Resignation of Sir A. Eden as Prime Minister.
At the time of writing Sir Anthony Eden has tendered his resignation as Prime Minister, to Her Majesty the Queen—that is on the 9th January. We regret that this vital step was necessary for Sir Anthony on the ground of ill-health which has given real concern to him and his medical advisers and we sympathise with him. He has been a member of Parliament for 33 years, and has served the nation throughout that period, in and out of office, with dignity and devotion to duty, as a politician. We trust and pray that the Lord will be favourable to us as a nation and raise up men from our midst, who will be endowed with wisdom and understanding by the divine Spirit, to govern in the fear of God.
Raids on Ulster by Bandits from Eire.
The raids by armed companies of desperate men from Eire, into Ulster, during which men have been murdered and property destroyed, are professedly aimed at eliminating partition between Eire and Ulster. The people of Ulster chose in Lord Carson’s day to remain in allegiance to the British Crown and Protestant Constitution of Britain, when the South of Ireland broke away from that allegiance by obtaining Home Rule, and later by becoming a Republic. Why do the desperate men of the Republic not make Southern Ireland a prosperous and happy country for themselves and leave prosperous and Protestant Ulster to continue in the peaceful enjoyment of being British? One of the answers is definitely this—that Protestantism in Ulster must be eliminated, if possible. The Church of Rome may condemn, by word of mouth, the outrages of these Irish Republican Army bandits; but Rome supports partition. And dead I.R.A. men receive all the public funeral rites of the R.C. Church, and one of these men who was killed, received the blessing of his Roman Catholic mother before he went out on his raid. The killing of Protestants has been going on for long in Colombia, and no freedom-loving nation seems to care. But the Roman Catholics have a different proposition in Ulster. When it comes to the point, Ulster Protestants will show what they can do by way of defending themselves, when need be. Truly we need to awake to our privileges and responsibilities as Protestants. And may God arise and cause His enemies to be scattered. Sir Anthony Eden made the following statement recently in the House of Commons:
“In the Ireland Act, 1949, the Parliament at Westminster declared Northern Ireland to be an integral part of the United Kingdom. This is a declaration which all parties in this House are pledged to support. The safety of Northern Ireland and of its inhabitants is, therefore, a direct responsibility of H.M. Government, which they will, of course, discharge.”