prosecution at Bunbeg, County Donegal, on 13th January, of District Inspector Hill, and Sergeants Reynolds and Clarke, and other constables and emergency men, on a charge of riot and assault, on the occasion of the evictions on the Olphert Estate on 15th November last, in which the Magistrates, Messrs. Hamilton, R.M., and Beresford, R.M., held that Sergeant Reynolds and Clarke, and three constables, and three bailiffs, had been proved to have thrown stones continuously at the house from which Mr. M'Ginley was being evicted, but that the stone-throwing was, under the circumstances, justifiable: and whether he still adheres to the following statement, made by his authority, in a letter to an anonymous correspondent, directed from 4, Carlton Gardens, dated 25th November, and published in the Morning Post of 4th December, with reference to this occurrence— Mr. Holliday makes certain serious allegations against the police. As reported by you they are somewhat vague, but if he intended to state that the police threw stones at the people, or acted as emergency men, or went beyond their duty in protecting those who were carrying out the evictions, Mr. Balfour desires me to say that Mr. Holliday is stating what is not the fact.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I have caused inquiries to be made into the matter, and I find that the letter referred to was written by my authority on the date mentioned. Unfortunately, no researches have enabled me to recover the letter to which it was a reply; but though I am thus prevented from speaking with certainty on the point, I have no ground for supposing that my statement was in any way either inaccurate or calculated to convey a false impression to my correspondent. It appeared, not by my direction and without his letter, in a newspaper some time after it was originally written. In that shape the correspondence is unquestionably ambiguous and possibly misleading, and if it has caused any misunderstanding I regret that misunderstanding.