November 20 1923
THOUGH “nothing will be done in the matter of the Ulster boundary until after the election”, we are assured that “at the same time considerable anxiety is felt amongst politicians who are friends of the Six Counties over the question”.
This “anxiety”, it is hardly necessary to say, was discovered by the Northern Whig’s expert in revelations. He had a weird and disquieting tale to tell yesterday: -
“Some time during last week a Government Departmental Committee sat to discuss what steps should be taken in the future so far as it concerns the Imperial Government.”
No fault can be found with the Imperial Government for asking a Departmental Committee to discuss “what steps should be taken” regarding either the boundary question or “the future” – which of the two “concerns the Imperial Government” is left doubtful in the text – though Mr [Stanley] Baldwin and his colleagues are more concerned with the future than with the boundary for the passing time. But – and here are the terrible facts that causes “considerable anxiety” amongst “friends of the Six Counties”: -
“This committee’s activities were kept very strict – indeed, so much so that I understand even ministers who should have known about its existence were kept in the dark. Another most important fact, so far as Ulster is concerned, is that the composition of the committee is extremely unsatisfactory. Scarcely a member of it could be described as a real friend of the province.”
If the friends of the committee are not friends, they must be enemies. Neutrality is unknown nowadays… Crazy bogies which would not delude an intelligent infant elsewhere are paraded before the eyes of the “loyalist” electorate.
Irish News editorial deriding the paranoia and conspiracies propagated by Ulster unionists looking to maintain a siege mentality, where no threat existed, to gain electoral advantage.
A 'Twelfth' Story in Liverpool
With as much pride in his native city as any other son of Belfast, Mr St John Ervine has no great relish for its celebrations of July 12th, says a contributor to the “Liverpool Daily Post”. He made that quite evident in the story he told, with a rich Belfast brogue, to the Rotarians yesterday.
An American who was in Belfast for a day was amazed at all the processioning and the drum-beating that was going on. “What’s up?” he asked a bystander. “It’s the Twal’th.” he was told. “I know it’s the Twelfth, but what’s all this about?” he persisted.
Such ignorance was too much for the fervent Belfastian. “For God’s sake, man,” he burst out, “away and read your Bible”.
An amusing anecdote from novelist, playwright and biographer St John Ervine who wrote biographies of James Craig, Edward Carson, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, amongst others.
