THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 29 September 1921, Page 7

THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND

INTERIM REPORT

(Continued from last week.)

CHAPTER V.

Physical Consequences to Imperial British Forces in Ireland

An English witness, Miss Ellen 0. Wilkinson, placed in evidence before the Commission figures laid before the British Parliament recording that approximately 500 members of the Imperial British forces had perished between the proclamation of the Irish Republic and November, 1920. Mrs. Annot Erskine Robinson, testifying with Miss Wilkinson, on December 1, 1920, said she understood the number to have reached 600. The number was put by one witness as low as 232. We have no reliable means of establishing the" accuracy of the British official record, but as presumably it is not an understatement, we are justified in concluding that not more than 600 of the Imperial British forces have been killed in Ireland from May, 191(5, to December, 1920. These 600 casualties would seem to have occurred in a force of at least 78,000, in a period of four and one half years, or at the rate of not more than twenty-six hundredths of one per cent, per annum.*

The Imperial British forces in Ireland are the titular custodians of "law and order" there, which their "duties" consist in maintaining. Evidence of the nature of these "duties" has been presented as well as evidence gravely reflecting on the conduct and disclipine of the Imperial British forces, and in considering the causes of the alleged 600 British casualties, it would appear to us necessary to stress these duties and to emphasise the licence which replaces discipline in these Imperial British forces. We would also respectfully call the attention of our Committee to the invidious use of the words "police" and "constabulary" by the British authorities in Ireland, as terms for an armed service now exclusively employed on military duty.

"Policeman" and "Constable." —We have considered evidence of eye-witnesses and depositions from victims establishing that the "police" or "constabulary" includes in its ranks burglars and highway robbers, gunmen and petty thieves. It was testified before us that the "police" or Royal Irish Constabulary were charged by British-appointed coroner's juries with the murders of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain, and Messrs. Walsh, Lynch, Dwyer, McCarthy, and Rooney, and others. It was further testified that in other cases "murders were committed by these so-called policemen and no jury was summoned. In the cases of Galway, Balbriggan, and other cities and villages these "policemen" added arson and looting to murder. The presence of District Inspector Cruise at the "reprisal" in Galway and of District Inspector Lowndes at the sacking of Ballylorby in charge of the sacking "policemen" was mentioned in evidence before us. The barracking of these "police" with the "Black-arid'-Tans" and their co-operation with the

-•.•, *lt is clear from the' evidence that Irish resistance has been non-violent to a surprising degree. It has found expression .'among other .- things in the boycott of British Governmental agencies and the refusal of the Irish railwaymen to operate trains: carrying Imperial British troops. .Thereupon the "British "authorities discharged the men and in; many cases virtually discontinued train service. This state of affairs continued for many weeks during 1920. According to testimony of Mr. Dempsey, himself an en-* gineer, the railway union finally receded from its position from no selfish motive but because it feared . that Ireland suffered by lack of train service more than the military, who had an abundance of motor-lorries. The most dramatic examples of non-violent resistance were furnished by political prisoners, who carried on repeated hunger strikes to win. freedom or other concessions from the Imperial British Government. In the cases of Lord Mayor MacSweetiey and Messrs. Fitzgerald and Murphy the strikes were persisted in until death ended them. • ;

military were likewise established. Testimony as to orders by their superior officers inciting or commanding them to slay and to burn is before us. In addition, three former members of this "police" force, the Royal Irish Constabulary, have appeared as witnesses before us testifying, and two more have deposed, to the nature of their orders and their duties. These persons have corroborated in all essentials the evidence of other witnesses that the words "police," "policeman," and "constable" as used by the British in Ireland are misleading and tend to reflect dishonor upon that honorable class which in other lands maintains "law and order."

Banal murder is very rare in Ireland. The first witness before the Commission, Mr. Denis Morgan, of the Urban Council of Thurles, testified that neither murder nor any other major felony had been committed in his town during twelve years, and there is a good deal further testimony to the same effect. Ex-Constable Daniel Galvin handled only one case of murder in thirteen years. We are, therefore, forced to consider that most of the alleged 600 British casualties have arisen out of the present political situation in Ireland.

Causes of Casualties Suffered by Imperial British Forces in Ireland

Mr. John Derham, Commissioner of the town of Balbriggan, testified that Burke, a sergeant of the Imperial British forces, was slain in a drunken brawl in a publichouse (saloon) of Balbriggan on September 20, 1920. So far as we can ascertain no civil investigation was made of the killing of Burke, the British in Ireland having apparently abdicated the judicial function. Further, there was no attempt to arrest or even to find the parties to the murder. Instead, a few hours after Burke's death Imperial British forces burned, looted, and slew in Balbriggan. It would appear from the attitude of the Imperial British authorities towards the sack of Balbriggan that the British High Command judged the slaying of Burke to be a corporate crime of the citizens of Balbriggan —a judgment unconfirmed by the evidence before the Commission.

Mr. Morgan testified that Irish Republican police had rescued from the vengeance of the people drunken members of the Imperial British forces, behaving outrageously. The deaths of Burke and others would appear to us to prove that at least some of the slain Imperial British forces were victims of their own carelessness and drunken aggression. The responsibility for such deaths would seem to rest ultimately upon the authority that permits, condones, or encourages drunkenness among the British troops. Accidental Casualties.—lt was testified that a Captain Beattie and an unknown private of the Imperial British forces perished as a result of their negligence in the handling of the petrol (gasoline) with which they were kindling the Templemore Town Hall. Against the circumstantial detail of this testimony and the partial corroboration given to it by a minute of the Templemore Urban Council must be placed the fact that the Imperial British forces took vengeance for Captain Beattie's death by renewing their depredations in Templemore. It seems clear to the Commission that the risk of fatal accident in this case was inseparable from the dangerous duty in which this British officer and his men were engaged. The danger inherent in such duties, assigned to and accepted or, assumed by members of the Imperial British forces, is not attributable to the Irish people.

, Disciplinary Casualties.—Ex-member of the R.I.C. Tangney testified that he and two of his comrades were shot at, near Clougheen, by a' "Black-and-Tan" named Richards, whom they had refused to guide to the home of a suspected Republican, one Walsh. Evidence submitted to us by certain recent members of the Imperial British forces, and corroborated by the testimony of other witnesses,' indicates that defection from these forces is frequent and occasionally is discouraged .by the killing or flogging of those who too publicly contemplate resigning. D. F. Crowley testified to 500 resignations out of 9,000 men during April and May of 1920, and said that after he himself had resigned he had been backed against a wall and threatened with :, loaded revolvers by "Black-and-Tans. A constable Farley ill Adare was alleged; to have been murdered under similar circumstances..-"""'-*:•-'-■■ o - »- ■

Citizens of the 1 Irish Republic would seem to your Commission not blameable for incidental, accidental, and disciplinary casualties in the Imperial British forces in Ireland and for casualties incurred under circumstances of general violence and terror. Such casualties . probably amount to a certain percentage of the whole 600 who, it is alleged, have been killed. The refusal of the British to present their side leaves us with only fragmentary evidence of the causes and occasions of death in the remainder.

Deaths in Open Warfare.— barracks or block houses held by Imperial British troops have been attacked, captured, and destroyed, and armed British units in trains, motors, and other vehicles, and on foot, have been assailed •by Irish Republican forces. For an Irish Republican Army, drilled, disciplined, and when desirable, uniformed, already exists, and we have evidence concerning one member of it captured in action and subsequently executed by the British. It is in these military operations that the greater part of the British casualties seem to have occurred. Upon the legality of such operations the terms of our commission preclude us from expressing a judgment. But if the point of their legality be waived, it would appear to us that the Irish Republican forces, in such cases as we have been able to examine, have observed the recognised conventions of war. In no case have we found evidence of physical violence done by the Irish to any member of the Imperial British forces who surrendered or was captured in arms. Indeed, there is considerable evidence that such prisoners were treated with humanity, in most cases being given their liberty after they were disarmed.

Deaths in Raids on Barracks.—Besides such casualties incurred by Imperial British forces attacked by the armed forces of the Irish Republic, other casualties have been sustained by the British in the course of raids made by the Irish on barracks. We distinguish this category, without being able to estimate its size, chiefly because the casualties it covers have been in a measure incidentally inflicted by men who sought not to slay but to arm themselves for defence. Mr. Morgan testified that a barrack at Littletown was attacked and disarmed on a Sunday afternoon without a shot being fired. Mr. Francis Hackett estimated that not more than twenty "police" had been killed during the British evacuation of 600 barracks. On September 27, 1920, about fifty members of the Irish Republican Army surprised the British military barracks at Mallow and demanded the supply of arms contained therein. No casualties would have been suffered on either side had not five or six men from the garrison escaped "and begun firing. In the exchange of shots that followed a British sergeant-major was mortally wounded, but no one else, was injured. Mr. Frank Dempsey'it will be recalled testified that after the arms had been taken from the garrison a doctor and a priest were sent for by the Irish Republican troops to minister to the sergeant-major. The barracks were not burned, nor was any man harmed intentionally, the single purpose of the raid to secure arms and amunitions which since 1914 had been prohibited by the British administration to Irish Volunteers. The old law forbidding the possession of arms anywhere in Ireland had gone unenforced during 1913, while Sir Edward Carson was organising and'equipping his Ulster Volunteers, but it had come rigidly into force in the rest of Ireland a year later when it was discovered that the Irish Volunteers were claiming an equivalent privilege. The responsibility for such deaths, however unintentional, would appear to us to rest squarely upon the Irish. It would seem, however, that the storing of arms in known places, isolated and inadequately protected, on the part of the Imperial British High Command is under existing conditions in Ireland almost an invitation to attack.

Deaths on "Duty." Testimony attributes to the Imperial British forces approximately 48,000 raids, entailing wreckage of property, robbery, murder of citizens, brutality to priests and women and children, and indiscriminate flogging. Many of the- raids, by all accounts, have been made at night by members of the British forces who were dressed in civilian clothing or were otherwise. unrecognisable as having military business, and so were subject to resistance by citizens as common thugs and house-breakers. In certain raids masks have been worn; in that on Lord Mayor Mac Curtain's house his assailants had their, faces blackened and wore long raincoats and ■ soft dark hats.

Lord Mayor Mac Curtain, incidentally, by the testimony of his sister-in-law,, Miss Susanna Walsh, had for some time before his death been recommending that the Republicans of Cork arm • against the raiders 'lt would not do for armed men to be coming in at all hours of the day and night and terrifying women and children." It would seem to the Commission that persons engaged in the violation of property rights and personal safety inevitably incur the dangers inherent in these tasks, even if they are "policemen" or soldiers, and especially if they are disguised. The responsibility for these deaths falls less on the Irish people than on the British officers and agents who ordered and carried out the duties which involved the fatal issue.

Death of Krumm. —Mrs. .King gave testimony that in her presence a person dressed as a civilian in the railway station of Galway, late at night, without provocation, suddenly began indiscriminately to shoot down unarmed bystanders. In the attempt to restrain him, after he had killed and wounded persons, he was himself shot. . A pas-ser-by with an English accent claimed him as a brother. Ex-Constable Caddan stated that Krumm was "a "Black-and-Tan."ln this case it would appear to us that bystanders at Galway were acting in conformity with their public duty in attempting to restrain this murdering Englishman, even at the cost of his life. "■•%•-

Death of District Inspector Swanzy.Testimony mentioned the assassination of District Inspector Swanzy at Lisburn. Miss Anna Walsh gave evidence that the coroner's jury which investigated the death of Mayor MacCurtain charged Swanzy and others with the murder. The British did not arrest Swanzy, thus duly charged in legal form. Instead, Swanzy departed from Cork to Lisburn. Mr. Francis Hackett testified to being told by a responsible member of the Irish Republic that six participated in the murder of the Lord Mayor of whom five had been executed by assassination, and Swanzy was the sixth. A few weeks after this conversation Swanzy was assassinated. It would seem to us that an armed guard or public acquittal by a regular tribunal was necessary to the protection of Swanzy in Ireland.

Death of Divisional Commissioner Smyth.—Testimony likewise mentioned the assassination of Divisional Commissioner Smyth. Rev. M. English, corroborated by D. F. Crowley, John McNamara, and Michael Kelly, former members of the R.1.C., testified that Smyth had incited the R.I.C. to shoot all Sinn Feiners — “the more yon shoot the better I like yon.” Kelly and McNamara deposed that this incitation was delivered in their presence. Kelly said “During the time I was stationed at Listowel the town was peaceable, there were no outbreaks' or trouble of any kind. Following a change in the military personnel in Ireland,"Colonel Smyth was made Divisional Commissioner of Police for the Munster Area early in June, 1920. On June 19, 1920, Colonel Smyth visited the R.I.C. barracks at Listowel' in company with General Tudor, Inanpp+.nr flpripral nf Pnli’po' nnrl a TtlnpV.nnO.Tcmc” fnr Tvp.

"During the time I was stationed at Listowel the town was peaceable, there were no outbreaks' or trouble of any kind. Following a change in the military personnel in Ireland,'Colonel Smyth was made Divisional Commissioner of Police for the Munster Area early in June, 1920. On June 19, 1920, Colonel Smyth visited the R.I.C. barracks at Listowel' in company with General Tudor, Inspector General of Police and "Black-and-Tans" for Ireland; Major Letham, Commissioner of Police, from Dublin Castle Captain Chadwick, in " charge of the military at Ballyruddy; and Poer O'Shea, County Inspector of Police for County Kerry. Colonel Smyth addressed the members of the R.I.C. in the barracks at Listowel, making substantially the following remarks:

“Well, men, I have something of interest to tell yon, something that I am sure you would not wish your wives and families to hear. I am going to lay all my cards on the table, but Imust reserve one card for myself! * Now,, men, Sinn Fein has had all the sport up to the present, and we are going to have the sport now. The police have done splendid work considering the odds against them. The police are not sufficiently strong to do anything but hold their barracks. This is not enough, for as long as we remain on the defensive so long will Sinn Fein have the whip hand. We must take the offensive and beat Sinn Fein with its own tactics. Martial law applying to all Ireland is coming into operation shortly. I am promised as many troops from England as I require; thousands are coming daily. I am getting 7000 police from England. “Now, men, what I wish to explain to you is that you are to strengthen your comrades in the out-stations. If a police barracks is : burned, or if the barracks already occupied is not suitable, ; then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown out in- the

gutter. Let them die there, the more the- merrier. You must go out six nights a week at least and get out of the barracks by the back door or a skylight so you won't be seen. Police and military will patrol the country roads at least five nights a week. They are not to confine themselves to the main roads but take across the country, . lie in ambush, take cover behind fences near the roads, and when civilians are seen approaching shout 'Hands-up!' Should the order be not obeyed, shoot, and shoot with effect. If the persons approaching carry their hands in their pockets or are in any way suspicious looking, shoot them down. You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped, and you are bound to get the right persons sometimes. The more you shoot the better I will like you; and I assure you that no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man, and I will guarantee that your names will not be given at the inquest. . Hunger-strikers will be allowed to die in gaol, the more the merrier. Some of them have died already, and a damn bad job they were not all allowed to die". As a matter of fact, some of them have already been dealt with in a manner their friends will never hear about. An emigrant ship will be leaving an Irish port soon with lots of Sinn Feiners on board. I assure you, men, it will -never land. That is nearly all I have to say to you. We want your assistance in carrying out this scheme of wiping out Sinn Fein. A man who is not prepared to do so is a hindrance rather than a help to us, and he had better leave the job at once."

'* Colonel Smyth then asked each one of us individually if he was prepared to carry out these orders and co-operate. As each man was asked the question he referred Colonel Smyth to our spokesman, Constable Mee, whom we had previously appointed in case such a demand as this were made upon us, as we had heard that the new military officials were going to make such a demand. Constable Mee stepped from the line and addressed Colonel Smyth: "Sir, by your accent I take it that you are an Englishman who in your ignorance forgets that you are addressing Irishmen." Constable Mee took off his cap, belt, and bayonet and laid them on the table. "These, too, are English," he said, "and you can have them. And to hell with you You are a murderer!"

At a signal from Colonel Smyth, Constable Mee was immediately seized and placed under arrest, and the entire 25 of us rushed to his assistance and released him. We informed Colonel Smyth that if another hand were laid upon our spokesman, either then or in the future, that the room would run red with blood. Colonel Smyth thereupon fled into another room, barred the door, and remained for several hours. We sent a messenger in to him to demand a guarantee that Constable Mee would not be held to account at any time for the remarks made on our behalf, and before he left that day Colonel Smyth gave us that guarantee. Afterwards Inspector-General Tudor sent out and asked to have an interview with us, and when we said we would see him he came out and shook hands with" each man and told us to keep our heads, that everything was all right. There was considerable talk about resignations, and 14 of us who were unmarried turned in our resignations as members of the R.I.C. that day. These "resignations were not accepted. Afterwards we 14 made a signed statemerit of the remarks of Colonel Smyth and sent it to the Freeman's Journal, a newspaper published at Dublin, with the request that an official investigation be made. There was considerable demand for an official investigation of Colonel Smyth's remarks, but no such investigation was ever ordered or made, and the military police and civil authorities did nothing whatever about it.

Assassination of British Officers in Dublin. —While the Commission was in executive session on November 21, 1920, the press reported the assassination of 14 British officers in bedrooms of hotels and boarding houses in Dublin. Later in the same day Imperial British forces fired on a football crowd at Croke Park, Dublin, presumably in vengeance for the assassination of the officers. From attested British press reports placed in evidence, it would appear that one; Teeling, an Irish Republican, was arrested .and tried for the murder of one of these officers, a Lieutenant Angliss; and that Angliss was living- as a civilian in the house where he was slain under the assumed name of Mr. MacMahon. Another was a Captain Baggley, arid a third, a

Lieutenant Ames, all of the British Intelligence Service Thus it would seem that at'least three of the British officers slain were part of the Imperial Secret Service in Ireland, and their discriminate assassination seems to indicate a planned attack by Irish Republicans on the British Secret Service.

Miscellaneous Assassinations.— Morgan, Commissioner of Thurles, testified that a member of the R.I.C. had been slain there. He disclaimed all knowledge of the cause and of the perpetrators of this assassination. There is also record, though meagre, of the assassination of another member of the British forces at Thurles; and of similar incidents at Galway (one), at Feakle (two), at Cork (one), at Abbeyfeale (one), and at Miltown-Malbay (one). At the last-mentioned village a Captain Lendrum was arrested, put to death, >and sent back to the local British Headquarters in a coffin. We learned from testimony re-' garding the killing of John Sherlock, of Skerries, an Irish Republican, by British agents, that one Penstraw, who is alleged to have acted as guide to the British at the sack of Balbriggan, had been assassinated there about a month later." Altogether we have been able to trace 30 assassinations of members of the Imperial British forces, presumably at the hands of the Irish (five accused with Swanzy of the murder of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain, Smyth, 14 officers in Dublin, two in Thurles, and the others noted).

Spies.—" Among the Royal Irish Constabulary," testified Miss Mac Sweeney, "was a division known .as the G Division. Their work was purely detective work. Since 1916 the police in that G Divison were very active. They were Irishmen, but that only makes them greater sinners. The information that they gathered girls they met and others — very often to the arrest and imprisonment of their fellow-countrymen. Therefore they were spies. No unarmed policeman has been shot in Ireland unless ho has been proven a spy. The private correspondence of Lord French, captured from time to time, has been conclusive evidence that there are spies at work among us." The "overt act" which led to the war on them was "the extraordinary activity of the English Secret Service, when they started to get information about our people and running them down and gathering information about our court*." Miss Wilkinson also spoke concerning these spits, and Mrs. Michael Mohan reported the detection by Irish Volunteers of "one spy who was getting £3O for sending information. And then at night there were police going around with rubber soles on their shoes and slipping circulars under the doors offering rewards for information. They put them under the doors while the people are in bed. They can give their own private code, and if- the information proves satisfactory they are paid, for it."

Tangney, an ex-member of the R.I.C, testified to being shot at for refusal to guide a "Black-and-Tan" to the house of an Irish Republican marked down for assassination. Penstraw was said to have been shot as a spy. 48,474 raids were made by armed British forces in 1920 on Irish homes, and such activity connotes a very active British "espionage system.

(To be continued.)

By an interesting coincidence (writes a correspondent to the London Tablet) the Irish truce began on the anniversary of the death of Blessed Oliver Plnnket, Archbishop of Armagh, who on July 11, 1681, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, and was the last to die there for the Faith; so this, the first celebration since the martyr's beatification, was held under happy auspices.

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