ULSTER ON THE SOMME.
[To =a EDITOR OP TEE " SPECTATOR."' Sus—On reading Mr. Boas's poem on the Ulster Division in your issue of October 14th it occurred to me that two stanzas might well be interpolated in order to complete the record in verse of the battalions which constitute that division. I feel sure that, should you insert the following stanzas, suggested for interpola- tion after Mr. Boas's third stanza, he will pardon me for making the suggestion, seeing that it is important that it should be kept before the minds of your readers that there are some men in the Ulster Division who, through the consent of the delegates from their counties, asked for and given with sadness, but all in response to a believed Imperial necessity, were for a time in danger of finding, on their return home, that they were no longer Ulstermen. The following stanzas may serve, too; as a foil to Mr. Boas's inspiring and inspired lines:—
From broad Tyrone's rich countryside,' From Patrick's holy watt From fair Fermanagh, in their pride,: They speed the foe to meet.
From Derry's sacred girth of wall,§ Where Freedom's cause was won, From cliff-girt vales of Donegal,: They charge to crush the Hun.
The Belfast and other Antrim and Down Volunteers in the divi- sion form eight battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles. It is earnestly to be hoped that the splendid doings of the Ulster and other Irish Divisions (10th and 16th) may stir up men throughout Ireland to come forward and fill their ranks. Why is the stigma of exclusion from the operation of the Military Service Acts left upon our
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