LIES ABOUT IRELAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 289, 2 September 1919, Page 5

LIES ABOUT IRELAND

CHIEF SECRETARY'S REPLY !'WANTON TRAVESTY OP THE a. few months ago three Irish-Aniori- . Situs, Messrs. Frame 'l\ Walsh, E. J;', llunno, and M. ti. Ryan, were sent to "report on. tho conditions in Ireland." Euny in JllllO they forwarded to .President Wilson und to the British Prime Minister (Mr. Lloyd George) their conclusions, declaring that tliey liad carried out the request "to visit every part of Ireland and especially Belfast, to ascertain the . actual conditions existing 111 that country," and that "except where prevented' by the use of the military forces of the English ■■ army of occupation, we visited the four provinces of including Belfast, as. as other public cities and towns." They signed and styled themselves as "the American Commission 011 Irish Independence," and in tho introduction to their teport they said that, they had been to Ireland "for the purpose of conferring with 'President' do Valera and other officials of the 'Irish Republican Government.' " The report i-self was 'such an amazing document that Hie Chief Secretary for Irctaud (Mr. Lan Macphorson),, upon its publication,, said: "Tho Memorandum of the lrlsh-Ameri. tan-delegates is an outrageous and wanton travesty of the • fa:ts, nnd has been 60 regarded "even by the section of the English which has kept in closo touch with the conditions in Ireland, and has always, vigorously championed a solution of the Irish problem'. The gratuitous and partisan mis-statements and misrepresentations are so extravagant and unwarrantable as to make the document 'ridiculous. A detailed memorandum giving the true facts is being prepared, and v.-Ul be. issued within a i'fiw days.". In accordance with the promise made 111 the last sentence of that comment, Mr. Sfacpherson. issued a memorandum, in which he examined clause by, clause 17 statements made in the commission's report, showing how very far from the troth they are. This, document is very • leng, running into a dozen pages of print of foolscap, and its reproduction occupied a whcCe page of "The Times." Following are just a few samples of the allegations of the "Commission on Irish Independence," together with Mr. Macpherson's replies to them;— , , "Crossing tho Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dunleary, we came upon the first evidence of the militarv occupation of Ireland. The vessels and wharves swarmed with soldiers, "fully equipped for the field, (joins' to and coming from Dublin."—Commission's report. "On this date 176 men were demobilised and- left Ireland: 05 men (loyal Irishmen) for demobilisation arrived in -Ireland on thn same day. >No soldiers arrived at Kinpsto.wii as 1 enforcements on that date."—Mr. Mncphers'on's reply. "There are approximately 15,000 members of tho Royal Irish Constabulary. The constabulary is a branch of the military forces. Thev are armed with rifles, as well l as email -' side-arms, engage in regalar drill and field manoeuvres. They are never residents of the districts which thev--occupy, and; have quarters in'regular. Government bar.-acks."— I The CouraisBion. "The strength of the Boyal Irish Constabulary is 9682 men.. It is.not a branch of the military-forces_ of the Crown, though armed with rifles and Bide-armsi it practices drill,: but not field manoeuvres. The men are not natives of the district in wlrch they serve; the unmarried members live in small~pnlice ' barracks, and tho married men sometimes in private houses."—Mr. Macpherson. "Statements had bee.i made that unspeakable outrages, were committed against the persons of these men '{in Mountjoy prison), and the most barbarous cruelties inflicted upon them. That they had been starved, beaten, confined in . dark and noisome underground cells, otherwise ■ maltreated, and kept-for flavs with their hands handcuffed behind their, backs.'I—The1 —The Commission. "Such statements are absolutely devoid of'foundation. They are similar to tho statements which were recklessly made in connection with the treatment of Sinn Fein prisoners in Belfast prison, where the Government appointed a judicial commission to investigate Ihe charges thoroughly. The Judge found there wa« not; a word of truth in these statements." —Air; M'acp'mrson. . "One of tho political prisoners still in solitary confinement j ho presented a piti- . able' 'spectacle. The miserable cell was oold and badly ventilated. Ho was in an •unkempt condition, higwiy nervous, palpnbl.y under-nourished, and had a wild glare in his'eyes indicating an extremely dangerous mental state. He tried to speak to the .delegates, but was quickly silenced by flie warder."—Tho Commission. . . ■ "The prisoner referred to is William Sears, who is undergoing a sentence of close confinement imposed 011 him by the visiting justices appointed by the Dublin Corporation and other local bodies, and liot by tho Irish Government, lie was confined in a large, airy cell,-li-8 cubic feet capacity. The temperature of the cell was 55de«. Fall. Tho window of the cell 'was 3ft. Gin., facing south-east. The prisoner has been receiving ppeeial attention fln<l diet. There was nothing whatevar,abnormal in his general condition. As'to the statement that he was 111 an n.ukempt condition, he was enjoying the privilege of wearing his own clothes and thenise of his own toilet req lisites."—, Mr.S-M.v.phei'son. "'The delegates upon being infonued that&there was a large number of prisoners confined in a smaller prison in the town of Westport and that cruelties and barbarities were being practised upon them, ■ endeavoured to visit Wc-stport, but wero prevented by tho . military authorities | from entering. Many of tho persons the , delegates met in the vicinity corroborated the stories of-brutal treatment to ■which prisoners in Westport Gaol were being subjected, the details being horrible beyond bclief."-Tho Commission. _ "It anv such information were given to the delegates it was puro invention. There is, in fact, 110 prison at Westport."—Mr. Macnnerson. ■ "Within the past few months at least ten citizens have been killed by soldiers and constables under circumstances which in a majority of tho cases coroners' juries found to be wilful- murder under the laws of Englandf the tot man having been murdered in this way less than one month ago. In all Iheso cases the perpetrators of the crimes have gone unpuu.iiied.''—The. Commission. "This is not true. In April last there '■ were two cases. 111 one case armed Sinn Feiners attacked and fired oil a police in charge of a Sinn Fein prisoner in Limerick Union Hospital.' They niur-.-ulered one policeman and seriously wounded another. The Sinn Fein prisoner was rescued from tho guard, but was subse--I''' fluently found dead as a result of a bullet wound. 111 the second case, at Ring, Count)- Waterfowl, a man kicked violently at the police barracks at night. The constable on guard—the only occupant of the barracks at tho time—believing that this was a prelude to an attack 011 the barracks, fired through the barrack door, hitting tho man who was kicking at the door, and who subsequently died.'"—Mr. .tlnep'icrson. "The children of suspected Republicans, many of tender years., are kidnapped, and their parents kept in ignorance of their whereabouts for weeks."—The Commission. ' "The oi;Cy foundation for this allegation is that in the present year it was found necessary, for the safety of three yr.unt- boys and one young man," to put them temporarily under the fare r- p fli? police for their own protection. Tlieir parents were not in ignorance of tlipir whereabout;. That there was ground for this action is evidenced by the fact that in the districts from which they camo threats were made in proclamations of the Sinn Feinen that anybody who was likely to give information about their ontraws would be murdered."—Mr. Macpi, "With a ferocity unparalleled even in the historv of modern.warfare, within the past few days men and women have been sliot d-iwn in the streets of Dublin."—The Onvni^ion. "Unfortunately four nolicemen nnd a i?)t1 have been so shot in the streets of ' WnNin within tln> nast few days by a number of Sinn Feinere who rescued a

Sinn Fein prisoner ftom the police. The police fired 110 Bliots."—Mr. Macpherson. _ Many people \rill prefer the picture of Ireland presented by the late Air, John Redmond in a speech at an Australian banquet in London to the mondncious Irish. Nationalist Homo Rule leader, gates. In .that .utterance. \V-hißh Mr. Maephei'soti quotes .ill tin) pr&fitco to Ilia memorandum) Hi'. Redrilohd; the fevered allegations <tf the Irlsll-Ainei'ican deleBaidi—

"I went to Australia 30 odd years ago to mako an appeal 011 behalf of an enslaved, famine-hunted, despairing people, a people in the throes of a semi-revolu-tion, bereft of all political liberties and engaged in a life and death struggle with the system of a most brutal and drastic coercion. Only 33 years have passed since then, but what a revolution has occurred in the interval, To-day the people, broadly Speaking, own the soil; to-day the lab(iitrer3 live in decent habitations! to-day there is absolute fffesdom in the local government a lid tile local taxation of the country! to-day v.-o _ lrnve the .widest Parliament in the municipal franchise; to-day we khow that the evicted tenants, Who are the wounded soldiers of tllo Iftnd war, hftve been restored .to their homes or to otlier litfmes 1 as goxl- as those from' which they hn< been originally driven. So far as the town tenants Are concerned, we have this consolation, tliat wo have parsed for Ireland, nil Act whereby they we protected against arbitrary eviction, and are given compensation not only for disturbance fToin their homes, but for the goodwi: of the business they had created-a piece of. legislation far in advance of anything obtained for the town tenants of England. Wo have a system of old age. pensions, and 11 system «,f national industrial insurance which provide? for the health of the people, and makes it impossible for the poor hard-working man and woman, when sickness comes to the door, to be carried away to the wrprj: house hospital, and makes it certain that they will receive deoent Chriat.'an treatment during their illness."