A letter from Sir Matthew Nathan (1862-1939) to Walter Edgeworth-Johnstone (1863–1937), the chief commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Force. The letter answers a series of questions posed by Robert Anderson, the secretary of the IIAVTC, in a previous letter concerning how many men would be required for each post, the length of time their service would be required, whether the men would be sworn in as special constables, if they would be provided with sticks and whistles, if they must wear a uniform and who the men would be answering to.Sir Matthew Nathan was the under-secretary for Ireland from 1914 to 1916. In 1916 Nathan offered his resignation following the outbreak of the Easter Rising. The IIAVTC were a corps consisting of men who were over age or engaged in important occupations and therefore could not enlist for wartime service when war broke out in 1914. This was a volunteering training militia that came to be known by the nickname 'Gorgeous Wrecks' due to the G.R. armbands they wore symbolising Georgius Rex. During the Rising, Edgeworth-Johnson withdrew his men from the streets after three were shot dead. In May 1916 he gave evidence to the royal commission of inquiry into the causes of the rebellion. The commission praised the conduct of the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police and noted that Edgeworth-Johnstone had given the government several warnings on which they could have acted before the Rising.