Mr. Birrell's evidence leaves us amazed that any rational person
mould have expected that such half-hearted and colourless methods ma were used in Ireland would end in anything but disaster. We have ma desire to write vindictively of a fallen Minister, but it is a duty to point out that his was an example which must never be imitated. No doubt he asked for troops to overawe sedition, but he asked in so halting and tentative a manner that the Adjutant-General is actually of opinion that no such request was ever made ! Of course, what Mr. Birrell should have done was to insist on having the troops if he believed, as he tells us he did, that they were necessary. If, when he had made his meaning clear, his request was refused, he ought to have resigned. He was the representative of Ireland in the Cabinet, yet he acted in a perfectly detached way. It is ridiculous cant to talk of the failure of " Dublin Castle " when it is managed on such lines as those. The fact is that for years the system of governing Ireland which is supposed to hold the field has not been put into operation. It cannot therefore have " failed."
Previous page
