§ Mr. JOHN REDMONDMay I ask the Prime Minister whether there is any truth in the statement which has appeared in the newspapers that English Territorial regiments are to be sent to Ireland to replace the regiments to be withdrawn?
§ The PRIME MINISTERThere is no truth in the statement. In the view of Lord Kitchener, the first necessity of the moment is to recruit the 100,000 men whom he has asked for. He does not doubt, nor do I, that Ireland will contribute her full contingent. Subject to this, Lord Kitchener is anxious to lend any help that his own exigencies permit to the organisation and equipment of the Irish Volunteers. And we have shown our confidence in the willingness and capacity of the Irish to defend their own shores by countermanding the dispatch to Ireland of the English 2265 Territorials who, under the normal operation of our mobilisation scheme, would have gone there.
§ Mr. JOHN REDMONDMay. I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he can say what steps the Government are going to take in this matter—that is to say, whether he would consider the advisability of the War Office, or some proper person, entering into consultation with the authorities, or the governing body, of the Volunteers in Dublin so as to concert some system whereby advantage might be taken at once of the situation which has arisen?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI know that Lord Kitchener is very anxious to do that. Of course, for the moment, the great difficulty, and the almost insuperable one, is the collecting of officers and non-commissioned officers for the organisation of the 100,000 men for the Second Army which Lord Kitchener proposes to raise, but subject to that and concurrent with it, I think he will do everything in his power by consultation with gentlemen in Ireland to arrange for the full equipment and organisation of the Irish Volunteers.