11 APRIL 1914, Page 1

The Morning Post says, very properly : "If this story

is true everything is explained ; and if it is false nothing is explained." Why, if precautionary measures only were intended, was it necessary to give orders to eight Generals commanding a force of cavalry, artillery, and all the com- ponent parts of an organized field force P We do not desire to argue that the Government deliberately wished to provoke Ulster. What fits the facts quite as well, and what is much more probable, is that they suddenly came to the conclusion that, since the Nationalists would not allow them to carry through their policy of Exclusion, and thus avoid civil war, they would have to rely upon coercion.