[To ran Dorton or ran "Sractston."/ Sin,—Owing to the very
short time before the Home Rule Bill finally comes before the House, and owing to the continued apathy of the people across the Channel, may I make an appeal through your widely read columns to those who, when they read of the work that is being done in one small corner of Ulster, may perhaps realize how intensely we feel the injustice that is being done to the loyal minority in passing this Bill for the so-called better government of Ireland
this country town, eight miles from Belfast, we have the let Battalion of the South Antrim Regiment, whioh is twelve hundred strong; detachments of which have been drilling five nights in the week for the past eighteen months, and spent their Saturdays in practising field manceuvres. Ont of these twelve hundred, nine hundred and seventy-five have been passed as efficient in musketry and drill. We have a fully equipped Ambulance Corps and fifty women qualified in first-aid, as well as stretcher-bearers, thoroughly drilled by officers of the Army Medical Corps. A post-house with a staff of eight to deal with despatches brought by motor-cyclists from other post-houses throughout Ulster, and distributed locally by a corps of Cadets, renders us entirely independent of the Post Office. There is a signalling corps attached to the battalion consisting of about forty men. The organization is entirely voluntary, no pay- ment being made to any branch. Surely we have not perfected these arrangements if we do not intend to see the crisis through. I appeal to the loyalists of England and Scotland to help us to defeat the Bill and save 98 front the horrors which will undoubtedly follow the setting up of an Irish Parliament in Dublin.—I am, Sir, Sce.,
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