Conscription to become law in Britain
London, 11 January 1916 - The second reading of the Compulsory Service Bill enjoyed a huge majority in the House of Commons today.
The Irish Parliamentary Party withdrew all its opposition to the bill as it only applied to Britain. Speaking in the House of Commons, party leader John Redmond said, ‘Our position is that, having recognised that this bill has the approval of an overwhelming majority… we will do nothing to weaken the hands of the government, and will cast no further vote in any shape or form against the bill'.
The remaining opposition to the measure came from a divided Labour Party. A National Conference of the Labour Party last week passed as resolution against the Government’s proposals by a majority of over two million votes.
When the tallies were counted at the end of the debate in parliament, 39 Labour members voted to oppose the bill but the motion was so popular among the other parties that it was passed with a majority of 392.
Ireland
Sir Edward Carson said he regretted that Mr. Redmond would not
support the inclusion of Ireland in the bill. He said:
‘When the hour of victory came, we who are
Irishmen would feel ashamed
to remember when we asked others to make sacrifices from which we
profited by our own exclusion.’
Walter Long, on behalf of the government, said that Ireland had been excluded because they thought it would facilitate the passage of the bill and lead to it being supported by a large majority.
Augustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, said he thought that Ireland had done wonderfully well in terms of recruitment, but warned: ‘Don’t rush her!’
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
