[Cheers.] It must also be remembered that Ireland is purely an agricultural country, and at present there is a great dearth of agricultural labour in many parts. There are few great centres of population after Dublin and Belfast, and yet in spite of these facts Ireland's contribution to the army has been of a truly remarkable kind. [Cheers.] The Irish Government have given me some figures which they have laboriously collected from every parish in Ireland with reference to enlistments. These figures show that up to February 15 there were Irishmen from Ireland with the colours to the number of 99,704. [Cheers.] Recruiting is going on at the present moment at the rate of about 4,000 a month. From December 15 to January 15 there were 3,858 recruits; from January 15 to February 15 there were 4,601 recruits. It has been stated that at the Grafton Street recruiting office in Dublin they are now getting over five times as many recruits as they got in August and September, and that the men are still coming in from all parts of the city and county of Dublin. There are so-called Unionists, so-called Nationalists, and—it is interesting to note—so-called Sin Feiners, [Laughter.] All young men now seem to be imbued with a new idea of their duties and responsibilities. There were with the colours on February 15, 20,210 men who had been actually enrolled and disciplined and drilled members of the Irish National Volunteers—[cheers],—and there were 22,970 Ulster Volunteers with the colours.
The volunteers presented one of the most extraordinary spectacles ever seen in the history of our country. There are to-day in Ireland two large bodies of volunteers. One is called the Ulster Volunteers, the other is called the National Volunteers. They are partially armed and partially drilled, but they are all filled with the true military sentiment and spirit. Fifty thousand of them have joined the army, and of the rest many are not of military age, are not physically fit, or are prevented from joining the army by just the same reasons as prevented thousands of men in this country. But these men are all quite capable of home defence. On August 3 in the House of Commons I told the Government that, for the first time in the history of the relations between England and Ireland, Ireland could be left safely to the defence of her own sons, and I appealed to the Government to allow the Irish to undertake that duty. At the same time I made an appeal to the Ulster Volunteers to join hands with the National
