1 Bangor, 15th May, 1916. Dear Sir, The apparent presumption in our addressing you
directly is lessened by the fact that we believe the Ulster
Volunteers generally are interested in the subject matter
of this letter in the same manner as ourselves. When the present war broke out Ulster Unionists had
been for some time the victims of the most lying slanders
from the Radical Press the mouthpiece of the Government and
also from members of the Government itself which had even
gone so far as to use His Majesty's Ships and Soldiers in an
attempt to terrorise us. The Home Rule Bill, to resist
which we had banded ourselves together, had been made an Act
of Parliament,notwithstanding all our protests,and if there
a section of the people in the Empire who were entitled
to hold aloof - as our adversaries were wont to do, and took
no little credit for it, before they were paid their price
for coming in or pretending to come into the Empire with the
rest - it was Ulster Unionists. You, however, gave the lead of the Empire first and
that all the above considerations should be subordinated to
this supreme interest, and your lead was followed, with the
result that there are now thousands of our fellow volunteers
with the colours, while other assistance given by Unionist
Ulster ranks first in this Country. There have been some very disquieting rumours of
late especially since the Nationalist Rebellion - as we
prefer to call it, for we all know perfectly well that the
present so called Sinn Feiners are nothing more than Mr.
Redmond's former followers who refused to put on the loyal
mask along with him when he had got his Home Rule Bill - the
more important of which is that some sort of negotiations 2
are going on with the object of setting up immediately a Home
Rule Parliament. This may be and probably is untrue but it opens up a
possibility as to which the Ulster Volunteers are much concern-
ed and they are anxious to know exactly to what extent they
are going to be lead on this principle of the Empire first.
Their loyalty has already been strained very considerably in
the circumstances above mentioned and the question they are
asking themselves is whether it is going to be strained
further, and is the good of the Empire to be again pleaded for
the purpose of inducing them to make further sacrifices in
the shape of surrendering principles,which are part of them-
selves, tearing up their convenants, and submitting to a Home
Rule Parliament without demur. In other words we are anxious to know the entire
length to which our Leaders would have us go in the interests
of the Empire, so that we can consider the matter carefully
and make up our minds whether we are prepared to be led to
such a length or not. We would like if you would kindly agree to the
publication of this correspondence as being the easiest
way of informing our fellow Volunteers of it, but of course
we will not publish it unless you wis. We enclose the card of one of the signatories to
whom the favour of your reply may be sent,and we would be
glad if your reply would comprise a statement of your
opinion as to the real nature of what we have called the
Nationalist Rebellion. We are concerned in a remark made
by you in the House from which it might be inferred that
you were under the impression the Rebellion was entirely
outside the Nationalist movement and could not be traced 3
to it in any way. We are, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully. Jos. C, Stuart 1st Batt. Down U.V.F.
Jos. Templeton 1st Batt Down U.V.F.
Stirling Lent
1st Battin Nth Down Regt
VVF The Right.Hon.Sir Edward Carson,K.C. M.P.
House of Commons,
Westminster,
London,W.