Having obtained this concession, Sir Arthur Paget returned the same night to Dublin, where he arrived on the 20th and had a conference with his general officers.

He told them of the instructions he had received, which the Government called “precautionary” and believed “would be carried out without resistance.”  The Commander-in-Chief did not share the Government’s optimism.  He thought “that the moves would create intense excitement,” that by next day “the country would be ablaze,” and that the result might be “active operations against organised bodies of the Ulster Volunteer Force under their responsible leaders.”  With regard to the permission for officers domiciled in Ulster to “disappear,” he informed his generals that any other officers who were not prepared to carry out their duty would be dismissed the Service.

There was, apparently, some misunderstanding as to whether officers without an Ulster domicile who objected to fight against Ulster were to say so at once and accept dismissal, or were to wait until they received some specific order which they felt unable to obey.  Many of the officers understood the General to mean the former of these two alternatives, and the Colonel of one line regiment gave his officers half an hour to make up their minds on a question affecting their whole future career; every one of them objected to going against Ulster, and “nine or ten refused under any condition” to do so.[69] Another regimental commanding officer told his subordinates that “steps have been taken in Ulster so that any aggression must come from the Ulsterites, and they will have to shed the first blood,” on which his comment was:  “The idea of provoking Ulster is hellish."[70]

In consequence of what he learnt at the conference with his generals on the morning of the 20th Sir Arthur Paget telegraphed to the War Office:  “Officer Commanding 5th Lancers states that all officers except two, and one doubtful, are resigning their commissions to-day.  I much fear same conditions in the 16th Lancers.  Fear men will refuse to move[71]”; and later in the day he reported that the “Brigadier and 57 officers, 3rd Cavalry Brigade, prefer to accept dismissal if ordered north."[72] Next day he had to add that the Colonel and all the officers of the 4th Hussars had taken up the same attitude.[73]

This was very disconcerting news for the War Office, where it had been taken for granted that very few, if any, officers, except perhaps a few natives of Ulster, would elect to wreck their careers, if suddenly confronted with so terrible a choice, rather than take part in operations against the Ulster Loyalists.  Instructions were immediately wired to Paget in Dublin to “suspend any senior officers who have tendered their resignations”; to refuse to accept the resignation of junior officers; and to send General Gough, the Brigadier in command of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, and the commanding officers of the two Lancer regiments and the 4th Hussars, to report themselves promptly at the War Office after relieving them of their commands.