Mr. Churchill's explicit declaration, prompted by the representations of a
delegation of Irish Nationalist Members, elicited a manifesto from the United Irish League of Great Britain signed by Mr. John Redmond and Mr. T. P. O'Connor. The manifesto states that after careful consideration of Mr. Churchill's speech on Home-rule, the Standing Committee of the United Irish League are of opinion that the object they had in view has been sub- stantially gained, "as we have elicited a declaration, on the authority of the Prime Minister, that Home-rule in the sense of Mr. Redmond's resolution will be put by the Government before the electors at the General Election." In view of this "authoritative declaration," and the fact that Mr. Churchill's "personal pledges are on the whole satisfactory," the League calls upon Irish Nationalists to vote for him. In spite of this official endorsement of Mr. Churchill's candidature, it is clear that the Irish vote in Manchester has been split, as the Catholic Federation issued a manifesto signed by the Bishop of Salford calling on the Catholic electorate to vote for Mr. Joynson-Hicks, and the great majority of the Catholics in North-West Manchester are Irish. The decision of the United Irish League is undoubtedly a serious blow to the prestige of Mr. Redmond, who is now appealing to the Irish- men in Manchester to do what he said only last week was impossible to demand of them. At the same time, taken in connexion with Mr. Lloyd George's confident prediction about old-age pensions, it can hardly have failed to swell the list of Unionist Free-trade abstentions.
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