came to be known as "the plot against Ulster," to which his words were
doubtless an allusion. That plot may perhaps have originated at Mr.
Lloyd George's breakfast-table on the 11th, when he entertained Mr.
Redmond, Mr. Dillon, Mr. Devlin, Mr. O'Connor, and the Chief Secretary
for Ireland, Mr. Birrell; for on the same day it was decided to send a
squadron of battleships with attendant cruisers and destroyers from the
coast of Spain to Lamlash, in the Isle of Arran, opposite Belfast Lough;
and a sub-committee of the Cabinet, consisting of Lord Crewe, Mr.
Churchill, Colonel Seely, Mr. Birrell, and Sir John Simon, was appointed
to deal with affairs connected with Ulster. This sub-committee held its
first meeting the following day, and the next was the date of Mr.
Churchill's threatening speech at Bradford, with its reference to the
prospect of bloodshed and of putting grave matters to the proof. Bearing
in mind this sequence of events, it is not easy to credit the contention
of the Government, after the plot had been discovered, that the despatch
of the fleet to the neighbourhood of the Ulster coast had no connection
with the other naval and military operations which immediately followed.

For on the 14th, while Churchill was travelling in the train to
Bradford, Seely, the Secretary of State for War, was drafting a letter
to Sir Arthur Paget, the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, informing him of
reports (it was never discovered where the reports, which were without
the smallest foundation, came from) that attempts might be made "in
various parts of Ireland by evil-disposed persons" to raid Government
stores of arms and ammunition, and instructing the General to "take
special precautions" to safeguard the military depots. It was added that
"information shows that Armagh, Omagh, Carrickfergus, and Enniskillen
are insufficiently guarded."[64] It is permissible to wonder, if there
was danger from evil-disposed persons "in various parts of Ireland,"
from whom came the information that the places particularly needing