ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR
The arrangements that had been made for the landing and disposal of the
arms when they arrived in port were the work of an extremely efficient
and complete organisation. In the previous summer Captain Spender, it
will be remembered, had been appointed to a position on Sir George
Richardson's staff which included in its duties that of the organisation
of transport. A railway board, a supply board, and a transport board had
been formed, on which leading business men willingly served; every
U.V.F. unit had its horse transport, and in addition a special motor
corps, organised in squadrons, and a special corps of motor-lorries were
formed.
More than half the owners of motor-cars in Ulster placed their cars at
the disposal of the motor corps, to be used as and when required. The
corps was organised in sections of four cars each, and in squadrons of
seventeen cars each, with motor cyclist despatch-riders; a signalling
corps of despatch-riders and signallers completed the organisation. The
lively interest aroused by the practice and displays of the
last-mentioned corps did much to promote the high standard of
proficiency attained by its "flag-waggers," many of whom were women and
girls. In particular the signalling-station at Bangor gained a
reputation which attracted many English sympathisers with Ulster to pay
it a visit when they came to Belfast for the great Unionist
demonstrations.
The despatch-riders on motor-cycles made the Ulster Council independent
of the Post Office, which for very good reasons they used as little as
possible. Post-houses were opened at all the most important centres in
Ulster, between which messages were transmitted by despatch-rider or
signal according to the nature of the intervening country. Along the
coast of Down and Antrim the organisation of signals was complete and
effective. The usefulness of the despatch-riders' corps was fully tested
and proved during the Curragh Incident, when news of all that was taking
place at the Curragh was received by this means two or three times a day
at the Old Town Hall in Belfast, where there was much information of
what was going on that was unknown at the Irish Office in London.
All this organisation was at the disposal of the leaders for handling
the arms brought in the hold of the _Mountjoy II_. The perfection of the
arrangements for the immediate distribution of the rifles and ammunition
among the loyalist population, and the almost miraculous precision with
which they were carried out on that memorable Friday night, extorted the
admiration even of the most inveterate political enemies of Ulster. The
smoothness with which the machinery of organisation worked was only
possible on account of the hearty willingness of all the workers,
combined with the discipline to which they gladly submitted themselves.
The whole U.V.F. was warned for a trial mobilisation on the evening of
the 24th of April, and the owners of all motor-cars and lorries were
requested to co-operate. Very few either of the Volunteers or the motor
owners knew that anything more than manoeuvres by night for practice
purposes was to take place. All motors from certain specified districts
were ordered to be at Larne by 8 o'clock in the evening; from other
districts the vehicles were to assemble at Bangor and Donaghadee
respectively, at a later hour. All the roads leading to these ports were
patrolled by volunteers, and at every cross-roads over the greater part
of nine counties men of the local battalions were stationed to give
directions to motor-drivers who might not be familiar with the roads. At
certain points these men were provided with reserve supplies of petrol,
and with repairing tools that might be needed in case of breakdown. It
is a remarkable testimony to the zeal of these men for the cause that,
although none of them knew he was taking part in an exciting adventure,
not one, so far as is known, left his post throughout a cold and wet
night, having received orders not to go home till daybreak. And these
were men, it must be remembered, who before putting on the felt hats,
puttees, and bandoliers which constituted their uniform, had already
done a full day's work, and were not to receive a sixpence for their
night's job.
At the three ports of discharge large forces of volunteers were
concentrated. Sir George Richardson, G.O.C. in C., remained in Belfast
through the night, being kept fully and constantly informed of the
progress of events by signal and motor-cyclist despatch-riders. Captain
James Craig was in charge of the operations at Bangor; at Larne General
Sir William Adair was in command, with Captain Spender as Staff officer.
The attention of the Customs authorities in Belfast was diverted by a
clever stratagem. A tramp steamer was brought up the Musgrave Channel
after dark, her conduct being as furtive and suspicious as it was
possible to make it appear. At the same time a large wagon was brought
to the docks as if awaiting a load. The skipper of the tramp took an
unconscionable time, by skilful blundering, in bringing his craft to her
moorings. The suspicions of the authorities were successfully aroused;
but every possible hindrance was put in their way when they began to
investigate. The hour was too late: could they not wait till daylight?
No? Well, then, what was their authority? When that was settled, it
appeared that the skipper had mislaid his keys and could not produce the
ship's papers--and so on. By these devices the belief of the officers
that they had caught the offender they were after was increasingly
confirmed every minute, while several hours passed before they were
allowed to realise that they had discovered a mare's-nest. For when at
last they "would stand no more nonsense," and had the hatches opened and
the papers produced, the latter were quite in order, and the
cargo--which they wasted a little additional time in turning
over--contained nothing but coal.
Meantime the real business was proceeding twenty miles away. All
communications by wire from the three ports were blocked by "earthing"
the wires, so as to cause short circuit. The police and coast-guards
were "peacefully picketed," as trade unionists would call it, in their
various barracks--they were shut in and strongly guarded. No conflict
took place anywhere between the authorities and the volunteers, and the
only casualty of any kind was the unfortunate death of one
coast-guardsman from heart disease at Donaghadee.
At Larne, where much the largest portion of the _Mountjoy's_ cargo was
landed, a triple cordon of Volunteers surrounded the town and harbour,
and no one without a pass was allowed through. The motors arrived with a
punctuality that was wonderful, considering that many of them had come
from long distances. As the drivers arrived near the town and found
themselves in an apparently endless procession of similar vehicles,
their astonishment and excitement became intense. Only when close to the
harbour did they learn what they were there for, and received
instructions how to proceed. They had more than two hours to wait in
drizzling rain before the _Mountjoy_ appeared round the point of
Islandmagee, although her approach had been made known to Spender by
signal at dusk. There were about five hundred motor vehicles assembled
at Larne alone, and such an invasion of flaring head-lights gave the
inhabitants of the little town unwonted excitement. Practically all the
able-bodied men of the place were either on duty as Volunteers or were
willing workers in the landing of the arms. The women stood at their
doors and gave encouraging greeting to the drivers; many of them ran
improvised canteens, which supplied the workers with welcome
refreshments during the night.
There was a not unnatural tendency at first on the part of some of the
motor-drivers to look upon the event more in the light of a meet of
hounds than of the gravest possible business, and to hang about
discussing the adventure with the other "sportsmen." But the use of
vigorous language brought them back to recognition of the seriousness of
the work before them, and the discharge of the cargo proceeded hour
after hour with the utmost rapidity and with the regularity of a
well-oiled machine. The cars drew up beside the _Mountjoy_ in an endless
_queue_; each received its quota of bales according to its carrying
capacity, and was despatched on its homeward journey without a moment's
delay.
The wisdom of Crawford's system of packing was fully vindicated. There
was no confusion, no waiting to bring ammunition from one part of the
ship's hold to match with rifles brought from another, and bayonets from
a third. The packages, as they were carried from the steamer or the
cranes, were counted by checking clerks, and their destination noted as
each car received its load. But even the large number of vehicles
available would have been insufficient for the purpose on hand if each
had been limited to a single load; dumps had therefore been formed at a
number of selected places in the surrounding districts, where the arms
were temporarily deposited so as to allow the cars to return and perform
the same duty several times during the night.
While the _Mountjoy_ was discharging the Larne consignment on to the
quay, she was at the same time transhipping a smaller quantity into a
motor-boat, moored against her side, which when laden hurried off to
Donaghadee; and she left Larne at 5 in the morning to discharge the last
portion of her cargo at Bangor, which was successfully accomplished in
broad daylight after her arrival there about 7.30.
Crawford refused to leave the ship at either Larne or Bangor, feeling
himself bound in honour to remain with the crew until they were safe
from arrest by the naval authorities. It was well known in Belfast that
a look-out was being kept for the _Fanny_, which had figured in the
Press as "the mystery ship" ever since the affair at Langeland, and had
several times been reported to have been viewed at all sorts of odd
places on the map, from the Orkneys to Tory Island. Just as Agnew was
casting off from Bangor, when the last bale of arms had gone ashore, a
message from U.V.F. headquarters informed him that a thirty-knot cruiser
was out looking for the _Fanny_. To mislead the coast-guards on shore a
course was immediately set for the Clyde--the very quarter from which a
cruiser coming from Lamlash was to be expected--and when some way out to
sea Crawford cut the cords holding the canvas sheets that bore the name
of the _Mountjoy_, so that within five minutes the filibustering pirate
had again become the staid old collier _Clydevalley_, which for months
past had carried her regular weekly cargo of coal from Scotland to
Belfast. As before at Langeland, so now at Copeland, fog providentially
covered retreat, and through it the _Clydevalley_ made her way
undetected down the Irish Sea. At daybreak next morning Crawford landed
at Rosslare; and Agnew then proceeded along the French and Danish coasts
to the Baltic to the rendezvous with the _Fanny_, in order to bring back
the Ulstermen members of her crew, after which "the mystery ship" was
finally disposed of at Hamburg.
Sir Edward Carson and Lord Londonderry were both in London on the 24th
of April. At an early hour next morning a telegram was delivered to each
of them, containing the single word "Lion." It was a code message
signifying that the landing of the arms had been carried out without a
hitch. Before long special editions of the newspapers proclaimed the
news to all the world, and as fresh details appeared in every successive
issue during the day the public excitement grew in intensity. Wherever
two or three Unionists were gathered together exultation was the
prevailing mood, and eagerness to send congratulations to friends in
Ulster.
Soon after breakfast a visitor to Sir Edward Carson found a motor
brougham standing at his door, and on being admitted was told that "Lord
Roberts is with Sir Edward." The great little Field-Marshal, on learning
the news, had lost not a moment in coming to offer his congratulations
to the Ulster leader. "Magnificent!" he exclaimed, on entering the room
and holding out his hand, "magnificent! nothing could have been better
done; it was a piece of organisation that any army in Europe might be
proud of."
But it was not to be expected that the Government and its supporters
would relish the news. The Radical Press, of course, rang all the
changes of angry vituperation, especially those papers which had been
prominent in ridiculing "Ulster bluff" and "King Carson's wooden guns";
and they now speculated as to whether Carson could be "convicted of
complicity" in what Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons described as
"this grave and unprecedented outrage." Carson soon set that question at
rest by quietly rising in his place in the House and saying that he took
full responsibility for everything that had been done. The Prime
Minister, amid the frenzied cheers of his followers, assured the House
that "His Majesty's Government will take, without delay, appropriate
steps to vindicate the authority of the law." For a short time there was
some curiosity as to what the appropriate steps would be. None, however,
of any sort were taken; the Government contented itself with sending a
few destroyers to patrol for a short time the coasts of Antrim and Down,
where they were saluted by the Ulster Signalling Stations, and their
officers hospitably entertained on shore by loyalist residents.
On the 28th of April a further debate on the Curragh Incident took place
in the House of Commons, which was a curious example of the rapid
changes of mood that characterise that Assembly. Most of the speeches
both from the front and back benches were, if possible, even more
bitter, angry, and defiant than usual. But at the close of one of the
bitterest of them all Mr. Churchill read a typewritten passage that was
recognised as a tiny olive-branch held out to Ulster. Carson responded
next day in a conciliatory tone, and the Prime Minister was thought to
suggest a renewal of negotiations in private. For some time nothing came
of this hint; but on the 12th of May Mr. Asquith announced that the
third reading of the Home Rule Bill (for the third successive year, as
required by the Parliament Act before being presented for the signature
of the King) would be taken before Whitsuntide, but that the Government
intended to make another attempt to appease Ulster by introducing "an
amending proposal, in the hope that a settlement by agreement may be
arrived at"; and that the two Bills--the Home Rule Bill and the Bill to
amend it--might become law practically at the same time. But he gave no
hint as to what the "amending proposal" was to be, and the reception of
the announcement by the Opposition did not seem to presage agreement.
Mr. Bonar Law insisted that the House of Commons ought to be told what
the Amending Bill would propose, before it was asked finally to pass the
Home Rule Bill. But the real fact was, as every member of the House of
Commons fully realised, that Mr. Asquith was not a free agent in this
matter. The Nationalists were not at all pleased at the attempts already
made, trivial as they were, to satisfy Ulster, and Mr. Redmond protested
against the promise of an Amending Bill of any kind. Mr. Asquith could
make no proposal sufficient to allay the hostility of Ulster that would
not alienate the Nationalists, whose support was essential to the
continuance of his Government in office.
On the same day as this debate in Parliament the result of a by-election
at Grimsby was announced in which the Unionist candidate retained the
seat; a week later the Unionists won a seat in Derbyshire; and two days
afterwards crowned these successes with a resounding victory at Ipswich.
The last-mentioned contest was considered so important that Mr. Lloyd
George and Sir Edward Carson went down to speak the evening before the
poll for their respective sides. Mr. Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, made his appeal to the cupidity of the constituency, which
was informed that it would gain £15,000 a year from his new Budget, in
addition to large sums, of which he gave the figure, for old age
pensions and under the Government's Health Insurance Act.[88] Sir Edward
Carson laid stress on Ulster's determination to resist Home Rule by
force. The Unionist candidate won the seat next day in this essentially
working-class constituency by a substantial majority, although his
Liberal opponent, Mr. Masterman, was a Cabinet Minister trying for the
second time to return to Parliament. Out of seven elections since the
beginning of the session the Government had lost four.
It happened that the two latest new members took their seats on the 25th
of May, on which date the Home Rule Bill was passed by the House of
Commons on third reading for the last time. The occasion was celebrated
by the Nationalists, not unnaturally, by a great demonstration of
triumph, both in the House itself and outside in Palace Yard. Men on the
other side reflected that the tragedy of civil war had been brought one
stage nearer.
The reply of Ulster to the passing of the Bill was a series of reviews
of the U.V.F. during the Whitsuntide recess. Carson, Londonderry, Craig,
and most of the other Ulster members attended these parades, which
excited intense enthusiasm through the country, more especially as the
arms brought by the _Mountjoy_ were now seen for the first time in the
hands of the Volunteers. Several battalions were presented with Colours
which had been provided by Lady Londonderry, Lady Massereene, Mrs.
Craig, and other local ladies, and the ceremony included the dedication
of these Colours by the Bishop of Down and the Moderator of the
Presbyterian Church. Many visitors from England witnessed these
displays, and among them were several deputations of Liberal and Labour
working men, who reported on their return that what they had seen had
converted them to sympathy with Ulster.[89]
After the recess the promised Amending Bill was introduced in the House
of Lords on the 23rd of June by the Marquis of Crewe, who explained that
it embodied Mr. Asquith's proposals of the 9th of March, and that he
invited amendments. Lord Lansdowne at once declared that these
proposals, which had been rejected as inadequate three months ago, were
doubly insufficient now. But the invitation to amend the Bill was
accepted, Lord Londonderry asking the pertinent question whether the
Government would tell Mr. Redmond that they would insist on acceptance
of any amendments made in response to Lord Crewe's invitation--a
question to which no answer was forthcoming. Lord Milner, in the course
of the debate, said the Bill would have to be entirely remodelled, and
he laid stress on the point that if Ulster were coerced to join the rest
of Ireland it would make a united Ireland for ever impossible, and that
the employment of the Army and Navy for the purpose of coercion would
give a shock to the Empire which it would not long survive; to which
Lord Roberts added that such a policy would mean the utter destruction
of the Army, as he had warned the Prime Minister before the incident at
the Curragh.
On the 8th of July the Bill was amended by substituting the permanent
exclusion of the whole province of Ulster--which Mr. Balfour had named
"the clean cut"--for the proposed county option with a time limit; and
several other alterations of minor importance were also made. The Bill
as amended passed the third reading on the 14th, when Lord Lansdowne
predicted that, whatever might be the fate of the measure and of the
Home Rule Bill which it modified, the one thing certain was that the
idea of coercing Ulster was dead.
In Ulster itself, meanwhile, the people were bent on making Lord
Lansdowne's certainty doubly sure. Carson went over for the Boyne
celebration on the 12th of July. The frequency of his visits did nothing
to damp the ardour with which his arrival was always hailed by his
followers. The same wonderful scenes, whether at Larne or at the Belfast
docks, were repeated time after time without appearing to grow stale by
repetition. They gave colour to the Radical jeer at "King Carson," for
no royal personage could have been given a more regal reception than was
accorded to "Sir Edward" (as everybody affectionately called him in
Belfast) half a dozen times within a few months.
This occasion, when he arrived on the 10th by the Liverpool steamer,
accompanied by Mr. Walter Long, was no exception. His route had been
announced in the Press. Countless Union Jacks were displayed in every
village along both shores of the Lough. Every vessel at anchor,
including the gigantic White Star Liner _Britannic_, was dressed; every
fog-horn bellowed a welcome; the multitude of men at work in the great
ship-yards crowded to places commanding a view of the incoming packet,
and waved handkerchiefs and raised cheers for Sir Edward; fellow
passengers jostled each other to get sight of him as he went down the
gangway and to give him a parting cheer from the deck; the dock sheds
were packed with people, many of them bare-headed and bare-footed
women, who pressed close in the hope of touching his hand, or hearing
one of his kindly and humorous greetings. It was the same in the streets
all the way from the docks to the centre of the city, and out through
the working-class district of Ballymacarret to the country beyond, and
in every hamlet on the road to Newtownards and Mount Stewart--people
congregating to give him a cheer as he passed in Lord Londonderry's
motor-car, or pausing in their work on the land to wave a greeting from
fields bordering the road.
Radical newspapers in England believed--or at any rate tried to make
their readers believe--that the "Northcliffe Press," particularly _The
Times_ and _Daily Mail_, gave an exaggerated account of these
extraordinary demonstrations of welcome to Carson, and of the
impressiveness of the great meetings which he addressed. But the
accounts in Lord Northcliffe's papers did not differ materially from
those in other journals like _The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Express,
The Standard, The Morning Post, The Observer, The Scotsman_, and _The
Spectator_. There was no exaggeration. The special correspondents gave
faithful accounts of what they saw and heard, and no more. Editorial
support was a different matter. Lord Northcliffe's papers were unfailing
in their support of the Ulster cause, as were many other great British
journals; and even when at a later period Lord Northcliffe's attitude on
the general question of Irish government underwent a change that was
profoundly disappointing to Ulstermen, his papers never countenanced the
idea of applying coercion to Ulster. In the years 1911 to 1914 _The
Times_ remained true to the tradition started by John Walter, who,
himself a Liberal, went personally to Belfast in 1886 to inform himself
on the question, then for the first time raised by Gladstone; and,
having done so, supported the loyalist cause in Ireland till his death.
A series of weighty articles in 1913 and 1914 approved and encouraged
the resistance threatened by Ulster to Home Rule, and justified the
measures taken in preparation for it. Whatever may have been the reason
for a different attitude at a later date, Ulster owed a debt of
gratitude to _The Times_ in those troubled years.
The long-expected crisis appeared to be very close when Carson arrived
in Belfast on the 10th of July, 1914. He had come to attend a meeting of
the Ulster Unionist Council--sitting for the first time as the
Provisional Government. Craig communicated to the Press the previous day
the Preamble and some of the articles of the Constitution of the
Provisional Government, hitherto kept strictly secret, one article being
that the administration would be taken over "in trust for the
Constitution of the United Kingdom," and that "upon the restoration of
direct Imperial Government, the Provisional Government shall cease to
exist."
At this session on the 10th, the proceedings of which were private,
Carson explained the extreme gravity of the situation now reached. The
Home Rule Bill would become law probably in a few weeks. It was pretty
certain that the Nationalists would not permit the Government to accept
the Amending Bill in the altered form in which it had left the Upper
House. In that case, nothing remained for them in Ulster but to carry
out the policy they had resolved upon long ago, and to make good the
Covenant. After his forty minutes' speech a quiet and business-like
discussion followed. Plenary authority to take any action necessary in
emergency was conferred unanimously on the executive. The course to be
followed in assuming the administration was explained and agreed to, and
when they separated all the members felt that the crisis for which they
had been preparing so long had at last come upon them. There was no
flinching.
Next day there was a parade of 3,000 U.V.F. at Larne. A distinguished
American who was present said after the march past, "You could destroy
these Volunteers, but you could not conquer them." Carson spoke with
exceptional solemnity to the men, telling them candidly that, "unless
something happens the evidence of which is not visible at present," he
could discern nothing but darkness ahead, and no hope of peace. He ended
by exhorting his followers throughout Ulster to preserve their
self-control and to "commit no act against any individual or against any
man's property which would sully the great name you have already won."
As usual, his influence was powerful enough to prevent disturbance. The
Government had made extensive military preparations to maintain order on
the 12th of July; but, as a well-known "character" in Belfast expressed
it, "Sir Edward was worth twenty battalions in keeping order." The
anniversary was celebrated everywhere by enormous masses of men in a
state of tense excitement. Lord Londonderry addressed an immense
gathering at Enniskillen; seventy thousand Orangemen marched from
Belfast to Drumbeg to hear Carson, who sounded the same warning note as
at Larne two days before. But nowhere throughout the Province was a
single occurrence reported that called for action by the police.
When the Ulster leaders returned to London on the 14th they were met by
reports of differences in the Cabinet over the Amending Bill, which was
to be brought before the House of Commons on the following Monday.
Nationalist pressure no doubt dictated the deletion of the amendments
made by the Peers and the restoration of the Bill to its original shape.
A minority of the Cabinet was said to be opposed to this course. Whether
that was true or false, the Prime Minister must by this time have
realised that he had allowed the country to drift to the brink of civil
war, and that some genuine effort must be made to arrive at a peaceable
solution.
Accordingly on Monday, the 20th, instead of introducing the Amending
Bill, Mr. Asquith announced in the House of Commons that His Majesty the
King, "in view of the grave situation which has arisen, has thought it
right to summon representatives of parties, both British and Irish, to a
conference at Buckingham Palace, with the object of discussing
outstanding issues in relation to the problem of Irish Government." The
Prime Minister added that at the King's suggestion the Speaker, Mr.
James Lowther, would preside over the Conference, which would begin its
proceedings the following day.
The Liberals, the British Unionists, the Nationalists, and the Ulstermen
were respectively represented at the Buckingham Palace Conference by Mr.
Asquith and Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Bonar Law, Mr.
Redmond and Mr. Dillon, Sir Edward Carson and Captain James Craig. The
King opened the Conference in person on the 21st with a speech
recognising the extreme gravity of the situation, and making an
impressive appeal for a peaceful settlement of the question at issue.
His Majesty then withdrew. The Conference deliberated for four days, but
were unable to agree as to what area in Ulster should be excluded from
the jurisdiction of the Parliament in Dublin. On the 24th Mr. Asquith
announced the breakdown of the Conference, and said that in consequence
the Amending Bill would be introduced in the House of Commons on
Thursday, the 30th of July.
Here was the old deadlock. The last glimmer of hope that civil war might
be averted seemed to be extinguished. Only ten days had elapsed since
Carson had gloomily predicted at Larne that peace was impossible "unless
something happens, the evidence of which is not visible at present." But
that "something" did happen--though it was something infinitely more
dreadful, infinitely more devastating in its consequences, even though
less dishonouring to the nation, than the alternative from which it
saved us. Balanced, as it seemed, on the brink of civil war, Great
Britain and Ireland together toppled over on the other side into the
maelstrom of world-wide war.
On the 30th of July, when the Amending Bill was to be discussed, the
Prime Minister said that, with the concurrence of Mr. Bonar Law and Sir
Edward Carson, it would be indefinitely postponed, in order that the
country at this grave crisis in the history of the world "should present
a united front and be able to speak and act with the authority of an
undivided nation." To achieve this, all domestic quarrels must be laid
aside, and he promised that "no business of a controversial character"
would be undertaken.
Thus it happened that the Amending Bill was never seen by the House of
Commons. Four days later the United Kingdom was at war with the greatest
military Empire in the world. The opportunity had come for Ulster to
prove whether her cherished loyalty was a reality or a sham.
FOOTNOTES:
[88] _Annual Register_, 1914, p. 110.
[89] _Annual Register_, 1914, p. 114.