He was for years honorary Secretary of the Reform Club in Belfast.

The more staid members of this highly respectable establishment were not a little startled and perplexed when it was brought to their attention in 1907 that advertisements in the name of one "Hugh Matthews," giving the Belfast Reform Club as his address, had appeared in a number of foreign newspapers--French, Belgian, Italian, German, and Austrian--inquiring for "10,000 rifles and one million rounds of small-arm ammunition." The membership of the Club included no Hugh Matthews; but inquiry showed that the name covered the identity of the Hon.

Secretary; and Crawford, who sought no concealment in the matter, justified the advertisements by pointing out that the Liberal Government which had lately come into power had begun its rule in Ireland by repealing the Act prohibiting the importation of arms, and that there was therefore nothing illegal in what he was doing.

But he resigned his secretaryship, which he felt might hamper future transactions of the same kind.

The advertisement was no doubt half bravado and half practical joke; he wanted to see whether it would attract notice, and if anything would come of it.