HC Deb 04 February 1915 vol 69 cc165-6W
Mr. SWIFT MacNEILL

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that, prior to the date of the dispatch of the first batch of recruits from Belfast to Fermoy, a great number of Nationalists and Catholics enlisted at the Unionist agencies in Ulster, and are now, to the number of 1,000 in various camps throughout that province; whether these recruits intimated their desire to join certain Irish regiments and were assured that they could change into them later; whether, despite this assurance, on the faith of which they enlisted, they are still detained, in breach of that compact, in the camps of the Ulster Division; and whether the War Office will take immediate steps for the performance of the condition under which these recruits enlisted, and provide in future that the wish of persons enlisting on the understanding that they are to join the Irish Brigade will be accomplished?

Mr. TENNANT

Inquiry is being made.

Mr. SWIFT MacNEILL

asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether of the four new Armies the fourth new Army starts with the 30th Division and ends with the 36th (Ulster) Division; whether the 10th (Irish) Division, which is in the first new Army, and the 16th (Irish) Division, which is in the second new Army, and the levies of last autumn, will take the field before the 36th (Ulster) Division, which is the last in the fourth new Army, and is composed of men who have had three years' training by efficient officers in field manœuvrcs, in rifle practice, and even with machine guns; and, having regard to the fact that if due rotation be observed the Ulster Division, notwithstanding their superior advantage in training, will be the last to take the field and the Irish Divisions with a few months' training amongst the first to take the field, what is the explanation of this treatment of the Ulster Division by placing it in the background?

Mr. TENNANT

I am very glad to be able to reassure my lion. Friend. In spite of the conclusions to which his researches have apparently led him, he would be wrong in thinking that the Ulster Division will necessarily be the last to take the field.