We desire to call the attention of our readers to
an admirable letter contributed by Mr. J. R. Fisher, of the Ulster Unionist Council, to the Northern Whig of May 24th. His letter is an answer to the Home Rule paper which declared that " Belfast and Ulster really must do more for the Army. The brutal truth is that at present they compare very badly, not only with Great Britain, • but with the so-called disloyal parts of Ireland in recruiting." Here are the facts :- " Command Paper 8,390, submitted to Parliament in 1916, shows that from the outbreak of war to 15th October, 1916, there had joined His Majesty's forces in Ireland 130,241 men. Of these 66,674 were from Ulster, leaving 63,567 for the rest of Ireland. Of Ulster's total Belfast contributed 38,543, or considerably more than half, and almost as many as the grand total for the three Southern provinces, exclusive of Dublin County and the County Borough of Dublin. The same document establishes that the six Unionist counties of Ulster contributed a combined total of over 62,000, which nearly equals the total for the entire three other provinces. The population of these six counties, including Belfast, is 1,250,531, and the population of Munster, Leinster, and Connaught is 2,808,523. The ratio of recruits in each instance speaks for itself. I may point out that the figures credited to Belfast do not include the auxiliaries of the Ulster Division, nor do they include officers. These substantially exceeded 2,000, making Belfast's real total at that rate over 40,000 men. Belfast is a city of 400,000 people, and more than one in each ten of its population was in the Army by October, 1918. Contributing in the same degree, Ireland's total of recruits should have been 412,000, whereas it was 280,000 below that figure. From the date of the National Register to 15th October, 1916, It is shown that 14,922 men joined the army in Ireland, and of these Belfast is credited with 9,248, leaving 5,674 as the contri- bution for the rest of Ireland in the same period. What has been described as a ' brutal truth' is, therefore, a brutal lie."
