§ Mr. BYRNEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that Patrick and George King, who were arrested in Easter week in Dublin and subsequently interned at Frongoch for the public safety and the defence of the realm, as being reasonably suspected of having favoured, promoted, or assisted an armed insurrection against His Majesty, were brought before the stipendiary magistrate at Liverpool on 2nd November, 1916, and by him handed over to a military escort as absentees from military service; whether they were then attached to the 5th Reserve Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment, at Oswestry, in Wales; whether they have refused to obey orders given to them as privates in that regiment; whether they have been punished for disobediece; if so, what punishment has been awarded to them; whether they have been court-martialled, and, if so, when and by what officers, and with what result; and whether the Government will consider the propriety of prohibiting the conscipting of men whom the Army does not want and directing that the persecution of interned Irish prisoners who may be technically liable to military service shall forthwith cease in the interests of harmony and of the better prosecution of the War?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Mr. Macpherson)Reference has been made to Ireland on this matter. 1809 I will communicate with my hon. Friend by letter as soon as I receive the necessary information.
§ Mr. BYRNEHaving regard to the motives which prompted the Government to release the Irish prisoners, I would ask the hon. Gentleman whether he will consider favourably the release of those two men who were implicated in the riots in Dublin?