Asquith visits Buckingham Palace as Home Rule crisis deepens
Carson leaves London for Belfast
The Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, visited Buckingham Palace yesterday morning and spent 30 minutes with King George V.
The Prime Minister provided the King with an overview of where things stand as the crisis over Home Rule deepens. Rumours abounded at the London Stock Exchange that King George V had told the Prime Minister that he would not sign the Home Rule Bill into law.
Such is the swirl of intrigue that rumours also circulated that Sir Edward Carson and other leading Ulster Unionists were about to be arrested, with warrants already signed. This has yet to be confirmed.
Against this backdrop, Sir Edward returned to Belfast last night and is being joined there by all the prominent figures of Ulster Unionism.
The sense that the crisis is reaching a crescendo was underlined by the decision of those leaders to call up the reserve forces of the Ulster Volunteers. This group of men has passed severe physical and military tests and is considered to be the elite of the Volunteers.
Meanwhile, in the precincts of the House of Commons a sharp exchange of words between a nationalist and a unionist MP, which began in the chamber, developed into something more outside.
An invitation to ‘fight it out’ on the street was tendered and a number of MPs gathered as the dispute escalated. In the end, after a noisy exchange, no fight ensued. The disagreement arose during the debate that took place after the leader of the Conservative Party, Andrew Bonar Law, had tabled a Vote of Censure on the Government.
In the course of that debate, which was extremely fractious, Mr. Bonar Law said: ‘We, all of us on this side of the house, are opposed entirely to Home Rule in any form.’
He continued: ‘What about the army? If it is only a question of disorder, the army will and ought to obey, but if it is a question of civil war, the soldiers are citizens like the rest of the people. The army will be divided, and that force be destroyed on which we depend for our national safety.’
In his speech, Sir Edward Carson referred to the possibility of the government using the army in Ulster to quell opposition to Home Rule: ‘Having been all this time a Government of cowards, they are now going to entrench themselves behind His Majesty’s troops.’
The Vote of Censure was eventually rejected by 345 votes to 252.
