PASTOR GEORGE WISE "Protestant Stalwart"
"Inquiry"
The inquiry which was held at St. George's Hall, lasted four weeks, and innumerable witnesses were called to speak to the alleged illegal Roman Catholic procession which had resulted in a police baton charge on a crowd assembled in the Juvenal Street. Mr. Wise was, of course a very prominent figure in the inquiry and his profound knowledge of theological subjects earned some commendatory remarks from the Commissioner. The final report was of a most pacificatory character, credit and blame being very judiciously mingled together At about the time the report was published Lord Derby was actively endeavoring to establish sectarian peace in the city and was successful in arranging a Peace Conference which paved the way for the passing of the Liverpool Corporation Act, 1912, regulating street processions and open air meetings, and providing as far as possible against outbreaks of sectarian conflict. Mr. Wise played an important part in the Peace Conference and were it not for this, the meetings would have been ineffective, and matters might have ended very seriously for aggressive Protestantism. As it was , agreement was reached that "nothing of an illegal character was to be carried or erected in the public streets, that all processions were to be held by permission and to have police protection and that public spaces were to be allocated for open air demonstrations".
"Support for Ulster"
Pastor Wise was now established as a power with which to reconcile, and he was also in big demand as a preacher and lecturer. He defined the policy of the Protestant Reformer's Memorial Church as follows " The delivery of thoughtful discourses on all the great questions of the day affecting Christian doctrine and practice. In no way shirk any vital problem relative to the existence of God, the authority of the Holy Scripture, the comprehensiveness of Redemption, the reign of Christ in the hearts of men, and the issues of modern unbelief". It was therefore not surprising that he interested himself in the Irish Home Rule Question. Protestant Ulster was making it clear that she was opposing Home Rule for Ireland, and Protestant Ulster could depend on the full support of Pastor Wise in its campaign. Early 1914, Pastor Wise visited Belfast, where he preached and lectured, While there he assessed the feelings of the people on the question of Home Rule and wrote; "Everywhere you move a strong and suppressed feeling , permeates all classes of the community against Home Rule. Not much is being said openly, but there is an awful undercurrent of revolt ready to burst forth into active and open opposition immediately the moment arrives, For it matters not wherever you go and to whom you speak, you will soon discover the same feeling and the same repugnance to the Redmond party. In my conversation with Presbyterian, Wesleyan and Congregational ministers. I have found that all of them, without exception were opposed to Home Rule. Just the same experience is realised whether you speak to men, in the tramcars, in cafes, bookshops or on the sidewalks". "We won't have Home Rule" is the determined expression of almost every person you come across in Belfast
"Liverpool Supports Protestant Ulster"
The support of Liverpool Protestants under the leadership of Pastor Wise, for the cause of Ulster, was so obvious that Sir Archibald Salvidge, the leader of the Conservatives in the city, was able to invite Sir Edward Carson to visit the city, "Liverpool , he declared "stand today between England, of which we are part, and Ulster, which we have a peculiar geographical and sympathetic connection, and of which we understand the mind and character far better than these are understood in many other parts of Great Britain. It is useless to disguise from ourselves, or disguise from Ulster, that the case of the Loyalists in the North of Ireland is not a present understood throughout Great Britain as it is understood in this city" . Salvidge assured of the support of Pastor Wise, organised a demonstration of welcome for Sir Edward Carson, who together with Lord Londonderry, Lord Charles Beresford and Mr. F. E. Smith arrived in the Mersey on the Belfast steamer "Patriotic" at 7-30 on a Sunday Morning in 1912. In spite of the unpropitiousness of the day and the hour, some one hundred and fifty thousand people thronged the landing stage and its approaches. A mighty procession made up of the Protestant Workingsmen's Association and the Loyal Orange Institution. with bands playing and banners flying accompanied Sir Edward Carson to the Conservative Headquarters in Dale Street.
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