IRISH REBELLION.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1916, Page 5

IRISH REBELLION.

THE ROYAL COMMISSION. BIRRELL'S FOOL'S PARADISE. FURTHER EVIDENCE London, May 22. The Royal Commission on the late rebellion ] mß resumed its sittings. ' Lord Hardinge rend a letter from General Macßeady stating that Mr. Pirrcll, Lord Wimbourne and others held a conference with the War Office en March 20 purely as regards recruiting in Ireland. A proposal was made to send _ troops to be quartered outside Dublin for the sole purpose of stimulating recruiting. Mr. Birrell afterwards saw Lord French, who said that, as fur as the War Office was aware, (he question of sending troops to overawe the Sinn Feiners never arose. Some time previously General Friend wrote intimating the possibility of trouble in the South of Ireland and that he might require extra troops, so the War Office arranged to have a reserve brigade ready to send over if he cabled for it. Replying to Lord Hardinge, Mr Birrell said that his recollection was that at all the interviews he pointed out that it was most desirable to let the people (■f Dublin see troops in the streets. Lord Middleton gave evidence that lie interviewed Mr. Birrell and strongly urged the disarmament of the National Volunteers. Mr. Birrell replied: "I laugh at the whole thing, Mr. Redmond end Mr. Dillon are against taking notice of seditious utterances."

Lord Middleton remonstrated with Mr Bit-ell on the dangerous course he was taking. Lord Middleton in January interviewed Mr. Asquith, who asked him to submit a memorandum. Lord Middleton handed this to the cqjnmittee. ■Mr. Birrell,' at the end of February, sent Lord Middleton a confidential letter,- which he was now permitted to wad. Mr. Birrell wrote that loyalty in Ireland was a plant of slow growth and he was not surprised at the signs of disloyalty at which Lord Middleton was annoyed, and on account of which he demanded strong measures. "When headstrong priests and crack-brained people make speeches which, if made in .England would not bring the speakers within the terror of the law but within the range of the mob," Mr. Birrell added, "we cannot rely on Irish juries. The proclamation of the irregularity of the Irish volunteers would be reckless slid foolish. lam more alarmed at the possibility of bombs." , Lord Middleton later interviewed Sir Mntthew Nathan, who said the Executive was largely guided by the advice of Messrs. Dillon and Redmond.

Witness protested against the responsibility being placed on those gentlemen. Mr. Redmond could hardly carry a single seat in Munster, also his life \vas endangered. Sir Matthew Nathan replied that the Government's difficulties in taking prominent steps were that it had to deal with dangerous men. Six days before the outbreak Lord Middleton gave Lord Wimborne the gravest v.arning. Mr. Justice Shearman: It must have occurred to you that if you were to carry out the disarmament of the Volunteers as you suggest the retort would be ''Disarm the Ulstermen." Lord Middleton: That might have been said in the ease of Mr. Redmond's Volunteers but hardly in the case of the Sinn Feiners. I should be much'surprised if the Ulster Volunteers and Mr. Redmond's were not willing to pile arms under efficient jurisdiction during war. LORD LIEUTENANT'S EVIDENCE. Lord Wimborne gavei evidence that his position and powers were entirely usurped by the Chief Secretary and Undcr-Secretar}'. He had no "executive machinery with which to take action independently of his colleagues, nor any means of asserting his views when they conflicted With those of his rominal subordinates. After repeated representations he obtained a partial insight, into the administration and received daily reports for his information, not with the view of his opinion. Lord Wimborne said hia function* were confined to unsolicited advice and energetic representation. He • found during his tour in the south and west of Ireland that Sinn Feiners were every* where belittled. He often formed independent views, divergent from those of the executive. He was thinking mom of probable enemy raids than internal disturbances. The garrison had bceii quite inadequate, since the departure at the Irish Division for the front at the end .of the summer. He, last March, urged his view on General French, who replied that the War Office objected, but ho would delay the dispatch of troops to the front for at least a fortnight, lord Wimborne told him he would be much more comfortable if another division were sent. During a second interview with General French on March 30 he gave the internal situation in Ireland as the reason for needing more troops. Lord Wimborne added that Mr. Birrell always advocated more troops in Dublin. Early in 1010 police reports showed that the Sinn Feiners owned numbers of rifles. Witness then suggested their deportation or internment. He mentioned this idea to Sir E. Carson when ho was Attorney-General. Sir E. Carson declared, that to deport men away from Ireland would be an extreme interpretation of the Defence of the Realm Act. Witness therefore favored the internment of suspects and strongly i.raod the arrest of the Sinn Feiners. outbreak occurred: "The worst has hapHe wrote to Mr. Birrell when the pened just when we thought it averted. If only we had acted last night with decision and arrested the leaders as I wonted the outbreak might have been averted." Received May 23, 5.5 p.m. London, May 22. Continuing his evidence, Lord Wimborne said that General Friend left Dublin on Thursday before the outbreak. .

Lord Hardingc: Who gave him leave! Lord Wimbornc: His leaving was part of the Irish system. Everybody leaves Dublin on bank holidays. The admiral at Queenstown received information as to Casement's departure from (Jtrjuaiiy, and that a ship, accompanied by two submarines, might be expected off the coast at Easter. That information, was not communicated to the Irish Government. „ Lord Harding* asked if it was not extraordinary not to have communicated this news to General Stafford, the acting commander, or to the Government. Lord Wimtorn»>, I think it wn« extraMoßftw*.

: ' .< Afiked wliy, when on Easter Sundcyi the Under-Secretary wa« in favor of raiding Liberty Hall and the Sinn Feinefs arsenals, this was not done, !Lor4 Wimborne replied tJhat there was aot time, and he objected to arresting until able to arrest the leaders. •' Lord Wimborne stated that he had signed warrants for Wie arrest of tile Sinn Fein leaders, lie wanted/to have at least a hundred arrested on Saturday or Sunday, and was about to communicate with Mr. Birrell and Mr. Asquith deploring the further detoy when the outbreak occurred. ' NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUED. STATEMENT DEFERRED. Received May 23, 5,5 p.m, London, May 22w Mr. Asquith continues hls( Irish mg9* tiations after having consulted MtsMs Redmond, Lloyd George and SatHML His statement relative to Ireland h*s" been postponed until Thursday in order to enable Cabinet to review the position of affairs.

LIBERAL JOURNALIST'S VIEWS* Times and Sydney Sun Services. London, May 28, , Mr. Massingham, writing in tW' Nation, says: "The Dublin rising is dlte, in my opinion, firstly, to tlic formation of the Coalition Government and its resort to conscription; secondly, to #»• principle policy of compromise and twtat and the disarmament of volunteers, which was a bold blow to their organisation; thirdly, to the English administration by absentees and Mr. Redmond's absorption on the English side of the Nationalist movement; fourthly, to the gradual loss of the finer idealism «of the Sinn Fein and the absorption of the Fenian spirit; fifthly, to the temptation , the war offered to old revolutionaries; sixthly, to resentment at the severity of the suppression of Dublin strikes; seventhly, to Ulster's resort to force when Ireland was settling down to its abandonment," SENTENCES ON REBELS, .- Received May 23, 11.15 p.m. London, May Two rebels at Dublin were sentence! to death, 'mt the sentences were com* muted to imprisonment. Seven .others received sentences ranging from one ta ten years' imprisonment.