Mr. James MacCalmont, M.P. for East Antrim, sends to Tuesday's
Times a remarkable resolution of the Swinford Board of Guardians with reference to the recent speech of Mr. Dillon (M.P. for East Mayo) on Mr. Balfour's administra- tion of the relief funds in Mayo daring the distress of last year. Mr. Dillon remarked that he had never asked for the expenditure, and that the people of Ireland regretted it ; whereupon the Swinford Board of Guardians held a meeting at which fifteen elected members (and no ex-officio members) were present, and passed a resolution giving a most sharp and peremptory contradiction to Mr. Dillon's statement that the people of Ireland regretted the relief expenditure. Their resolu- tion expressed the most cordial recognition of Mr. Balfour's timely help, which alone prevented, they say, real famine in the district, and they went on to speak in the following terms of Mr. Dillon's attitude :—" Mr. Dillon's assertion that he never asked for the railway may be true. He does not appear to ask for much that would be for the benefit of his constituents ; and although we have been granted this boon unsought for by our Member of Parliament, we beg to thank Mr. Balfour for it again. And we beg further to express our disapprobation of that manner of representation which consists In standing aloof while our people are in the grip of famine, and only coming forward to interfere when it is supposed that political capital can be manufactured out of untrue and carping criticism of the man who put bread into the mouths of the laccgrjr," Tbat .113 a. snub for Mr. Dillon from his own con-
stituents which he will not easily forget. Let us hope that he may never obtain a Home-rule which would enable him to re- sent it, as he threatened that Ireland under Home-rule should resent what an Ireland under British rule had achieved.
Previous page
