Volunteers in this work. I wish to make no complaint, but I think it right to say that I have received no response to either appeal. The Prime Minister on August 10 said the Government were seriously considering how the volunteers could be ultilized, but that Lord Kitchener's first duty was to raise his new army. "Subject to that," Mr. Asquith said, "and concurrent with it, he will do everything in his power to arrange for the full equipment and organization of the Irish volunteers. Up to this time nothing has been done. Early in the war the Irish volunteers made an offer whereby 20,000 men could have been made available for home defence, so that not a single regular soldier need be detained from the front for that purpose. The offer has not been accepted. I have some reason to think that in military circles in Ireland there is a strong feeling that from a purely military point of view enlistment for home defence should be permitted; 20,000 men of Kitchener's army, who are supposed to be drilling and training for the front, are being wasted; by being engaged in defending various points on the coast, railways, bridges, and waterworks. The whole of these men could be set free, if Irishmen were allowed to take their places.
I have told you that Ireland has sent from Irish soil over 100,000 men to the colours. What about the Irish race in Great Britain and throughout the world? Some figures were recently published which showed that 115,000 recruits of Irish birth or descent had gone from Great Britain since the beginning of the war, and after making careful inquiries I am convinced that these figures err on the side of modesty. I have been told by responsible men in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, that an enormous proportion of the contingents sent by those countries to the army was made up of Irishmen. It is no exaggeration to say that at this moment the Irish race can number with the colours at least a quarter of a million sons.
There are some places in England where Irish recruits have been banded together in Irish brigades, and all that they do that is honourable and chivalrous will redound to the credit of Ireland. But I regret that the great bulk of the Irish recruits have been scattered among the English regiments, and to those Irishmen who are going to enlist I would like to make an appeal. There are in Ireland three divisions. One has been called the Ulster Division, and I am told it is very nearly full. Another, the 10th Division, is intended to be a purely Irish division, but some thousands of English recruits
