Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916 Letters 1916-1923 John Strachey

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Letter from John St Loe Strachey (1860-1927) to Edward Carson (1854-1935). Carson was a prominent Unionist Politician. Originally a practicing solicitor from Dublin, Carson's opposition to the proposed third Home Rule bill made him the figure head of Unionism throughout the island. He was the centerpiece of the speaking tour that culminated in Ulster Day (28 September 1912), when just under half a million signed Ulster's solemn league and covenant pledging to use ‘all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a home rule parliament in Dublin’. Carson inaugurated the Larne gunrunning in 1914 which armed the UVF, many of whom Carson would encourage to join the British Army throughout the First World War.. Strachey was a British journalist and newspaper proprietor.

 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Carson Papers, D1507/A/19/5 https://letters1916.ie/item/4369 English John Strachey 1916-10-07 Newlands Corner, Merrow Downs, Guileford, England Edward Carson 5 Eaton Place, S.W., London, England Male 1927 Politics

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 PAGE 1 OF 3 NEWLANDS CORNER, MERROW DOWNS, GUILFORD. Private & Confidental. Saturday, October 7th, 1916. My dear Sir Edward, I want, if you will kindly give it to me, your direction and advice on a matter which I think is if some moment. Last week when dealing in 2The Spectator" with the proposed appli- cation of compulsory service of making the following suggestion. " Why should not the six county area, which has again and again proved its Imperial spirit, in- struct you Sir Edward Carson as its spokeman in Parliament, to tell the House of Commons that it desires to be placed under the Compulsory Service Act, and that is would rrgard it, not as a burden, but as a privilege to be allowed to di its full share in the work of guarding the Empire and the mother country? The fact that they have urged and victoriously maintained the claim to remain a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, even if the rest of Ireland secedes from the Union , and occupies a position of politi- cal isolation, makes it imperative upon them to demand that the homogeneous area of the six counties, recodnised in the negotaitions PAGE 2 OF 3 with Mr. Lloyd George, shall stand side by side with the rest of the United Kingdom. Whether it would be practical to carry out the applications of complsion to the six county area, I don;t know; but I feel quite sure that the demand would not merely greatly em- barrass the Nationalist politicans, who are now making so miserable a show, but would also immensly strengthe the position of the men of North East Ulster. Such an offer as I have sketched would, it seems to me, make it impossible for all time forany statemen to dare to go back upon the exclusion of the sic county area. It would in fact do what for the last five years I have been seeking to do, that is, to build up the idea of an invioate able area -an area with an inde- feasible right to remain in the Union, and incorporate under the Parliament of Westminister with the rest of the United Kingdom, un- less and until that area voluntarily expresses its wish to leave the Union. Your negotiations with Lloyd George practically achieved this; but an offer of the king i we suggest your making on the floor of the House of Commons would put it beyond all possible shadow of a doubt. But though I cannot myslef are any objection to my saying this is "The Spectator", I feel that there may be objections which are hidden from me, and that in some way or other which I don't Page 3 of 3 perceive the proposal in "The Spectator" might prove embarrassasing to you. In that case of course I should not dream of making it. You have, I feel, a complete right of vote in a matter of this kind, and I should not presume to question that veto. At the same time I can see, even if you did not think it advisable for you to raise the matter in Parliament, there might be no harm in having the sugges- tion ventilated in the press. In view of these circumstances, would you be so very kind as to let me have a line to say whether or not you forbid the banns? If you do, I will not write. If on the other hand you say you have no objection, I shall probably write on the subject next week. I should like to know not later than by the first post on Wednesday, at the Spencer Office, 1 Wellington Street, Strand, W.C. If I hear nothing, I shall assume that you have at any rate no objection to my writing what I like on the matter. Yours very sincerely, John Strachey The Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Carson, K.C., M.P., 5 Eaton Place, S.W. PS. Of course I write I shall meet the point that it would not be safe to disman the six county area while faithless & Disloyal Ireland retained all her men. If the compulsory service was "by request" applied to N.E. Ulster the Government must give a special pledge to afford the amplest military protection to that part of Ireland which was willing to fight for the Union of the Empire. John Strachey Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 27 July 1916Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916 Edward Carson Letter from David Lloyd George to Edward Carson, 29 May 1916Letter from Sir Dawson Bates to Edward Carson, 2 December 1915Letter from William Robert Young to Edward Carson, 9 July 1916Letter from Alexander McDowell to Edward Carson, 20 July 1916Letter from Hugh de Fellenerg Montgomery to Edward Carson, 31 May 1916Letter from Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery to Edward Carson, 9 June 1916Letter from Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery to Edward Carson, 9 June 1916Letter from Frederick Hugh Crawford to Edward Carson, 8 March 1916Letter from Edward Carson to Thomas McGregor Greer, 12 July 1916Letter from Sir Edward Carson to Sir Robert Ponsonby Staples, 10 December 1915Letter to Edward Carson, 19 November 1915Letter from William R. Young to Edward Carson, 2 November 1915Letter from J.M. Wilson to Edward Carson, 3 November 1915Letter from Turner Oliver Read to Edward Carson, 12 November 1915Letter from William R. Young to Edward Carson, 12 November 1915Letter from Harold Tennant to Edward Carson, 17 November 1915Letter from Henry Mulholland to Pembroke Wicks, circa November 1915Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Edward Carson, 25 November 1915Letter Wilfrid Spender to Edward Carson, 3 December 1915Letter to Edward Carson, 4 December 1915Letter from Robert Thompson to Edward Carson, 18 December 1915Letter from W.T. Bailey to Edward Carson, 22 December 1915Letter from General Nevil Macready to Edward Carson, 1 May 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 2 May 1916Letter from Horace Plunkett to Edward Carson, 4 May 1916Postcard to Edward Carson, 4 May 1916Letter from D.P. Barton to Edward Carson, 5 May 1916Letter from Edward Carson to Herbert Asquith, 9 May 1916Letter from Herbert Asquith to Edward Carson, 10 May 1916Copy of a letter from John Crozier to Edward Carson, 9 May 1916Letter from J.M. Wilson to Edward Carson, 11 May 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 15 May 1916Letter from David Lloyd George to Edward Carson, 3 June 1916Letter from G.L. Moore to Edward Carson, 6 June 1916Letter from sir William Robert Robertson to Edward Carson, 7 June 1916Letter from Nevil Macready to Edward Carson, 8 June 1916Letter from Arthur Warren Samuels to Edward Carson, 14 June 1916Letter from Frederick Stringer Wrench to Edward Carson, 15 June 1916Letter from Somerset Francis Saunderson to Edward Carson, 15 June 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 17 June 1916Letter from Somerset Francis Saunderson to Edward Carson, 17 June 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 21 June 1916Letter from Ronald McNeill to Edward Carson, 22 June 1916Letter from John Crozier to Edward Carson, 26 June 1916Letter from Charles F. Down to Edward Carson, 28 June 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 29 June 1916Letter from Archibald Salvidge to Edward Carson, 30 June 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 1 July 1916Letter from Charles Clements to Edward Carson, 3 July 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 5 July 1916Letter from Horace Plunkett to Edward Carson, 5 July 1916Letter from Charles F Down to Edward Carson, 8 June 1916Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 13 July 1916Letter from William Martin to Edward Carson, 13 July 1916Letter from Travers R. Blackley to Edward Carson, 11 July 1916Letter from Travers R. Blackley to Edward Carson, 13 July 1916Letter from Pembroke Wicks to Edward Carson, 14 July 1916Letter from Somerset Francis Saunderson to Edward Carson, 15 July 1916Letter from Edward Carson to William Martin, 17 July 1916Letter from Herbert Samuel to Edward Carson, 21 July 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 21 July 1916Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 27 July 1916Letter from Alexander McDowell to Edward Carson, 5 October 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916Letter from Sharman D Neill to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916Letter from Rosalind Hamilton to Edward Carson, 10 October 1916Letter to Edward Carson, 14 October 1916Letter from David Lloyd George to Edward Carson, 14 October 1916Letter from J. Beatty to Edward Carson, 16 October 1916Letter from Edward Carson to Richard Dawson Bates, 21 April 1919 Newlands Corner, Merrow Downs, Guileford, England Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916 5 Eaton Place, S.W., London, England Letter from Pembroke Wicks to Edward Carson, 14 July 1916Letter from John Strachey to Edward Carson, 7 October 1916