which was given him by the response to his appeal. From January onwards
the Sixteenth Division grew steadily and strongly. Recruiting began to
get on a better basis. The appointment of Sir Hedley Le Bas in charge of
this propaganda brought about a healthy change in methods. Appeals were
used devised for Ireland, and not, as heretofore, simple replicas of the
English article. Heart-breaking instances of stupidity were still of
daily occurrence, but imagination and insight began to have some play;
and there was no longer the complete separation which had existed
between the effort of Redmond and his colleagues and the effort of men
like Lord Meath. In January Willie Redmond was posted to his battalion,
the 6th Royal Irish, at Fermoy, where the 47th Brigade had its
headquarters. In his case, as in my own, there had been much avoidable
and most undesirable delay; but his presence with the Division was worth
an immense deal. There was delay also about his younger namesake, John
Redmond's son--who was for a long time refused a commission in the
Division in whose formation his father had played so great a part.
Naturally, trained speakers who had joined the Division were utilized
for recruiting purposes. Willie Redmond did comparatively little of this
work. It is no light job to take over command of a company, if you mean
really to command it; and with him, from the moment he joined everything
came second to his military duty. But private soldiers have a less
exacting time, and there was scarcely one week of my three months in the
7th Leinsters in which I did not spend the Saturday and Sunday on this
business--generally in company with the most brilliant speaker, taking
all in all, that I have ever heard. Kettle, then a lieutenant in the
battalion, was wit, essayist, poet and orator: whether he was most a wit
or most an orator might be argued for a night without conclusion; but as
talker or as speaker he had few equals. He was the son of a veteran
Nationalist, who had taken a lead in Parnell's day; but the farmer's son
had become the most characteristic product of Ireland's capital, which,
rich or poor, squalid or splendid, is a metropolis--a centre of many
interests, a forcing-house of many ideas. Nothing in Ireland is less
English than Dublin, and its tone differs from that of England in having
active sympathy with the continental mind.
Kettle was always to some extent in revolt against the theories of the
Gaelic League, which he thought tended to make Ireland insular morally
as well as materially. He was a good European because he was a good
Irishman; and because he was both, he was, though largely educated in
Germany, a fierce partisan of France.
More than all this, he had seen with his own eyes the actual martyrdom
of Belgium. Sent out by Redmond to purchase rifles, he was in the
country when Antwerp was occupied, and he wrote with passion of what he
heard, of what he saw. Louvain to him was more than a mere name. All the
Catholic in him, and all the Irish Catholic, for Ireland's association
with Louvain was long and intimate, rose up in fury; he went through
Ireland carrying the fiery cross.
Everywhere we went we had friendly and even enthusiastic audiences; the
only place where I met any suggestion of hostility was at Killarney, and
there it took the form of avoiding our meeting. We were cheered and
encouraged--but we did not get many recruits, so to say, on the nail.
Yet they came, generally dribbling in afterwards. From one small meeting
in county Waterford we came away badly disappointed, having thought an
effect was made, yet we did not take a single man. I heard later that
within the next fortnight thirty men from that parish had come in by
ones and twos to sign on--but at a town several miles away. Local
pressure, personal not political, was against us, especially that of the
mothers; and there was a shyness about taking this plunge into the
unknown.
One exception stands out, in my mind, unlike the general run of these
gatherings. It was the first field day of our brigade, when, dressed in
the khaki that had at last been served out, we mustered on the
race-course at Fermoy, five thousand strong; and I went from the review
to the train for Waterford. There was no mistaking the temper of
Redmond's constituency; we got men there in hundreds, including a score
or so of cadets--young men of education--for our special company of the
Leinsters, which was filling up fast.
At that meeting we had one force with us which was not often active on
our side. The Bishop of Waterford was strong for the war; the leading
parish priest of the town took the chair and spoke straight and plain,
while one of the Regulars, a Carmelite friar, made a speech which was
among the most eloquent that I have ever listened to.
At the beginning of April I was gazetted to a lieutenancy in the 6th
Connaught Rangers, and began to know the Division from another aspect.
Broadly speaking, the men with whom I had been sharing a hut were
Nationalist by opinion and by tradition--though by no means all
Catholics. There were Unionists, but they were few. In the society which
I now joined--a joint mess of the Royal Irish and the Rangers--matters
were different.
The personnel of the 6th Royal Irish was strongly characteristic of the
old Army. The commanding officer, Curzon, was of Irish descent, but of
little Irish association; his second in command was an Irish Protestant
gentleman of a pleasant ordinary type. The senior company commander was
an Englishman. As an offset, Willie Redmond had one company, and another
was commanded by an ex-guardsman, who had been a chief personage in the
Derry Volunteers, and brought so many of them with him that General
Parsons gave him a captaincy straight off.
In my own battalion, no Catholic had then the rank of captain. The
colonel and the adjutant belonged to well-known families in the North
of Ireland, deeply involved in Covenanting politics. My own company
commander was a very gallant little Dublin barrister, who, before the
war, had exerted on English platforms against Home Rule the gift of racy
eloquence which he now devoted to recruiting. Not half a dozen of the
subalterns would have described themselves as Nationalists.
It is easy to see how all this could be represented, and was
represented, to the outside public of Ireland. From the inside, one
thing was clear. In our battalion every man desired the success of the
Division, and more particularly of the Connaught Rangers, absolutely
with a whole heart. Anything said or done that could have offended the
men--practically all Catholic and Nationalist--would have drawn the most
condign chastisement from our commanding officer. I never heard of any
man or officer in the battalion who would have desired to change its
colonel; we were fortunate, and we knew it. There was very little
political discussion, and what there was turned chiefly on the question
how far Redmond might be held to speak for Ireland. So far as Redmond
himself was concerned, I think there were few, if any, who did not count
it an honour to meet him--and some who had never been won to him before
were won to him for his brother's sake.
Looking back on it all, it is clear to me that a change wrought itself
in that society. I do not know one survivor of those men who does not
desire that accomplishment should be given to the desire of those whom
they led. In not a few cases one might put the change higher; some
opinions as to what was good for Ireland were profoundly affected.
Yet this also is true. The atmosphere of the mess was one in which
Willie Redmond found himself shy and a stranger. He had lived all his
life in an intimate circle of Nationalist belief. Knowing the other side
in the House of Commons, where many of his oldest friends and the men
he liked best (Colonel Lockwood comes most readily to my mind) were
political opponents, he had nevertheless always lived with people in
agreement with his views; and you could not better describe the
atmosphere of our mess than by saying that it was a society in which
every one liked and respected Willie Redmond, but one in which he never
really was himself. He was only himself with the men.
In short, so far as the officers were concerned, our Division was not a
counterpart to the Ulster Division; it was not Irish in the sense that
the other was Ulster. No attempt was made to make it so, and General
Parsons would have quite definitely rejected any such ideal--though less
fiercely than he would have repudiated the idea of handicapping a man
for his opinions or his creed. Yet many persons without design, and some
with a purpose, spread broadcast the belief that Catholics and
Nationalists as such were relegated to a position of inferiority in the
command of this Catholic and Nationalist Division.
The worst of our difficulties lay in the long inherited suspicions of
the Irish mind. At a recruiting meeting one would argue in appealing to
Nationalists that the Home Rule Act was a covenant on which we were in
honour bound to act, and that every man who risked his life on the faith
of that covenant set a seal upon it which would never be disregarded.
The listeners would applaud, but after the meeting one and another would
come up privately and say: "Are you sure now they aren't fooling us
again?" The Sinn Féin propaganda, always shrewdly conducted, did not
fail to emphasize the pronouncement of the Tory Press that there should
be no Home Rule because Ireland had failed to come forward; or to point
the moral of Mr. Bonar Law's excursion to Belfast, with its violent
asseveration that Ulster should be backed without limit in opposition to
control by an Irish Parliament. Ireland, always suspect, has learnt to
be profoundly suspicious; and suspicion is the form of prophecy which
has most tendency to fulfil itself.
In one part of the Irish race, however, this cold paralysis of distrust
had no operation. The Irish in Great Britain, always outdoing all others
in the keenness of their Nationalism, were nearer the main current of
the war, and were more in touch with the truth about English feeling.
They had a double impulse, as Redmond had; they saw how to serve their
own cause in serving Europe's freedom; and their response was
magnificent. Mr. T.P. O'Connor probably raised more recruits by his
personal appeal than any other man in England.
A great part of Redmond's correspondence in these months came from
Irishmen in England who were joining as Irishmen, and who had great
difficulty in making their way to our Division. Many thousands had
already enlisted elsewhere; hundreds, at least, tried to join the
Sixteenth Division, and failed to get there. But there was one instance
to which attention should be directed. In Newcastle-on-Tyne a movement
was set on foot to raise Tyneside battalions, including one of Irish.
Mr. O'Connor went down, and the upshot was that four Irish battalions
were raised. They were in existence by January 1, 1915, when General
Parsons was already writing that unless Irishmen could be found to fill
up the Division, we must submit to the disgrace of having it made up by
English recruits. The obvious answer was to annex the Tyneside Irish
Brigade. Redmond, moreover, held that to bring over this brigade to
train in Ireland, and to incorporate it bodily in the Sixteenth
Division, would please the Tyneside men--for a tremendous welcome would
have greeted them in their own country--and would have an excellent
effect on Irish opinion generally. But the proposal was rigorously
opposed by the War Office. It was argued that these men had enlisted
technically as Northumberland Fusiliers and Northumberland Fusiliers
they must remain. In reality, as far as one can judge, the War Office
were penny wise and pound foolish. "We have got these men," they said,
"and we have a promise from Redmond to fill a Division. Why relieve him
of one-third of his task?"
Redmond knew, and we all knew, that the essential was to get our
Division complete and into the field at the earliest possible moment. He
had confidence that once they got to work they would make a name for
themselves, which would be the best attraction for recruits. Let it be
remembered that at this moment popular expectation put the end of the
war about July. When I joined the Rangers in April 1915, our mess was
full of young officers threatening to throw up their commissions and
enlist in some battalion which would give them the chance of seeing a
fight. We could not expect to move to France before August, and by that
time all that we could hope would be to form part of the army of
occupation. Rumour was rife, too, that the Division would be broken up
and utilized for draft-finding, that it would never see France as a
unit. All this talk came back to Redmond and increased his anxiety to
make the work complete.
He held, and I think rightly, that the whole machinery of recruiting
worked against us; that every officer had instructions to send no man to
the Sixteenth Division who could be got into a draft-finding reserve
battalion. Knowing what we know, I cannot blame them; but the game was
not fairly played. A man would come in and say he wanted to join the
Irish Brigade. "Which regiment?" Often he might not realize that a
brigade was made up of regiments, but if he knew and answered, for
instance, "The Dublins," he was more likely than not to be shipped off
to the Curragh, where the reserve of the regular battalions was kept,
instead of to Buttevant, where our Dublins were in training.
Still, with all our troubles, things were marching ahead in that April
of 1915; recruits were coming in to the tune of 1,500 a week. Then came
a political crisis and the formation of a Coalition Government. Redmond
was asked to take a post in it. The letter in which the invitation was
conveyed made it clear that the post could not be an Irish office.
Redmond refused. He said to me afterwards that under no conditions did
he think he could have accepted. But he added, "If I had been Asquith
and had wished to make it as difficult as possible to refuse, I should
have offered a seat in the Cabinet without portfolio and without
salary."
He was well aware how many and how unscrupulous were his enemies in
Ireland; he was not prepared to give them the opportunity of saying that
he had got his price for the blood of young Irishmen and the betrayal of
his principles. Even apart from the question of salary, the tradition
against acceptance of office under Government till Ireland's claim was
satisfied would have been very hard to break. Yet Redmond saw fully how
disastrous would be the effect on Irish opinion if he were not in the
Government and Sir Edward Carson was.
Knowing Ireland as he did, he knew that the acceptance of Sir Edward
Carson as a colleague would be taken in Ireland to imply that the
Government had abandoned its support of Home Rule. Ireland would assume
that the Ulster leader would not come in except on his own terms.
Redmond made the strongest representations that he could to the Prime
Minister to exclude both Irish parties to the unresolved dispute. But
Sir Edward Carson in those days was making himself very disagreeable in
the House of Commons and Mr. Asquith, as usual, followed the line of
least resistance.
The effect of the Coalition as formed was seen when recruiting in
Ireland dropped from 6,000 in April-May to 3,000 in May-June. It stayed
at the lower figure for several months, till it was raised again by
efforts for which Redmond was chiefly responsible. I do not know
whether Sir Edward Carson's presence in the Attorney-General's office,
or his absence from the Opposition benches in debates, was worth ten
thousand men; but that is a small measure of what was lost in Ireland by
his inclusion.
IV
The formation of the Coalition Government marks the first stage in the
history of Redmond's defeat and the victory of Sir Edward Carson and
Sinn Féin.
Of what he felt upon this matter, Redmond at the time said not a word in
public. Six months later, on November 2, 1915, when a debate on the
naval and military situation was opened, he broke silence--and his first
words were an explanation of his silence. He had not intervened, he
said, in any debate on the war since its inception. "We thought a loyal
and as far as possible silent support to the Government of the day was
the best service we could render." This silence had been maintained
"even after the formation of the Coalition"--when the Irish view had
been roughly set aside, and when the personal tie to the Liberal
Government with which he had been so long allied had been profoundly
modified. He claimed the credit of this loyalty not merely for himself
but for the whole of his country. "Since the war commenced the voice of
party controversy has disappeared in Ireland."
This was pushing generosity almost to a stretch of imagination, for the
voice of party controversy had not been absent from the Belfast Press,
nor had it spared him. But he was speaking then, and he desired that the
House should feel that he spoke, as Ireland's spokesman; he claimed
credit for North and South alike in the absence of all labour troubles
in war supply. "The spectacle of industrial unrest in Great Britain, the
determined and unceasing attacks in certain sections of the Press upon
individual members of the Government and in a special way upon the Prime
Minister, have aroused the greatest concern and the deepest indignation
in Ireland," he said. "Mr. Asquith stands to-day, as before the war,
high in the confidence of the Irish people." The "persistent pessimism"
had effected nothing except to help in some measure "that little fringe
which exists in Ireland as in England, of men who would if they could
interfere with the success of recruiting."
No doubt there was an element of policy, of a fencer's skill, in all
this. Sir Edward Carson had not maintained silence and certainly had not
spared the Prime Minister. But in essence Redmond was relying on the
plain truth. He had pledged support and he gave it to the utmost of his
power, even at his peril. Mr. Birrell in the posthumous "Appreciation"
which has been already quoted has this passage:
"Although it was not always easy to do business with him, being very
justly suspicious of English politicians, he could be trusted more
implicitly than almost every other politician I have ever come in
contact with. He was slow to pass his word, but when he had done so, you
knew he would keep it to the very letter, and what was almost as
important, his silence and discretion could be relied upon with
certainty. He was constitutionally incapable of giving anybody away who
had trusted him."
Nothing but considerations of loyalty had kept him publicly silent in
the months of this year when so much was done, and so much left undone,
against his desire and his judgment. In June, the Sixteenth Division was
within 1,000 of completion. The shortage existed in one brigade--the
49th--which had been formed of battalions having their recruiting areas
in Ulster--two of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, one of the Inniskillings
and one of the Royal Irish Rifles. The conception had undoubtedly been
to provide for the Nationalists of Ulster. But, as it proved, these men
vastly preferred to enlist in units which were not associated with the
avowedly Unionist Division, all of whose battalions belonged to one or
other of these three regiments; and the 49th Brigade was not nearly up
to strength. The Tenth Division was now on the point of readiness for
the field; but when the final weeding out of unfit or half trained men
was completed its ranks were 1,200 short. The War Office decided to
draw, not on both the other Irish Divisions, but on the Sixteenth only,
and only upon the deficient brigade. When the offer of immediate service
was made, every man in its four battalions volunteered, and the Tenth
Division was completed; but the Sixteenth was thrown back, and the
discouraging rumour that it was to be only used as a reserve gained a
great impetus. Redmond was very angry. He wrote to Mr. Tennant demanding
that at least the Division's deficiency should at once be made up, by
giving to us the full product of one or two weeks' recruiting in
Ireland. Nothing of the kind was done to meet his request.
It was, however, some compensation to think that at least one of our
purely Irish formations was going to take the field; and we hoped that
its fortunes might remedy a complaint which began to be loudly
made--that credit was withheld from the achievements of Irish troops.
The main source of this grievance was the publication of Admiral de
Robeck's despatch concerning the first landing at Gallipoli. In the
original document, a schedule was given showing the detail of troops
told off to each of the separate landings; and the narrative, in which a
sailor spoke with frank enthusiasm of the desperate valour shown by
soldiers, was written with constant reference to the detail given. As
some evil chance willed, the narrative mentioned by name several of the
regiments engaged; but when it came to describe the forlorn hope at "V"
Beach, it dealt fully with the special difficulties, and said in brief
but emphatic phrase, "Here the troops wrought miracles." The War Office,
in editing the despatch for publication, suppressed the schedule, as
likely to give information to the enemy, so that in this case it did not
appear to whom the praise applied.
Certain things are unbelievable. No officer and no man that ever lived
could from a partisan feeling against Ireland have sought to rob
regiments who had done and suffered such things as the Dublins and
Munsters did and suffered at "V" Beach of whatever credit could be given
to them. Yet in such times as we were living in, the unbelievable is
readily believed, and men saw malice in the suppression of what could
not long be secret: Ireland had too many dead that day. What made the
suggestion more incredible only gave a poignancy to resentment, for
Admiral de Robeck was an Irishman, with his home some few miles from the
regimental depot of the Dublins.
Two things, however, should be said. If only in fairness to Admiral de
Robeck, the explanation should instantly have been given: it was never
given in full until he came before the Dardanelles Commission, many
months later, and it has not been officially published to this hour. And
further, whoever edited the despatch was presumably a soldier, and knew
how jealous soldiers are, and how jealous their friends are for them, of
every word that goes to the recognition of such service. The effect of
omitting the schedule ought to have been foreseen.
Even before the middle of August, when angry letters over this despatch
were appearing in the Irish Press, other news began to come to Ireland,
ill calculated to help recruiting. The Tenth Division had come into
action, but under the unluckiest conditions. When the great attempt was
made to cut across the peninsula by a renewed push from Anzac and by a
new landing at Suvla Bay, the Irish were among the reinforcements told
off for that surprise. But from lack of room on the island bases it was
considered impossible to keep them together as a division, and one
brigade, the 29th, lay so far off that it could not be brought into the
concerted movement on Suvla. It was therefore sent separately to Anzac,
and joined in with the Australians. Broken up by regiments and not
operating as a unit, it furnished useful support; but no credit for what
the men did could go to Ireland. The other two brigades, the 30th and
31st, were left under the command of their divisional general and were
to attack on the left of the bay. But owing to some defect in
exploration of the coast-line, the movement was not so carried out; six
battalions out of the eight were landed on the south of the bay and were
attached to the right-hand force. Thus, in the actual operations Sir
Bryan Mahon had under his command only two battalions of his own men.
The remaining six operated under the command of the divisional general
of the Eleventh Division, who delegated the conduct of the actual attack
to one of his brigadiers. It is sufficient to say that immediately after
the action both these officers were relieved of their commands. The same
fate befell the corps commander under whose directions this wing of the
concerted movement was placed.
In face of these facts it would be absurd to deny that the troops were
badly handled. They suffered terribly from thirst, and the suffering was
in large measure preventible. The attack was a failure. All the success
achieved was the capture of Chocolate Hill, and the Irish claim that
success. It is disputed by other regiments. This much is certain: the
Irish were part of the troops who carried the hill, and at nightfall,
when the rest were withdrawn to the beach, the Irish were left holding
it.
But they had paid dearly, and in the days which followed many more were
sacrificed in the hopeless effort to retrieve what had been lost when
the surprise attack failed. The loss fell specially on a picked
battalion, the 7th Dublins, which had grown up about a footballers'
company, the very flower of young Irish manhood. Grief and indignation
were universal when tales of what had happened began to come through.
But of all this Redmond said no word in public. He threatened disclosure
in debate at one period; yet on a strong representation from Mr.
Tennant--in whose friendliness, as in the Prime Minister's, he had
confidence--he refrained. To this abstention he added the most practical
proof of good will. Lord Wimborne, now Lord-Lieutenant, seriously
concerned at the continued drop in recruiting, which had not shown any
sign of recovery since the Coalition Government was formed, came to him
with the proposal for a conference on the subject. In pursuance of this
suggestion Redmond went to London, where an interview took place between
him and Lord Kitchener, Mr. Birrell and Mr. Tennant assisting. Redmond
put in a memorandum stating his complaints, and thrashed out the subject
to satisfactory conclusions on all points that directly affected
recruiting. The conference ultimately met at the Viceregal Lodge on
October 15th. It included the Primate of All Ireland, Lord Londonderry,
Lord Meath, Lord Powerscourt, Sir Nugent Everard, the O'Conor Don and
Colonel Sharman Crawford, the Lord Mayors of Dublin, Belfast and Cork,
and Redmond. The military were represented by Major-General Friend,
commanding the troops in Ireland, with whom Redmond always had the most
cordial relations.
Only those who understand something of Irish tradition will realize how
great a departure from established usage it was for Parnell's lieutenant
and successor to take part formally in a meeting at the Viceregal
Lodge--or indeed to cross its threshold for any purpose. But Redmond
always had the logic of his convictions. As part of a compact, he was
helping to the best of his power the Government which must carry on
till Home Rule could come into operation; and here as elsewhere he was
ready to mark his conviction that the enactment of Home Rule had made
possible a complete change in his attitude.
Among his papers is a very full note of what passed on this occasion. It
is confidential, but one may note the extreme friendliness of attitude
as between Redmond and the Ulster representatives, and also the fact
that the operative suggestions agreed on were proposed first by Redmond
himself. They were the result of his interview with Lord Kitchener.
Recruiting in Ireland should no longer be left to voluntary effort, but
a Department should be formed corresponding to that over which Lord
Derby had been appointed to preside in Great Britain; and the
Lord-Lieutenant himself should accept the position of its official head,
and should appoint or nominate some man of known business capacity to
preside over the detail of organization. Redmond pressed also that the
country should be told definitely what Lord Wimborne had told the
conference, that the need was for a total of about 1,100 recruits per
week.
He insisted also very strongly on the publication of a letter which Lord
Kitchener at his instance had written to the conference. Its last
paragraph read:
"The Irish are entitled to their full share of the compliments paid to
the rest of the United Kingdom for their hitherto magnificent response
to the appeal for men: but if that response is to reap its due and only
reward in victory, the supply must be continued."
Over 81,000 recruits had been raised in Ireland since the war started--a
period of eighty-two weeks. Viewed in comparison with Lord Kitchener's
original anticipations, the result might well be called "magnificent."
But it was necessary to maintain the same weekly average, and for four
months the figure had been much below this. The result of the new
campaign was to raise nearly 7,500 men in seven weeks.
In the campaign thus launched, as Redmond so keenly desired, under the
joint auspices of Ulstermen, Southern Unionists and Nationalists, one
circumstance attracted attention. It was proposed to hold a great
meeting at Newry, the frontier town where Ulster marches with the
South--a centre in which recruiting had been singularly keen and
successful. The scheme was to unite on one platform the Lord-Lieutenant,
Redmond and Sir Edward Carson. Sir Edward Carson, however, "did not
think the proposal would serve any useful purpose," and the meeting was
held without him, in December 1915.
By this time the Sixteenth Division was under orders for France. We had
been since September in training at Blackdown, near Aldershot; and here
Redmond was one of several distinguished visitors who came to see us and
address the troops. He came down also unofficially more than once, for
his brother had a pleasant house among the pine-trees--where he guarded,
or was guarded by, the brigade's mascot, the largest of three enormous
wolfhounds which, through John Redmond, were presented to the Irish
Division.
Towards the end of the year new rumours were afloat. The 49th Brigade
had never been made up to strength, and there were stories that a
non-Irish brigade was to be linked up with us. Letters from two
commanding officers of the 49th Brigade illustrate the extent to which
Redmond had come by all ranks to be regarded as our tutelary genius; to
him they appealed for redress, fearing that they would be turned into a
reserve brigade. The matter was settled at last to his content and
theirs by a decision that the two brigades which were ready should go
out in advance, to be followed by the 49th; and we entrained accordingly
on December 17th.
Sir Lawrence Parsons wrote to Mr. Birrell: "As the last train-load moved
out of Farnborough station the senior Railway Staff Officer came up to
me and said, 'Well, General, that is the soberest, quietest, most
amenable and best disciplined Division that has left Aldershot, and I
have seen them all go.'" The compliment was well paid to General
Parsons, and it may have been some consolation for a sore heart: that
keen spirit had to be content to be left behind. Major-General W.B.
Hickie, C.B., who had greatly distinguished himself in France, now took
over command. It would be disingenuous to say that John Redmond was not
content with this change; but his brother was deeply impressed by the
hardship inflicted on a gallant soldier.
The Ulster Division had preceded us by three months. All three Irish
Divisions were now in the field, and reserve brigades were established
to feed them. Redmond could feel that in great measure his work was
done, and that he could await the issue in confidence.
He wrote at this time, in a preface contributed to Mr. MacDonagh's book
_The Irish at the Front_, a passage of unusual emotion which tells what
he thought and felt upon this matter.
"It is these soldiers of ours, with their astonishing courage and
their beautiful faith, with their natural military genius, carrying
with them their green flags and their Irish war-pipes, advancing to
the charge, their fearless officers at their head, and followed by
their beloved chaplains as great-hearted as themselves--bringing
with them a quality all their own to the sordid modern
battlefield--it is these soldiers of ours to whose keeping the
Cause of Ireland has passed. It was never in holier, worthier
keeping than with these boys offering up their supreme sacrifice of
life with a smile on their lips because it was given for Ireland."
He wrote this when fresh from a sight of troops in the field. This visit
took place in November 1915, and he was full of the experience when he
came down to say good-bye before we went out. Nothing in all his life
had approached it in interest, he said to me. The diary of his tour is
prefixed to Mr. S.P. Ker's book, _What the Irish Regiments Have
Done_--but it conveys little, except this dominant impression: "From the
Irish Commander-in-Chief himself right down through the Army one meets
Irishmen wherever one goes." On that journey he got the same welcome
from Ulstermen as from his own nearest countrymen in the Royal Irish
Regiment.
V
One thing at least Redmond gained, I think, from his visit to the
front--the sense that with the British Army in the field he was in a
friendly country. He never had that sense with regard to the War Office.
Running all through this critical year 1915 is the history of one long
failure--his attempt to secure the creation of a Home Defence force in
Ireland. Given that, he would be confident of possessing the foundation
for the structure of an Irish Army--an army which would be regarded as
Ireland's own. Without it, the whole fabric of his efforts must be
insecure. He desired to build, as in England they built, upon the
voluntary effort of a people in whom entire confidence was placed. In
the War Office undoubtedly men's minds were set upon finding a regular
supply of Irish troops by quite other methods--by the application of
compulsion.
Redmond saw to the full the danger of attempting compulsion with an
unwilling people; it was a peril which he sought to keep off, and while
he lived did keep off, by securing a steady flow of recruits, by gaining
a reasonable definition of Ireland's quota, and by exerting that
personal authority which the recognition of his efforts conferred upon
him. I do not think he was without hope of a moment when Ireland might
come, as Great Britain had come by the end of this year, to recognize
that the voluntary system levied an unfair toll on the willing, and that
the community itself should accept the general necessity of binding its
own members. But before this could be even dreamed of as practicable,
the whole force of Volunteers, North and South, must feel that they were
trusted and recognized, a part in the general work.
The practical organization of the great body at his disposal was under
discussion between him and Colonel Moore from February 1915 onwards; and
the idea was mooted that by introducing the territorial system Ulster
Volunteers and National Volunteers might be drawn into the same corps.
This, however, was for the future; the immediate need was to extend the
arming and training under their own organization. Redmond learnt at once
that Lord Kitchener was against this; that he pointed to the existence
of another armed force in the North of Ireland and argued that to create
a second must mean civil war; that he believed revolutionary forces to
exist in Ireland which Redmond could not control and perhaps did not
even suspect. Those who then thought with Lord Kitchener can say now
that events have justified his view. They omit to consider how far those
events proceeded from Lord Kitchener's refusal to accept Redmond's
judgment.
Of the danger Redmond was fully aware. "I understand your position to
be," Mr. T.P. O'Connor wrote to him in January 1915, "that unless your
plan as to the Irish Volunteers is adopted we are face to face with a
most critical and dangerous situation in Ireland." Just as fully was he
convinced of the way to meet it. In February, replying indignantly to
Sir Reginald Brade, who had complained that Irish recruiting was
"distinctly languid," he enumerated the points at which the War Office
had failed to act on his own advice, and urged once more, in the first
instance, his original policy of employing both Ulster and Nationalist
Volunteers for Home Defence. "If the two bodies of volunteers were
trusted with the defence of the country under proper military drill and
discipline, the result would unquestionably be that a large number of
them would volunteer for the front. Recruiting can best be promoted by
creating an atmosphere in which the patriotism of the younger men of the
country can be evoked, and we have done a good deal already in this
direction."
On April 4th a display was made of the force available. A review was
held in the Phoenix Park of 25,000 men--splendid material, but half of
them with neither arms nor uniform. The Unionist Press was friendly in
its comments upon the statement which Redmond supplied after the parade,
claiming that these men should be utilized for Home Defence. That day
was Easter Sunday of 1915. No one guessed then what the next Easter was
going to bring about.
On April 19th I find him writing officially to Mr. Birrell, seeking the
Chief Secretary's influence with the War Office, and claiming, what was
the truth, that the Irish Command shared his view. But at the moment
recruiting was increasing weekly and the War Office were in no mood to
make further concessions than those by which the improvement had been
brought about. Then came the Coalition, and the consequent reduction of
recruiting from close on 7,000 to 3,000 a month; and in July the
Adjutant-General, Sir Henry Sclater, of his own motion approached
Redmond. He suggested a meeting between Redmond and the War Office, with
Sir Matthew Nathan and General Parsons in attendance. Redmond agreed to
the proposal, but formulated his views in a lengthy memorandum. The
first three points dealt with matters directly concerning the Sixteenth
Division, but in the fourth, weighty emphasis was laid on the suggestion
of recruiting Volunteers for Home Defence. Sir Henry Sclater's reply
omitted completely all reference to this last--an omission on which
Redmond commented sharply. He elicited the official answer that by
urging men to join on a special enlistment for home service the numbers
who would join for general service would be reduced. This was
diametrically opposite to Redmond's view, and he said so, and urged
again that the Irish Command was of his opinion.
The proposed conference resolved itself--to Redmond's indignation--into
a discussion of Redmond's memorandum between the Adjutant-General and
Sir Lawrence Parsons. Only in September, when at Lord Wimborne's
instance he interviewed Lord Kitchener, did he have the opportunity of
raising the matter by direct speech. Lord Kitchener then declared
himself willing to admit that on the question whether enlistment for
Home Defence would promote or retard recruiting, Redmond's judgment was
probably more valuable than his own, and he promised to review the
question of Home Defence again in the light of it. But of this promise
nothing came.
Meantime Redmond was being warned that the Volunteer organization as it
stood had exhausted its usefulness; its enthusiasm was gone--a natural
result of having no purpose. A new opening seemed to be created by the
Bill which Lord Lincolnshire introduced to recognize a Volunteer Force
in Great Britain which should perform military duties under the War
Office control. Redmond hoped to see this carried with an extension of
it to Ireland, and this was the practical proposal with which he
concluded his speech when, on November 2nd, for the first time in that
year, he raised in debate the questions to which so much of his time and
thought had been given.
How was the Irish recruiting problem to be dealt with? He declared
himself absolutely against compulsion, to impose which would be "a folly
and a crime" unless the country was "practically unanimous in favour of
it." The voluntary system had never had fair play--at all events in
Ireland.
"It is a fact, which has its origin in history, and which I need
not refer to more closely--it is a fact that in the past recruiting
for the British Army was not popular with the mass of the Irish
people. But when the war broke out, my colleagues and I, quite
regardless, let me say, of the political risks which stared us in
the face, instantly made an appeal to those whom we represented in
Ireland, and told them that this was Ireland's war as well as
England's war, that it was a just war, and that the recent attitude
of Great Britain to Ireland had thrown upon us a great, grave duty
of honour to the British Empire. We then went back from this
country, and we went all through Ireland. I myself, within the
space of about a month after that, made speeches at great public
meetings in every one of the four provinces of Ireland. We set
ourselves to the task of creating in Ireland--creating, mind
you--an atmosphere favourable to recruiting, and of creating a
sentiment in Ireland favourable to recruiting. I say most solemnly,
that in that task we were absolutely entitled to the sympathy and
the assistance of the Government and the War Office. I am sorry to
say we got neither."
He disclaimed all imputation upon the Prime Minister or the
Under-Secretary, Mr. Tennant--exceptions which pointed the reference to
Lord Kitchener.
"The fact remains that when we were faced with that difficult and
formidable task, practically every suggestion that we made, based
on the strength of our own knowledge of what was suitable for
Ireland and the conditions there, was put upon one side. The
gentlemen who were responsible for that evidently believed that
they knew what was suited to the necessities of Ireland far better
than we did. A score of times, at least, I put upon paper and sent
to the Government and the War Office my suggestions and my
remonstrances, but all in vain. Often, almost in despair, I was
tempted to rise in this House and publicly tell the House of
Commons the way in which we were hampered and thwarted in our work
in Ireland. I refrained from doing so from fear of doing mischief
and from fear of doing harm. To-day I am very glad that I so
refrained, because in spite of these discouragements, in spite of
this thwarting and embarrassing, and in spite of the utterly faulty
and ridiculous system of recruiting that was set on foot, we have
succeeded, and have raised in Ireland a body of men whose numbers
Lord Kitchener, in his letter to the Irish conference, declared
were magnificent."
He quoted the Unionist _Birmingham Post_ for the saying that what had
happened in Ireland was "a miracle." From the National Volunteers 27,054
men had joined the colours; from the Ulster Volunteers 27,412. In both
forces there must be many left who could not leave Ireland, yet might be
utilized in Ireland.
"It may be remembered that the very day the war broke out I rose in
my place in this House and offered the Volunteers to the Government
for Home Defence. I only spoke, of course, of the National
Volunteers. I was not entitled to speak for the Ulster Volunteers,
but I suggested that they and we might work shoulder to shoulder.
From that day to this the War Office have persistently refused to
have anything to say to these Volunteers. The Prime Minister, a few
days after I spoke, in answer to a question told me that the
Government were considering at that moment how best to utilize
these Volunteers. They have never been utilized since. A few days
after I made my speech I went myself to the War Office, and as a
result of my interviews there I submitted to the Government a
scheme which would have provided them at once with 25,000 men. If
that offer had been accepted, not 25,000, not 50,000, but 100,000
men would have been enlisted for Home Defence within the month. But
no, it was obstinately refused. I hear that an hon. member below me
is now apparently inclined to take the point that the War Office
took. The War Office said that would interfere with recruiting in
Ireland. Of course, we know Ireland better than the hon. member. We
know our difficulties in Ireland. We do not believe that it would.
On the contrary, we believe that it would have promoted recruiting.
We believe that the enlistment of these men, their association in
barracks and in camp, with the inevitable creation and fostering of
a military spirit, would have led to a large number of volunteers
for foreign service. Our views counted for nought. In this instance
they were not only our views. These views had the approval of the
Irish Command, and from the purely military point of view the Irish
Command was in favour of some such scheme as I had outlined, and
the reason was plain. They have to provide, and are providing to
this day, 20,000 to 25,000 men from the Regular Army for the
defence of the coasts of Ireland--guarding the coast, guarding
piers, railways, bridges, and so forth. If these men of ours had
been taken up, within two or three months of training and in camp
they would have been able to do this work, and would have done it
ever since, and would thereby have released from 20,000 to 25,000
men. That is the chief reason, I fancy, why the Military Command in
Ireland were in favour of this idea. But to this moment the refusal
continues. I see that an unofficial Bill was introduced by the
Marquess of Lincolnshire into the House of Lords doing, to a great
measure, for England and Wales what we have been asking should be
done for Ireland. I claim that that Bill shall be extended to
Ireland."
The Volunteer Bill came to the House of Commons in a form making it
applicable to Ireland. There it was opposed by Sir Edward Carson, who
demanded that no man of military age should be accepted as a volunteer
unless he consented to enlist for general service if called. This killed
the Bill.
Sir Edward Carson was of opinion that the necessities of the case
demanded universal compulsory service; and conscription was already in
sight. With that prospect Redmond's anxiety became very grave.
On November 15th he wrote his mind to the Prime Minister:
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
_November_ 15, 1915.
_Private_.
MY DEAR MR. ASQUITH,
I have been in a state of great anxiety for some time on the
question of a possible Conscription Bill, and I have discussed the
matter fully with Mr. Birrell, who knows my views, and who, no
doubt, has communicated them to you.
I think it well, however, to shortly put, in writing, our position.
In your Dublin speech you asked the Irish people for "a free
offering from a free people," and the response has been, taking
everything into account, in the words of Lord Kitchener,
"magnificent."
Recruiting is now going on at a greater rate than ever in Ireland,
and it would be a terrible misfortune if we were driven into a
position on the question of conscription which would alienate that
public opinion which we have now got upon our side in Ireland.
The position would, indeed, be a cruel one, if conscription were
enacted for England, and Ireland excluded.
On the other hand, I must tell you that the enforcement of
conscription in Ireland is an impossibility.
Faced with this dilemma, if a Conscription Bill be introduced, the
Irish party will be forced to oppose it as vigorously as possible
at every stage.
I regret having to write you in this way, but it is only right that
I should be quite frank in the matter.
Very truly yours,
J.E. REDMOND.
RT. HON. H.H. Asquith, M.P., _Prime Minister_,
Assurances reached him that the first tentative Bill for compelling
unmarried men to enlist would only be introduced to fulfil a pledge
given by Mr. Asquith in connection with the Derby Scheme, and that as
the Derby Scheme had not applied to Ireland, the pledge also had no
bearing there. By December 21st the matter was raised in the House of
Commons. Redmond, after the Prime Minister had spoken, defined what he
was careful to call "my personal view" on the question of compulsory
service.
"I am content to take the phrase used by the Prime Minister. I am
prepared to say that I will stick at nothing--nothing which is
necessary, nothing which is calculated to effect the purpose--in order
to end this war." He added: "That is the view, I am certain, of the
people of Ireland."
The whole question was presented by him as "one of expediency and
necessity, not of principle." From that standpoint he declared himself
unconvinced that the adoption of compulsion in any shape was either
expedient or necessary. It was inexpedient because it would "break up
the unity of the country"--unnecessary because they had already many
more men than they could either train or equip. In Ireland, a limited
task had been defined, to keep up the necessary reserves for fifty-three
battalions of infantry, and he pointed to the fact that so far the new
organization of recruiting was producing the stipulated flow.
On these grounds, he said, the Irish party would oppose the measure, and
on January 5th that opposition was offered, though Ireland was excluded
from the Bill. But the first division showed a majority of more than ten
to one for the proposal; and in face of that, when the House returned to
the discussion, Redmond declared that Irish opposition must
cease--especially in view of the support given by the responsible
leaders of Labour. Sir Edward Carson, following, pressed him to go one
step farther and accept the inclusion of Ireland in the Bill. Nothing,
he said, could do so much to conciliate Ulster. This was the first time
that any suggestion of this possibility had come from that quarter, and
it came in backing a suggestion which Redmond could not accept. I was
not present at the debate, and it is hard to judge of such matters from
the printed record, but the impression on my mind is that the suggestion
was made without any desire to embarrass. A few days later, in the
Committee stage, an Ulster member moved an amendment which would have
included Ireland. Mr. Bonar Law, speaking for the Government, advised
against it--on the ground of expediency; it would not be an easy thing
to put this measure into operation in Ireland. Sir Edward Carson spoke
later and counselled the dropping of the amendment. With matters in this
stage Redmond spoke very fully to the House, recognizing the absence of
all partisan tone in the speeches of Ulster members. He had long felt,
he said, that "if conscription came, Ireland's whole attitude towards
the war was likely to suffer cruel and unjust misrepresentation,"
because it must emphasize a difference between the two countries.
Conscription in Ireland would be "impracticable, unworkable and
impossible." Instead of leading to the increase in the supply of men it
would have the opposite effect.
"It would most undoubtedly paralyse the efforts of myself and others who
have worked unsparingly--and not unsuccessfully--since the commencement
of the war, and would play right into the hands of those who are a
contemptible minority among the Nationalists of Ireland, and who are
trying--unsuccessfully trying--to prevent recruiting and to undermine
thus the position and power of the Irish party because of the attitude
we have taken up."
He complained once more of the Government's failure to utilize the
Volunteers and of the damping effect which had resulted from the
non-fulfilment of Mr. Asquith's words. Yet Ireland was doing all that
was asked of it--maintaining the reserves of Irishmen for Irish
regiments at the front.--This was true at the moment; but the Sixteenth
Division had scarcely yet begun to come into the line and the Ulster
Division, during its first few months, suffered slight casualties. In
point of fact, however, the bare rumour of conscription had checked
recruiting, and Redmond was guarded in his terms. It was, he said, "on
the whole very satisfactory, and in the towns amazing"; but he admitted
that the country districts had not given an adequate response.
But he made now an appeal to the House as a whole to lift the
consideration of this whole matter on to broad lines, to view it on the
plane of statesmanship. If five years earlier anyone had foretold that
in a great war Ireland would send 95,000 volunteer new recruits to fight
by the side of England, would he not have been regarded as a lunatic?
"The change in Ireland has been so rapid that men are apt to forget its
history." That was a true saying; his own success had created
difficulties for him. Once more he quoted the example of the other
statesman in the Empire whose position had most analogy with his own. "I
honestly believe," he said, "that General Botha's difficulties were
small compared with those we had to confront in Ireland.... It is true
to say at this moment that the overwhelming sentiment of the Irish
people is with the Empire for the first time."
That was his claim, and in that month of January 1916 he was fully
entitled to make it; and the House, I think, recognized his
justification. His speech has in it the ring of confidence, of assurance
that he would be taken at his word.
"Rest satisfied," he said; "do not try to drive Ireland." Wise words,
and they were not unwisely listened to. There was no room for doubting
this man's earnestness when he went on to tell how he himself had
recently met Irish troops in the field, and had then pledged himself to
them to spare no effort in raising the necessary reserves for their
ranks among their own countrymen. "Trust us," he said to the House,
indicating himself and his colleagues, "trust us to know, after all, the
best methods. Do not carp at Irish effort, and do not belittle Irish
effort." Then they might count on loyal and enduring support till the
great struggle was ended.
That speech, as I read it, marks the highwater-line of Redmond's
achievement. His statesmanship in the counsels of the Empire had
prevailed for his own country. The Home Rule Act was on the Statute
Book, and though not in legal operation it was present in all minds; and
now on a supreme issue--the blood-tax--Ireland's right to be treated as
self-governing was recognized in fact. The argument which underlay
implicitly Redmond's whole contention was never set out; it was
contentious, politically, and he wisely avoided it. He spoke for a
nation to which autonomy had been accorded by statute; he preferred men
to feel for themselves rather than be asked to admit that no
self-governing nation will submit voluntarily to the imposition of the
blood-tax without its own most formal consent. All that he said was, in
effect: You have Ireland with you for the first time, by our assistance;
do not destroy our power to continue that assistance, do not alienate
Ireland. In the counsels of the Empire his argument prevailed; and
during the early months of 1916 the relations between Great Britain and
Ireland were better and happier than at any time of which history holds
record. An utterance from one Irishman, and the general response to it,
showed this in extraordinary degree.
Our Division, or rather two brigades of it, had detrained in France on
the 19th of December; the first impression as we shook ourselves
together for the march to strange billets was the sound of guns.
Scattered about in different villages lying round Bethune, our
battalions passed the next two months in the usual training before we
should take up our own sector of the line, and we saw little or nothing
of each other. March found us engaged, though still only attached by
companies to more seasoned troops, in some rough crater-fighting on the
ugly mine-riddled stretch between Loos and Hulluch. It was when we were
marching out from broken houses about the minehead at Annequin that we
first met again our old stable companions, the Royal Irish--and that I
first saw Willie Redmond in France at the head of his company.
He was on foot as always, for he never could be persuaded to ride while
the men were marching, and I never saw more geniality of greeting on any
countenance than was on his when he came up with outstretched hand to
where I was sitting by the roadside--for we had halted to see them go
by. Here was a man utterly in his element, radiant literally in the
enthusiasm of his devotion. He refused to listen to our talk of the bad
time we had been through in the place where they were to succeed us (and
in two winters of that war I never saw worse); all his talk was of the
good time which we should have in the billets we were going to, which
they had just left. Back there, in and about Allouagne, they rejoined
us; and I remember dining with him in his company mess and hearing his
eulogies of the splendid fellows that his company officers were. Then,
about the time we moved up into trenches, our first leaves began and he
got home in March. Naturally, he looked in at the House of Commons, and
realized for the first time how uneasy well-informed persons in the
lobbies were about the chances of the war. Everybody who ever came home
from the front must have experienced the effect of that strange
transition from unquestioning confidence to worried anxiety; but Willie
Redmond was the only man who ever adequately gave expression to it.
It was on the eve of St. Patrick's Day, and the Army Estimates were
under discussion in a very thin House--a wrangling, fault-finding
debate. In the middle of it Willie Redmond got up, and said that as he
was not likely to be there again, he had one or two things to say which
he thought the House would be glad to know. Speaking as one of the
oldest members, who had all but completed his thirty-third year in
Parliament, he told them that every soul in the House should be proud of
the troops--not of the Irish troops, but of the troops
generally--because more than anything else of the splendid spirit in
which they were going through the privations and dangers,--which he
described with passion. If he were to deliver a message from the troops,
he knew well what it would be:
"Send us out the reinforcements which are necessary, and which are
naturally necessary. Send us out, as we admit you have been doing
up to this, the necessary supplies, and when you do that, have
trust in the men who are in the gap to conduct the war to the
victory which everyone at the front is confident is bound to come.
'And when victory does come,' the message would run on, 'you in the
House of Commons, in the country, and in every newspaper in the
country, can spend the rest of your lives in discussing as to
whether the victory has been won on proper lines or whether it has
not.' Nothing in the world can depress the spirits of the men that
I have seen at the front. I do not believe that there was ever
enough Germans born into this world to depress them. If it were
possible to depress them at all, it can only be done by pursuing a
course of embittered controversy in this country--as to which was
the right way or the wrong way of conducting affairs at the front.
When a man feels that his feet are freezing, when he is standing in
heavy rain for a whole night with no shelter, and when next morning
he tries to cook a piece of scanty food over the scanty flame of a
brazier in the mud, he perhaps sits down for a few minutes in the
day's dawn and takes up an old newspaper, and finds speeches and
leading articles from time to time which tell him that apparently
everything is going wrong, that the Ministers who are at the head
of affairs in this country, upon whom he is depending, are not
really men with their hearts in the work, but are really more or
less callous and calculating mercenaries, who are not directing
affairs in the best way, but are simply anxious to maintain their
own salaries. I say that when speeches and articles of that kind
are found in the newspapers they are calculated, if anything is or
can be so calculated, to depress the men who are at the front."
Then came a few words in praise of the Irish troops and in deprecation
of the failure to recognize some of their services; a confident
assurance that, "whether they are remembered or not," the Sixteenth
Division would do their duty, with an equal assurance that the Ulster
men would do as well as they--and he reached to his conclusion:
"Since I went out there I found that the common salutation in all
circumstances is one of cheer. If things go pretty well and the men
are fairly comfortable, they say 'Cheer O!' If things go badly, and
the snow falls and the rain comes through the roof of a billet in
an impossible sort of cow-house, they say 'Cheer O!' still more.
All we want out there is that you shall adopt the same tone and say
'Cheer O!' to us."
It is not too much to say that this speech was received with a cry of
gratitude all over the country and throughout the Army. It said what
badly needed to be said, and said it with a freshness and a dash that
came superbly from a company commander in his fifty-fourth year. It was
the best service that had yet been rendered to John Redmond's policy.
Everybody quite naturally and simply accepted the Nationalist Irishman
as the spokesman for all the troops who were actually in the line. Mr.
Walter Long, always a generous and candid human being, was quick to give
voice to this feeling:
"The honourable and gallant member for East Clare has been in
conflict, not only with one particular political party, but during
the greater part of his career with every party in turn, and has
engaged in bitter controversy with them. Does anybody doubt the
fact that when war was declared one great factor in the mind of the
Emperor responsible for this war was that dissension would paralyse
the hands of Great Britain? Ireland, whatever may have been our
differences in the past, and whatever may be our differences in
happier days again when we are at peace, everybody must feel by the
action of her representatives, who have fought so bitterly in this
House and in the country, has created a new claim for herself upon
the affection, the gratitude, the respect of the people of the
Empire by the great and proud part that she has played in this
great struggle."
That was the position to which Redmond's policy, backed by the Irishmen
who supported it with their lives, of whom his brother was the
outstanding representative, had brought this great issue. The next
thing which brought the name of Ireland prominently before the world was
the story of action taken by other Irishmen, also at the risk of their
lives, to reverse the strong current which was then carrying us forward
with so hopeful augury.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 5: Lieutenant-Colonel Maurice Moore, C.B., an officer who had
served with distinction in South Africa, and whose father, George Henry
Moore, had been a famous advocate in Parliament of Tenant Right and
Repeal.]
[Footnote 6: Rifles were really not available, nor competent
instructors. But the essential was recognition. A grant towards
equipment should have been given, and possibly other assistance. We
secured several thousand rifles in Belgium about this time. For
instructors, any old crippled veterans paid by Government would have
conveyed the sense of recognition.]