unobserved by the British public; and, when
the explosion which they have provoked occurs, they will endeavour to
delude the British public as to where the responsibility lies. I write
in the hope that, despite war-fever, there may be enough sanity and
common sense left to restrain the militarists while there is yet time.

"I will not take up your space by recounting the events that have led up
to the present situation--the two years' immunity accorded to Sir Edward
Carson's Volunteers in their defiant illegalities, the systematic
persecution of the Irish Volunteers _from the moment of their formation_
(_nine months before the war_), the militarist provocations, raids on
printing offices, arbitrary deportations, and savage sentences which
have punctuated Mr. Redmond's recruiting appeals for the past eighteen
months. As a result of this recent series of events, Irish Nationalist
and Labour opinion is now in a state of extreme exasperation. Recruiting
for the British Army is dead; recruiting for the Irish Volunteers has,
for the moment, almost reached the mark of one thousand per week--which
is Lord Wimborne's demand for the British Army. A special stimulus has
been given to the Irish Volunteer movement by the arrest and threatened
forcible deportation (at the moment of writing it is still uncertain
whether the threat will be carried out) of two of its most active
organizers.

"There are two distinct danger-points in the position. In the first
place, the Irish Volunteers are prepared, if any attempt is made
forcibly to disarm them, to resist, and to defend their rifles with
their lives. In the second place, the Irish Citizen Army (the Labour
Volunteers) are prepared to offer similar resistance, not only to
disarmament, but to any attack upon the Press which turns out the
_Workers' Republic_--successor to the suppressed _Irish Worker_--which
is printed in Liberty Hall.

"There is no bluff in either case. That was shown (1) in Tullamore on
March 20th, when an attempt at disarming the small local corps of Irish
Volunteers was met with revolver shots and a policeman was
wounded--fortunately not seriously; (2) in Dublin, on March 24th and
following days, when, at the rumour of an intended raid on the _Workers'
Republic_, the Irish Citizen Army stood guard night and day in Liberty
Hall--many of them having thrown up their jobs to answer promptly the
mobilization order--armed and prepared to sell their lives dearly. The
Brit