§ 45. Mr. GINNELLasked the Prime Minister if he will state the number of Irish public bodies from which he and other members of the Government have received resolutions calling, in the interest of peace and good order in Ireland, for the immediate release of all arrested in connection with the recent insurrection, and the number calling for the withdrawal of martial law; whether the Government have any doubt that those resolutions represent the opinions of the civil population of Ireland without distinction of politics; and, seeing that opinion in the contrary sense is limited to persons profiting by disorder and martial law, whether immediate arrangements will be made for acceding to public opinion reasonably expressed by a general amnesty and the withdrawal of martial law?
§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Asquith)I have received about fifty resolutions in favour of the release of persons arrested, and about ten in favour of the withdrawal of martial law. With regard to the rest of the question, I cannot to—day add anything to my previous answers.