§ CAPTAIN DONELAN (Cork, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is 639 aware that at the Presentment Sessions for the County of Cork, held on Saturday last, the sum of £2,288 for extra police was only passed under strong and general protest; whether he is aware that the County Cork has not been for many years in a more peaceable condition than at the present time; and whether, under these circumstances, he will take into consideration the hardship which this additional tax inflicts upon the ratepayers of the county, and withdraw or reduce the extra police force?
§ MR. BRYCE (for Mr. J. MORLEY)The fact is as stated in the first paragraph of the question. It is also a fact, I understand, that the condition of the county at large is such as to afford good grounds for satisfaction, and that in this respect the improvement to which my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary referred, in replying to a question addressed to him by the hon. Member in June last, has since been maintained. I am informed, however, that the entire circumstances connected with the state of the county, especially in that portion of it which has been described by my right hon. Friend as a disturbed area, as well as the necessity for additional police supervision and protection, would not at present justify a reduction of the extra force.