AN ADDRESS BY SIR ROBERT BAIRD.
SIR ROBERT was received with applause and said: Coming as I do from North Ireland, the last colony of the British Nation, you may desire to hear something about that part of the world. At last we have got peace in the North of Ireland. We have only got control of our police since the first of June this year, and in a month we had those who were guilty of causing disorder under control. During the past few years we have been under a very deep cloud, and the period of transition from the formation of the Northern Government of Ireland in June, 1921, until the time I mentioned, gave no opportunity for the Northern Government to have the full power to do as it desired.
The position was that the British Government said to the Royal Irish Constabulary–a very loyal and well-trained force that was established over a hundred years ago, only men of the highest character being allowed in its ranks,–"You must either join the Northern Government or the Southern Government, and if you do not do so you can retire, and we will add twelve years to your service, so that you will retire with a pension of twelve years more than you have served."
The police, like any other body, were out to make as good a bargain as they could, and they endeavoured to obtain from the British Government their retiring allowance with twelve years’ pension added, and to re-enlist with the new government. The British Government said, "No, if you go to the new
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Sir Robert Baird, K.B.E., Managing Director Belfast Telegraph, a widely known journalist, Irish representative Admiralty, War Office, and Press Committee since its formation, 1910.
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service you will lose your pension." Then twelve months passed before those police were disbanded. First they were to leave the service entirely last year; then on December 31st, 1921; and that period has been extended to May 31, 1922. During that time we had a dual police–the new men and the old. The old men, knowing that they were to retire, were not anxious to keep law and order, and you could not blame them; they were not inclined to go into the streets or country places and run the risk of being shot.
To show you how bad things were in the North of Ireland during that period, in one month alone no less than ninety people were shot dead, and others injured on the main streets of Belfast, many of them women, and many while on their way to places of worship. In Belfast and other parts of Ireland we were flooded with rebels from the south of Ireland-men who had never worked in the north of Ireland, but who came there with their guns and ammunition to destroy everything that belonged to the population of the Loyalists. As recently as May of this year they burnt down in one part of the city of Belfast one hundred and forty-two warehouses; but since the first of June, when we got control of our police, we have been able to put a stop to all that.
During the Great War conscription did not apply to Ireland, but notwithstanding that, something like seventy thousand men of Ulster joined the colours; and in the town of Blarigan, a manufacturing town about twenty miles from Belfast, containing ten thousand population, a larger number of men went from that town than from any other part of the three Kingdoms, though conscription existed in Great Britain, and notwithstanding that during that period the ship yards had to be maintained and were busier than ever. In Belfast during the war there was probably more repairing and building of war ships than in any other city in the United Kingdom, as Belfast is in a land-locked bay surrounded by Scotland, England and the Isle of Man. You can understand it was impossible to repair ships with any safety in the big shipyards on the east coast of England. That work brought an enormous number of people to Belfast from adjoining counties–people that were of a different political persuasion from those who went to the war.
At the election immediately after the war it was found that in the city of Londonderry there was a small Nationalist majority of one, while a Unionist majority had prevailed in the city corporation; but the men at the shipyards of Derry having good employment, particularly at Donegal and Sligo, expelled the workers, and when men returned from the war they could get no work, and those that were able to work were so exasperated to find their positions filled that they started a cry that was altogether without reason, namely, the expelling of the Catholic workers from the shipyards of Belfast, as a reprisal. This cry was made a great deal of in the propaganda. We have now got over that difficulty, and I believe that if the north of Ireland is allowed by the Government of England to remain as we are, we will go on and prosper. As a matter of fact, we have passed out first year and have a credit balance, and in that respect I think we are the only nation in the world to be in that fortunate position. (Applause)
Belfast for many years has had a lower rate of pauperism than any other town in the Three Kingdoms–lower than London, Glasgow, or Liverpool. The pauperism of Belfast has been 98 for every 10,000 of the population, whereas in Cork it runs to over 250, and the only town in Great Britain and Ireland that will compare with Belfast, that sometimes has a lower- rate of pauperism, is Bradford. Therefore, notwithstanding our seasonal trades, we are fortunately better off than any other town in the United Kingdom.
One of the greatest troubles in the south was that the Free State induced the British Government to withdraw their Royal Irish Constabulary without having anyone put in their places, and as a result, it was left in the hands of hooligans and those who were out for robbery, and politics was only a secondary consideration. Even now the Free State has not a proper police force. For instance, in Donegal and other towns they have what is termed a Civic Corps, that is, members of the population go out voluntarily in turn to try and keep the peace. You know what that would mean. Just imagine the great city of Toronto, if your police were disbanded today and you had to wait until you got another police force to take their place, particularly when you had dissension among the members of that force. That is the spectacle in Ireland at present. One brother is a member of the Free State army, and the other brother is a member of the regular army, and at present everything in the southwest of Ireland is in chaos, with the probable exception of Dublin and surroundings.
You will appreciate that notwithstanding what has occurred there is amongst the better class a love of law and order. No Judge of Assize has gone out in South Ireland since March, 1921; no court of any kind has been held, not even a police court, and yet the merchants all over Ireland are paying their just and lawful debts. (Applause) It is a thing that the nation should be proud of, that there should be no general attempt to evade the payment of just debts.
Notwithstanding all the disasters and all the trouble, financially, Ireland has had the time of its life. During the war it was the great feeder to the British nation, of cattle and all sorts of farm produce, and the farmers and small shop-keepers and labourers made piles of money. In the city of Belfast the linen was not required and could not be exported, but nearly all the cloth for the aeroplanes was made in Ulster, and the looms and spinning frames were kept busy working night and day, as also were the shipyards, and the result was that the savings in the banks were greater than ever before. In the country places, notwithstanding the depredations and lootings and burnings of houses–all to be deprecated–the farmer managed his business, and some of those depredations I referred to were committed on Saturday evenings, and largely as a holiday pastime. (Laughter) The harvests this year are abnormal, and everything of this character is very satisfactory. All we want now is peace and time, and all those who have any stock in the country, no matter what their creeds or politics, or what part of Ireland they live in, are desirous of one thing, peace, and I am looking forward to the time when we will have peace and good-will in my native country. (Loud applause)
The President expressed the thanks of the Club to these gentlemen for their stirring addresses.
