TRUTH ABOUT IRELAND

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 134, 4 December 1919, Page 11

TRUTH ABOUT IRELAND

FROM AMERICAN STANDPOINT

BRITISH JUSTICE VINDICATED.

"I saw things in prison -which, photographed, would knock every punctuation mark out of the Walsh-Dunne report, and leave it an .incoherent mass of meaningless verbiagw." -These words were written a few weeks ago by ths wellknown American journalist Mr. Truman H. Talley, who was commissioned by the New York Herald'to "make an independent impartial investigation into conditions in Ireland." Allegations in the report of the American commission on Irish Independence (the Walsh-Dunne report) that the British were wilfully committing many atrocities in Ireland, especially in the handling of persons charged with political offences incarcerated in tho prisons, called forth an emphatic denial by the British Government. Many thousands of persons in the United States, including those o£ Irish blood, and those who insist that every people shall have its just deserts, were shocked by the Walsh-Dunne charges, and later were puzzled and unconvinced by the British denial. It was to find the exact truth that the New York Herald sent Mr. Talley to Ireland for a month, the terms of his commission reading:—"America wants only absolute, substantiated, and unprejudiced facts, no matter who is hurt."

■ Mr Talley says that upon his statement to the responsible officials of the Irish Government that he desired to ascertain and present the literal truth about conditions in Ireland, he was informed that so far as the Government was concerned he could go wherever he wanted to go, and see whatever ho wished to see. Every possible facility was afforded him. He had the freedom of Ireland. He wrote afterwards:— ....-.•.

"I devoted the most intense month of my life to this study. I have to the best of my knowledge left no stone unturned in my survey. ■■ I have observed conditions in all walks of Irish life, and canvassed all conceivable shades of opinion, from the bustling wharves of Belfast Lough to the barren wastes of Ban try Bay, from Protestant Londonderry to Catholic Cork,, and from Imperialist Dublin Castle to republican Harcourtstreet. I have traced the path followed by. the Irish-American (Walsh-ZDunne) delegation. I have seen the inside of enough prisons to last me a lifetime. I havo talked alone to all classifications of prisoners, from the untried ones to those in solitary confinement. Every avenue for the study of prison history and present-day administration has been opened for me.

,-'1 have lived in troublesome areas under militai-y restriction. I have observed how military and police regulations operate. I have talked .to the people affected by such measures. I have witnessed riots and arrests. I have attended courts, and studied crime conditions and legal procedure.

"I have gone' thoroughly into the labour situation, and have talked to employers and employees in the industrious North and indigent South.

"In brief, I have seen every side of the political, religious, and economic phases of the seemingly eternal Irish question. I went to Ireland as an impartial American seeking the truth."

There was only ono real restriction put 'upon him, the matter of taking pictures "of prisoners. He was permitted to take any pictures of cells or recreation grounds or buildings, as long as he refrained from "snapping" prisoners. There is a law in England which specifies that all pictures of persons in prison must be returned to the individuals upon their release ov destroyed; and rather than run the risk of having newspaper pictures in circulation after the present crop of "political" prisoners is free, the prison authorities denied Mr. Talley the privilege. Commenting upon this, he wrote :

"I saw things in prison which, photographed,, would knock every punctuation mark out of tha Walsh-Dunne report, and leave it an incoherent mass of meaningless verbiage. But tho Prisons- Board stuck stoutly to its rule, and, while admitting the forcefulness of photographic evidence of actual prison conditions, insisted that the prisoners' rights were greater than the moral value of-trespas-sing upon them. No single-incident in my study of prisons -'struck me so'forcibly as indicating the-fairness..'and high sense of obligation of the Irish prison administration.". . ..■-.'•■>•

When his inquiries had • led him to cover nearly the. whole of Ireland, ■ Mr. Tallsy, writing of his new-found knowledge, said :—

"There have been punishments of political prisoners in Ireland. Some have been drastic. The fractional portion of punishment that has been meted out, however, has been inflated into one of the 'strangest tirades in the annals of politics.

"Before proceeding further, however, I want to make an important distinction. It is true that all of Ireland represented by Sinn Fein—a very considerable portion—is- united' in- its*: bitter cry • agai»«t alleged British cruelty in "prisons. It is not true-that all these protesting'voices are knowingly -in this campaign of misrepresentation. It is by that very misrepresentation on the part of the leaders that the republican element has been solidly enlisted in the chorus of protest. There ar.e'*housands of Sinrr Feiners in Ireland who complain of prison • cruelty, yet know nothing about the truth of the situation. 'The leaders have deluded their immediate followers as well as those-in other 'counti-ies. The republican population has been fed with stories of-prison barbarity until it is part of their creed."At -the end of .his . visit, and on his i-etuni to London,.Mr. Talley, reviewing his experiences and impressions of that month spent,in Ireland, wrote: — "The belief, doubtless exists in America to-day that the Sinn Feiner is really the true Irishman. He is not. One of the first things you,see and learn in Ireland is that Sinn Fein is not Ireland

"Sinn Fein is like a disease. That disease has had every opportunity to feed upon the Irish masses. Ido not blame the Irish for having caught the disease. The British Government is much to blame for ever allowing it to spread. "It is upon prison administration that Sinn Fein bases its chief complaint and its greatest hope of indicting England of inhumanity.

"My investigations convince me that political prisoners1 are not maltreated in Irish prisons. On the contrary, the Government is exceedingly fair, and where there is error it is on the side of tolerance Whatever 'convicting' is to be .done should be aimed at the British Government for lack of flrmness and excess of leniency toward these men, whose avowed intention is to make law and order impossible.

"Sinn Feiners who have fallen foul of civil and military laws have received from the Government a very liberal code of prison treatment. They have abused its leniency, misused its privileges, flaunted its terms, flouted its administrators/ misrepresented its application, maligned its proponents, distorted its import, and then hurled the whole and almost unintelligible issue of controversy back at the Government, at the same time making before the world a broad gesture of martyrdom and raising a cry of tyrannical oppression."

In this manner, and at many places with equal emphasis, Mr. Talley brands

as liars and false accusers the evil-mind-ed organisers of Sinn Fein, who seek to rise to ill-gotten power by besmirching the fair fame of British justice. These lying charges are made against a country that went to war to save the small States of Europe ; a country that has led the world in such acts of beneficence and mercy as the care of children, tutoring of savages, the reclamation of prisoners, solicitude for the feeble-minded and infirm, the protection of animals—a country that gave birth to such worldwide movements as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Salvation Army.