1 To HIS EXCELLENCY Field Marshal Sir JOHN DENTON PINKSTONE FRENCH,
Viscount of YPRES and HIGH LAKE, LORD LIEUTENANT GENERAL and
GENERAL GOVERNOR OF IRELAND, May it please Your Excellency We, the President and Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians
of Ireland, desire to approach Your Excellency upon your arrival
in this country as Representative of His Most Gracious Majesty the
King, which a cordial welcome and an expression of our devoted
attachment to the Throne and Empire. At this moment when the forces of our King, drawn from all parts
of his Empire, are engaged in a deadly struggle with our common
foe for the defence of our homes and our liberty, we welcome the
opportunity of expressing to you our unwavering attachment to the
Empire and our confidence in the ultimate triumph of the cause
for which our people and our allies are fighting. In this great cause the Fellows, Members and Licentiates of this
College are willingly taking their part both at home and abroad,
endeavouring as far as in them lies, to bring health and healing
to those, who have suffered, and to ward off those attacks of
which have so often proved the most dangerous enemies of
in the field. A considerable number of the Fellows and
Members of the College are serving with His Majesty's forces, and
of those who have obtained the License of the College since the
outbreak of the war some ninety per cent., have entered either the
Naval or Military service. In lending this common danger the President
and Fellows are merely carrying on the great tradi-
tion of their College handed down to them by their predecessors
since its foundation by King Charles the second. We dessine to assure Your Excellency of our readiness to afford to
His Majesty and to His Government our hearty assistance in this
time of the Empire's peril, and to express again our loyalty to
His Throne.