The New York herald., 1921-12-15

the world, desirable to the interests OF
ireland itself that there should be limi-
tations imposed OIL raising armaments
and training armed men within those
boundaries. Now l come to the side that
think we ought not to have allowed any
armed forces at all.
"You cannot maintain a guaranty of
law and order In any country unless you
support the civilian forces with GER
tain number of armed men, We think
OF Ireland as country concerned merely
about nationalist questions, concerned
merely about these conflicts which have
been raging the last few years. But In
Belfast there were strikes some time ago
and a considerable number OF armed
men had TO be sent there TO maintain
peace. In Wales we had great strike
and the Government felt It necessary to
send n considerable number Of armed
men to maintain order and protect
property.
You cannot leave Government re-
sponsible for law and order unless you
also equip them with the rights to raise
a certain number of armed men to sup
port the civilian authorities. That Is
all that has been done If you take
the most sanguine view Of the number
they win not exceed 10000 men In the
whole of Ireland. That Is not an cx-
travagant figure for the maintenance OF
law and ORDER
Question of Enforcement.
Asked how he proposed to enforce
the limitations, Mr. Lloyd George said ::
THAT is only asking the question II the
treaty Is broken what shall we do?
am quite willing to face II, but 1t Is not
a question of one article only. 1t is a
question Of the whole articles. II Ire
land breaks the treaty. breaks her faith,
then a situation has arisen with which
the British Empire has been quite capa-
BILE of dealing in the past with much
more formidable opponents. But she
wants to be perfectly clear that when
she does SO deal with It that the re-
sponsibility is not hers, that the re-
sponsibility Is entirely on other shoul-
ders.
with regard to a navy, we felt that we
could not allow the ordinary working do
minion status to operate here. We had
experience In the late war which showed
how vital ireland was to the security
Of the country. refer to access to our
ports along the coast OF ireland. For
offence and defence ireland 10 the key
In many respects, although 1 agree that
ireland is never likely to raise great
and formidable navy which will chal-
lenge us. Mine layers and submarines
do not cost much and we are out of
trouble of the coast of ireland. The
freest access to the ports OF Ireland Is
vital. We could not leave that merely
to good win or to the Interpretation of
the vague position of q dominion.
Leave Nothing to Chance.
Good will has been planned, but II
must have time to grow. 1t must not
be exposed too much to the winds of
temptation. Therefore we felt that
where the security Of these islands was
concerned we could leave nothing to
chance.
MY right honorable friend CHerbert
Asquith) charged me with having
stigmatized dominion home rule as
lunacy. I never did. If he had taken
the trouble to read my speech before
criticislng 1t he would have seen that.
He said some rather unkind things
about me recently. think to force
him to read my speeches we're too Sc
we're penalty, therefore / am not CON-
planning.
What I did say was to allow Ireland
to raise unlimited forces which would
provoke civil war would menace us.
For Ireland to raise a navy when Ire
land Is SO vital TO our defence Is
lunacy."
Here the Prime Minister had a spirited
tilt with Mr.. Asquith, after which he
added: 'I think that II IL very I'm
portant that there should be protection
against any legislation which would
exclude British ships from the ports
of Ireland, and that we have inserted
in the agreement.
The Stains of UIIaf~r