The Attorney-General, Sir Gordon Hewart, speaking at Leicester on Friday,
November 25th, insisted on the absolute necessity for the Sinn Feiners to pledge their allegiance to the Crown. He said that it was his particular desire to deal with this matter in the plainest terms. There was no mystery or uncertainty about what was meant by allegiance. What was meant was the same allegiance as that given by Canada, Aus- tralia and South Africa. It was an allegiance perfectly con- sistent with freedom and self-government. But it was essential that it should be a reality. It was impossible to contemplate Ireland as a separate and independent whole " vaguely asso- ciated with the British Commonwealth only for certain specified and limited purposes and claiming to recognize the Crown in some special way at the head of that Association for these purposes and these purposes alone."
