SINN FEIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1919, Page 10

SINN FEIN.

1 FORMIDABLE BOLSHEVIK CONSPIRACY. EMPIRE TO BE OVERTHROWN. The Sinn Fein rebellion of Easter 1916, was, according to indisputable evidence, since made available largely through the efforts of the United States Secret Service, fomented by anti-British and pro-German conspirators, and financed by money received directly from German and German-American sources. The Quarterly Review of July, 1918, published extracts from documentary evidence showing that the conspiracy was continued after the rebellion, and up to date of publication, under the auspices of the "Friends of Irish Freedom League" (which is in effect a reconstitution of the American Clan-na-GM and the Irish Fenian Brotherhood), and in Germany under the aegis of the German-Irish Society, whose headquarters is in the same building in Berlin as the official German Press Bureau. In the inaugural address of the German-Irish Society it was stated that its formation was for the purpose of supplying "visible proof to the Irish in Ireland as well as in America of German gratitude and German sympathy" for having "from the beginning of the war adopted the German cause with enthusiasm." Further, it was stated that "the German-Irish Society will devote its energies to re-opening Ireland to the world, and especially to Germany," and will "generally and in every way further the progressive development of the Emerald Isle, in the interest of the German as well as the Irish people." The London Spectator of 7th Juno last »howß how sedulously the Emerald Isle is being developed in the interests of German and Russian interests. It emphasises the fact that at this moment'a formidable conspiracy is being worked out in Ireland, and that "the Sinn Feiners have resorted to the baffling expedient of hiding a political conspiracy under the guise of Labor." The procedure being followed now is on practically the same lines as that adopted prior to tho Easter rebellion, 1910. Then, Professor .Tohn MacNoill, the head of the Irish Volunteers, had, with the concurrence of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic (even then in existence), decided that there was to be no rising unless they were assured of practical support from Germany. When Professor MacNeill learned by special messenger on 22nd April that Sir Roger Casement had been arrested and the vessels conveying German arms and officers to Ireland sunk off the south coast of Ireland, he forthwith published a notice rescinding all previous orders given to the Irish Volunteers for Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. But Mr James Connolly, the vicepresident of the volunteers, commandant of the Irish Citizens Army, and secretary of the Irish Transport Workers' Union, decided that the rescinding notice should be ignored, and the rising take place according to programme. Throughout that fateful week it was not the Sinn Fein officials, but those of this union, who took the leading part in tho control of events.

i This union, organised by Mr James Larkin (now in America), was from its inception composed of the most disloyal and anti-British elements of the community. Since the signing of the armistice the British Transport Workers' Union has been captured by International Bolsheviks, and Ireland is, according to the Spectator, being flooded with Continental literature of an extremely revolutionary character, disclosing the fact "that the Irish disloyalists aim, not merely at the creation of an independent Republic, but at the overthrow of British civilisation." An attempt is being made to bring this about by the establishment of a Bolshevik State in Ireland, and Soviets arc being organised in town and country throughout the south and west of the island. There is cumulative evidence that Germany is supporting Bolshevism, in the hopes that by the production of world chaos she may save from the ruins what she was unable to win in the war. The connection between Germany and the. Russian Soviet Commissary for Propaganda is no longer a matter of doubt. The Russian Liberation Committee in London has reported that the Council of People's Commissaries nas voted £50,000,000 sterling monthly for the Bureau of General Foreign Propaganda, and the London Th .<<, of 30th April last, stated that the first payment of five hundred million roubles for February was seat to the Sinn Feiners in Ireland, Mr O'Brien, the secretary of the Irish Labor Party, in a recent interview with an American ournalist, stated that "the Irish Labor Party is distinct from the Labor Party in any other country; and is in close sympathy with international Labor, especially with the Industrial Workers of the World." He added that the membership of the Irish Transport Workers' Union has increased from 8000 in 1916 to 80,000 in 1919. A large number of the artisan class in Ireland are members of unions operating throughout the United Kingdom; but the new revolutionary leaders object to this, despite the fact that the British laborers have ever been tiie sincere friends of Ireland, and at a Sinn Fein convention in 1917 it was resolved unanimously: 'That', as the first principle of Sinn Fein is to end the connection with England, Sinn Feiners belonging to trades unions affiliated or amalgamated with English trades unions should be recommended, when possible, to try and sever the English connection." That resolution has been acted on, and since tlien many of the Irish workers have withdrawn their membership from the English unions, and linked up with the Irish Transport Workers. Union, which accounts for the abnormal increase in its membership during the past three years; and it is this element that is the most serious factor in the disturbed state of Ireland at present. It was under the auspices of the Sinn Fein party that the "American commission of Independence," appointed at an Irish race convention, held in Philadelphia on 23rd February 1...4, visited Ireland on a tour of inspection, and the significance of the commission's report can be estimated at its true worth when >it is- stated that during their visit the three inspecting delegates openly sided with Sinn Fein, preached sedition, and talked freely of the deposition of the King, with the result that President Wilson and Mr Lansing (American Foreign Secretary) declined to facilitate the extension of their passports so that they might visit Paris. Mr Larkin, though denied permission to return to Ireland, is still maintaining his connecton with the Irish Transport Union and the I.W.W. The same influences are being worked for all they are worth by Mr de Valera, a Spanish-American, who as the elected head of the so-called Sinn Fein Government, is now on a propaganda mission in the United States. It is worthy of note, in this connection, that according to an article appearing in the Gerwan-Swua newsaajow:

"Neue Zurcher Zeitung" the German National Assembly have voted indefinite sums "for the further extension of a German commercial news service abroad," and the German General Staff propaganda abroad has been resumed, not with the object of trying to convince neutrals of the invincibility of German arms, but for the purpose of fostering discontent and sedition among Sinn Feiners, Egyptian Nationalists, Indian malcontents, and other disaffected groups in the Allied countries, with which they can establish communications. Herr Erzherger, according to the Morning Post, has written a personal letter to a number of prominent Germans, suggesting that everything possible must be done to'prevent Poland becoming a strong buffer-state, "as Russia is ripe if planted with German seed to come into the great German future," adding that everything conceivable must bo done "to strengthen the self-con-sciousness of nationalities whose enmity against Poland can be hardened. One of the first efforts of the reorganised German propaganda is an article in the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, signed "Committee of the Friends of Irish Freedom," but written throughout in the first person, in which it is stated that it does not matter much in the first instance whether Ireland is recognised as an independent republic or as; a dominion such as Canada, for " as a dominion Wand would get de facto all the privileges of an independent republic; and in the course of time the natural trend of affairs would inevitably bring about the formal recognition of an actual existing condition, and the dominion of Ireland would ultimately perforce be received as a sovereign republic into the League of Nations. And (the writer adds) Ireland needs capital, raw material, manufactured goods, and brainpower. Capital and various raw materials she can and will get from America; other raw materials, wood, for instance, and manufactured goods of all kinds, as well as brain-power, she hopes to get, at any rate in part, from the Continent." It Ts scarcely necessary to add (says Sydney Morning Herald) that there are already .v/idences of the renewal of Germany';! peculiar propaganda both in Canada and Australia, and that the fuj ture of Sinn Fein, with its many aliases, is a mater of momentous importance to the law-abiding and peace-ioving citizens of the Comomnwealth if the great bulwarks of civil and religious liberty, always associated with British democracy, are not to be seriously imperilled. The visit of Admiral Jellicoe and the return of the Australian Navy to its home waters has strongly focus'sed public attention on the urgency of maintaining the inviolability of our shores against invasion. That could never be' ensured if an enemy republic were permitted within a gun shot of Great Britain flanking the trade routesi between the Motherland and tho dominions, and thus becoming a powerful menace to the peace and security of all sections of the British Empire.