MR. PIKE PEASEI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether any orders have been issued to the Royal Irish Constabulary debarring them from making arrests or taking prompt proceedings against offenders in eases of intimidation, riot, affrays, or unlawful assemblies in connection with the grazing 1436 agitation or other agrarian disturbances; whether, in dealing with such offences, the police are prohibited from acting on their own responsibility, and are required to report all such cases and to await the instructions of Government before any action can be taken; and, if so, in view of the delay caused by obedience to such instructions and the injury to the maintenance of order in the disturbed localities, he proposes to withdraw such instructions.
§ MR. BIRRELLIt would be entirely contrary to practice to state the nature of instructions issued to the Royal Irish Constabulary. In order, however, to avoid misconception, I may say that the police have full authority to arrest persons guilty of acts of violence; but, in accordance with long established practice, they report to headquarters the facts in cases of the nature referred to in which violence has not been used, in order that the sufficiency of the evidence and the nature of the proceedings to be taken may be considered. There is no intention of altering the practice.
§ MR. CHARLES CRAIGIs the driving of another man's cattle out of his field on to the high road an act of violence?
§ MR. BIRRELLThe police stop it; whenever they can.
§ MR. CHARLES CRAIGHave they made a single arrest in any of these cases?
§ [No Answer was returned.]