INTERNED IRISH

Evening Star, Issue 16822, 26 August 1918, Page 7

INTERNED IRISH

ALLEGED STN"N FETNISM IN AUSTRALIA. In connection with the inquiry -beinsi held at Sydney, before Mr Justice Harvey. ■>"'! mentioned in our cable columns last week, Mr Ralston. K. 0., in his opening address on behalf of the Commonwrnltll, said that the case showed that -the seven men. whose continued detention was tho subject of inquiry, along with John Doran, had been for about three years—some of them during the whole period and some for lesser periods-—engaged in a conspiracy of a highly treasonable nature, to tho Commonwealth and to the Empire, possibly, and injurious to Great Britain and her Allies. The persons engaged in this conspiracy were scattered right through the Commonwealth, and it was time that their further activity should Ifp put a stop to. While John Doran was in it was found that he was in communication with a certain John Devoy, a leading member in America- of the Clan-na-Gael. This man Devoy was communicating with a man named John Dalton in Ireland, with the ohiect of extending tho activities of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to Australia. Dalton, in a letter, described tho part he had taken in the Irish disturbances in 4866 and 1867. Dalton in another letter wrote to Archbishop Mannix congratulating him on an address he had delivered. Below his name Dalton signed himself "an old campaigner of 1865 and-1867." Tho Crown was in a position to show the relations between John Devoy and tho leaders of the Irish risiug in 1916. In 1915 tho Irish National Association of New South Wales was formed. At the end of the booklet containing the constitution there was this in inverted commas : "There are no greater nationalists in the world than those of Germany." Mr Ralston read a letter from. Dalton relating to "a sale of goods," and the probable necessity of appointing direct agents. This letter, with, another, suggested a supply of arms. A second letter from Dalton was in 1916, and stated among other things that " the completion of No. 2 section lias been completed, with bright prospects for more of them. _ I have practically secured tho co-operation of iho reverend gentleman as' chaplain. Tho formal appointment o-f subs for No. 1 and No. 2 will take pia-oe next Tuesday." He enclosed a typed extract from tho constitution of tho " I.V. and C.A.," which j was the Irish Volunteers and Citizens' j Armv. A letter was found written in Gaelic, which when interpreted was found to be as follows : Hold this ovrr a, lamp, and there will bo other things for you on tho other side. Mr Ralston said that this letter was held over the lamp, and was then dealt with by a chemical, which made the writing per- ( man cut. This writing, dono in _ invisible ink. was' a list of names beginning "No. 1, Albert Thomas Dryer; No. 2, J. E. P. O'Dwyer," and {riving a number of names and addresses oi persons, three of whom were described at the foot of the letter as "old members of the Irish service." These three names were given as Dennis, M'Sweney, and Brennan. The declaration for the members of the Brotherhood was set out as follows! I believe in Ireland's unquestionable rights to sovereign independence, and solemnly declare that I will bo true to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and will forward those principles, miliary and civilly, even to the last sacrifice, as directed by the officers. The Clan-na-Gael constitution set out among its objects " the comploto independence of Ireland, amd establishment of an Irish republic," and the only policy which, it believes will attain that end "is physical force." Military organisation was also provided for, and it was sot out that it would bo organic-ad in districts and camps. Among tho oaths administered to members and set out in tho ritual was one promisng to keep strictly secret the work-in-i«s arid names of the members of tho "V.C.," and another, which said, "I sweair to labor while 'life is left in mo to put an end to English rule in Irela-nd, and put a republican government on Irish soiL' It a letter written in November, 1917, Dryer ead, "As thero may bo a raid at any timo, it may be well to destroy any letters of a compromising character, or at least very carefully conceal them." This letter referred to a meeting that had been presented in Melbourne, and asked if it would bo jpossible to get tho aid of Dr Mannix. It went on : libera are a number of olerks here who could not take the platform, owing to that contemptible old ahonoen, Arch- 1 bishop Kelly, a notorious recruiting sergeant, The letter also (referred to the arrest of a man in Queensland, but it said i I could not, got to see him for two big, burly, khaki British swine. The letter continued ; I hope this hellish Brit.-Hun Government will persecute the people hero till they rite up and annihilato them. I think there aio too- many British in this country for us to do any good. They accept anything their masters give them. Dealing with the half-yearly report of the Irish National Association for December 1, 1916, Mr Ralston said that it had been femnd an Dryer's possession. It set out owe of V\w» aims of the association as being To put down party politics and sectarianism by all means in it power, and to destroy the vile, cruel, and tyrannical xulo of a Power we hate—England.