of the Government that no
operations were intended against Ulster, and that through "an honest
misunderstanding" General Paget had misinterpreted his instructions.
Brigadier-General Gough was therefore asked to return to his command,
finally obtaining a written undertaking, signed by the Secretary of
State for War, that the troops would not be used in Ulster. In
addition to Colonel Seely's signature, that of the Chief of the
Imperial General Staff (Sir John French) and of the Adjutant-General
(Sir J.S. Ewart) appeared on the memorandum.

Now it transpired that two important paragraphs of the memorandum were
written by Colonel Seely, but presumably they were not sanctioned by
the Cabinet. The paragraphs in question ran: "His Majesty's Government
must retain their right to use all the forces of the Crown in Ireland,
or elsewhere, to maintain law and order, and to support the Civil
Power in the ordinary execution of its duty.

"But they had no intention whatever of taking advantage of this right
to crush political opposition to the policy or principles of the Home
Rule Bill."

As they stand these two paragraphs are a trifle ambiguous. The fact
apparently occurred to General Gough. For he asked Sir John French
explicitly whether they could be taken to mean that he could not be
called upon to order his brigade to take part in the coercion of
Ulster to the Home Rule Bill. Sir John French wrote across the note
that this was his belief. On the strength of this General Gough
returned to his command.

[Page Heading: A QUESTION OF HONOUR]

When the facts of the case were known, the Government were severely
criticised by the Labour and the Nationalist parties. In replying to
these criticisms, on Wednesday, this pledge was declared to be "not
operative." As the result, Colonel Seely, who had signed the
assurance, threatened resignation. On Friday, March 26, it was known
that both Sir John French and Sir J.S. Ewart had resigned their
positions. Every effort was made to induce these distinguished
officers to reconsider their decision, but without avail. To remain in
office would mean repudiating their pledged word. To this course no
possible pressure could induce Sir John French to agree. He persisted
in his resignation: and the Prime Minister solved a very dangerous
situation by himself taking up the office of Minister of War, which
Colonel Seely had now resigned.

So Sir John French went for a second time into retirement. N