called upon to redeem it. I have faith, and I think you too can trust to the sense of justice and fair play of your countrymen who will decide, and who have never been against you. [Hear, hear.] It has been said of you men of Ulster, that you are narrow, intolerant bigots. Those who make that charge do not understand you, for they do not know what earnest conviction, what unselfish devotion to a great principle, means. [Hear, hear.] I remember that I said at Balmoral, and you cheered it—and the same thing has been said again and again by your own leader—that you have no ill-will to your Catholic fellow-countrymen. [Hear, hear.] You wish to have them not as enemies, but as friends. [Cheers.] We have heard a good deal—we shall hear more—about the recent meeting in Dublin. [Laughter.] People talk as if it were a victory over you. What nonsense! We are glad if it is true that our Nationalist fellow-countrymen are to a greater extent than before sharing the sympathies which are animating the whole Empire. We are glad of it, but that can never be a reason why you should be deprived of your just rights, for no man and no nation—though I think the Government has forgotten it—can ever be justified in betraying old in order to make new friends. [Cheers.]
Gentlemen, after this war is over, in which men of every class and every race and of every creed throughout the Empire are playing their part, the position will not be the same, and it will not be worse for you. [Cheers.] When we have succeeded—and we shall succeed—[cheers]—in preserving the rights and the liberties of Europe, your rights and your liberties will be respected too—[cheers]—and I am sure of this, that after the sacrifices which you are making, your fellow-countrymen will not tolerate that you should ever again be called upon to defend by force your right—your elementary right—to a full and equal partnership in that United Kingdom which now, as always, you have done so much to strengthen and to defend. [Cheers.]
But, gentlemen, this is not a Home Rule meeting. That can wait, and you are strong enough to let it wait with quiet confidence. This meeting is called to stimulate, though no stimulus is necessary, the men of Ulster to play their part in this world struggle. And in this connection there are two observations which I should like to make at the outset. For a time there were complaints that our people were hanging back. These complaints were never, I think, justified. The
