§ Sir WILLIAM BYLESasked whether the Home Secretary's attention has been drawn to a speech made by Mrs. Pank-hurst at the Connaught Rooms, Kingsway, last Friday night, openly and emphatically inciting her hearers to violent outrage and the destruction of property, and threatening the use of firearms if stones did not prove sufficiently effective; and what steps 744 he proposes to take to protect society against this outbreak of lawlessness?
§ Mr. McKENNAMy attention has been called to the inflammatory speech to which my hon. Friend refers. It would not be desirable in the public interest to say more than this at present.
§ Mr. FERENSWill the right hon. Gentleman consider whether the fact of these speeches is not due to the example of some Privy Councillors?
§ Sir W. BYLESIn considering what steps to take, will the right hon. Gentleman have regard to the fact that, at the cost of £2,700, protection was furnished in the city of Belfast against similar incitement by the hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for East Down and to the hon. and learned Gentleman the Member for Trinity College?
§ Mr. SPEAKERIf I had thought this question simply raised the case of Belfast, it would not have appeared on the Paper. I thought it was a general question.
§ Mr. LANSBURYHas the right hon. Gentleman's attention been called to the statement made by his right hon. colleague the Chancellor of the Duchy, and may I ask whether he considers that the statement would incite people to take violent measures, the statement being that they had not had in the case of the Suffragette demands the kind of sentimental and popular uprising which accounted for Nottingham Castle in 1832 and for the Hyde Park railings in 1867? Is that statement not an incitement to women to go and do likewise?
§ Mr. McKENNAMy right hon. Friend asks me to criticise the speech of my colleague, but I am bound to say, the question being put to me, that I do not see the slightest resemblance between the two.