representative than to take General
Beyers and not General Botha as expressing the sentiments of South
Africa.

Yet, as we know, the danger in South Africa was serious, and South
Africa possessed freedom, not the promise of freedom. General Botha had
what Redmond was denied--power to act and act promptly. In Ireland the
menace was far less grave at this moment, but it was destined to become
overpowering because Redmond lacked the power to deal with the situation
in his own way. Already much had been lost. Between the declaration of
war and the passage of the Home Rule Bill more than six weeks had been
allowed to elapse in which nothing was done in response to Redmond's
proposal, except the purely negative decision that Territorials should
not be sent to garrison Ireland. This inevitably strengthened the hand
of those who never liked the offer he had made. From the first an accent
of dissent from the new policy was plainly distinguishable in what came
from the Committee of the Volunteers. Mr. Bulmer Hobson says of the
famous speech of August 4th:

"This statement amounted to an unconditional offer of the services
of the Irish Volunteers to the English Government, and was made
without any consultation with the Volunteers themselves. The first
that members of the Provisional Committee heard of their being
offered to the Government was when they read it in the newspapers,
and Mr. Redmond's nominees on the Committee were as much surprised
as the older members. At the next meeting of the Standing
Committee, held a couple of days later, the nominated members
strove hard to induce us to endorse Redmond's offer. The utmost
they could get, however, notwithstanding their clear party
majority, was a statement of 'the complete readiness of the Irish
Volunteers to take joint action with the Ulster Volunteer Force for
the defence of Ireland.' Further than that the older members of the
Committee declined to go. This statement in reality committed, and
was meant to commit, the Volunteers to nothing, though it was
interpreted by the Press as a complete endorsement of Mr. Redmond's
policy."

At the beginning of the war, there were two strong currents of desire in
the Volunteer body and its backers. One sought that the Volunteers
should retain complete freedom of action and in no way be brought under
the War Office. The other craved to see them trained