CONSCRIPTION (IRELAND). (Hansard, 15 April 1918)

§ Mr. DEVLIN
At Question Time to-day I raised the question of the tremendously intense feeling that exists in Ireland with regard to the Conscription proposals of His Majesty's Government. I ventured not to refer to the blaze of indignation that exists all over the greater part of Ireland, but to the terrific uprising of violent feeling that exists in the city of Belfast. I am delighted that we are privileged to-night to have amongst us the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Trinity College. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Trinity College regards the city of Belfast as the political Ark of the Covenant, and he regards its citizens as absolutely sacrosanct. I regret that the right hon. Gentleman, who is the leader of the Unionists of that great city, does not feel called upon to discharge, as he could much move effectively do, the function which I am compelled to carry out, namely, to bring to the attention of the Chief Secretary for Ireland the bitter and intense feeling that exists with regard to Conscription. I asked the Chief Secretary, at Question Time, whether he was aware that a great meeting of citizens was held yesterday to protest against the application of this Bill to Ireland, and that this meeting was held on the Custom House Steps. I ought to explain to the House of Commons that the Custom House Steps is a platform from which great Imperial and Orange orations are delivered every Sunday afternoon. I may say for myself that I have always found it not only more healthy but more convenient to be a considerable distance away on Sunday afternoon; therefore when you hear of a meeting at the Customs House Steps you may take it for granted that at that meeting there will be nothing but professions of Protestantism and declarations of 181 loyalty to the Constitution. If, in these circumstances, this vast body of loyalists, 10,000 or 20,000 strong, gathered in this hallowed spot, sacred to the memory of William of Orange, there is no one who will admit more than the right hon. and learned Gentleman opposite that that is a very significant circumstance.

§ Sir E. CARSON
I have never been at a meeting there myself.

§ Mr. DEVLIN
Yes; but the right hon. Gentleman is not an Ulsterman, and I am. The right hon. Gentleman is not a Belfast man, and I am. The right hon. Gentleman has never found himself among the oi polloi of the Tory party in Belfast. He was always leading the hierarchy there, because I have always held that the right hon. Gentleman's Unionist following largely sprang from the rich and the wealthy classes there. It is the poor and democratic classes who generally gather at the Custom House Steps, and the right hon. Gentleman has never once gone there. I am inclined to make a sporting offer to the right hon. Gentleman. For the first time in our lives we were agreed this afternoon upon the atrocity of His Majesty's Government. We were agreed that they were tricksters, dodgers, and could not keep their promises. Nobody could trust them. We were agreed, we Irish, the Irish represented by the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Trinity College, the superior Irish, and the inferior Irish, represented by my hon. Friend the Member for East Mayo, that the Government were engaged in a conspiracy to trick both his followers and ours. I venture to suggest that, as the right hon. Gentleman has never spoken at the Custom House Steps, and neither have I, and as the citizens of Belfast gathered there, nearly 20,000 strong, last Sunday—[An HON. MEMBER: "Oh!"]—the hon. Gentleman is an Englishman or a Scotsman. If the right hon. Gentleman, who is not an Ulsterman, but is an Irishman, does not know anything about the Custom House Steps, how does the hon. Gentleman know? Since the right hon. Gentleman and myself are agreed that there was a great outpouring of national protest from the citizens of Belfast against this Bill that has been imposed upon the people of Ulster, who are as violently against it as the people of any other part of Ireland, his position is only equal to mine in this respect, that we are both representatives 182 of Irish constituencies, we ought to take the views of our Constituencies, and we both ought to go down to the Custom House Steps next Sunday, repeat the speeches we have delivered here, and get an Ireland united.
I pass from the right hon. Gentleman and I come to the Chief Secretary. The right hon. Gentleman has never once stated in the House that he was in favour of the application of this measure of Conscription to Ireland. We have had many Amendments discussed here affecting Ireland. Many interrogations have been put to members of the Treasury Bench for information as to the method by which this Bill is to be applied to Ireland and the administrative machinery by which it is to be carried into operation. There was nobody to answer. The Chief Secretary, I do not believe, ever was consulted about this. This Bill has been imposed upon us by Lord Milner and by the Foreign Secretary. Lord Milner is not here. Lord Curzon is not here. The Foreign Secretary does not want to be here. The Chief Secretary was not here. The reason he is here now is because he has only four minutes in which to answer the quesions I put. I want to ask the right hon. Gentleman, who is the only man in this House outside the representation of Ireland who knows anything about the matter: does the Government intend to apply Conscription to Ireland in face of the growing volume of public opinion, and in view of the positive protests of the people of all sections, creeds, and opinions in every part of Ireland and in every province; is he prepared to advise the Government for once in its existence to do the right thing and withdraw this Clause? I agree with the right hon. and learned Gentleman (Sir E. Carson) in what he said that the Government never intend to put it into operation. It has been put there for the benefit of the battalions of grandfathers who are to be dragged in under the new age proposals which are indicated in this scheme. I ask the right hon. Gentleman to state here whether, in view of the information from Southern, Western, Central, and now Northern Ireland—which will make its voice much more bitterly felt as matters develop—whether he proposes now to advise his Friends in the Cabinet to withdraw this proposal, and restore peace to the country, and let us settle down to our ordinary business and to a true realisation of the situation?

§ The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Duke)
I had notice from the hon. Member that he desired to learn from me what information I had in respect of a meeting which was described in very picturesque terms, and said to have taken place in Dublin. I took such steps as I could to obtain information about the meeting, which took place on the Custom House Steps. I have had no experience of Sunday afternoon meetings on the Custom House Steps. Although I am credited with a greater knowledge of Ireland than some hon Members, I confess that I have not been present at any meetings on the Custom House Steps, and the only information I have is a speech by the hon. Member opposite, reported in the Irish papers, and which was the preliminary to a meeting to be 184 held on a future day. That is the only information I have. I have very varied information as to the opinions of various sections of the populace in Ireland, but they are certainly not of the united character which enables me to say to the House that I could make any definite recommendations to my colleagues in the Government on the subject of this Bill. The hon. Member will bear in mind that one of the functions of a member of the Privy Council is not to disclose outside the advice which is given inside.