only be properly investigated by the House of
Commons itself, and that a day would be given for a vote of censure if
the leader of the Opposition meant that he could not trust the word of
Ministers of the Crown. Mr. Bonar Law sharply retorted that he "had
already accused the Prime Minister of making a statement which was
false."[80] But even this did not suffice to drive the Government to
face the ordeal of having their own account of the affair at the Curragh
sifted by the sworn evidence of others who knew the facts. They
preferred to take cover under the dutiful cheers of their parliamentary
majority when they repeated their explanations, which had already been
proved to be untrue.

But the Ulster Unionist Council had, meantime, been making inquiries on
their own account. There was nothing in the least improper, although the
supporters of the Government tried to make out that there was, in the
officers at the Curragh revealing what the Commander-in-Chief had said
to them, so long as they did not communicate anything to the Press. They
were not, and could not be, pledged to secrecy. It thus happened that it
was possible for the Old Town Hall in Belfast to put together a more
complete account of the whole affair than it suited the Government to
reveal to Parliament. On the 17th of April the Standing Committee issued
to the Press a statement giving the main additional facts which a sworn
inquiry would have elicited. It bore the signatures of Lord Londonderry
and Sir Edward Carson, and there can have been few foolhardy enough to
suggest that these were men who would be likely to take such a step
without first satisfying themselves as to the trustworthiness of the
evidence, a point on which the judgment of one of them at all events was
admittedly unrivalled.

From this statement it appeared that Sir Arthur Paget, so far from
indicating that mere "precautionary measures" for the protection of
Government stores were in contemplation, told his generals that
preparations had been made for the employment of some 25,000 troops in
Ulster, in conjunction with naval operations. The gravity of the plan
was revealed by the General's use of the words "battles" and "the
enemy," and his statement that he would himself be "in the firing line"
at the first "battle." He said that, when some casualties had been
suffered by the troops, he intended to approach "the enemy" with a flag
of truce and demand their surrender, and if this should b