THE IRISH BRIGADE

Marlborough Express, Volume LIIII, Issue 81, 7 April 1920, Page 6

THE IRISH BRIGADE

STORY OF GERMAN xFAILURE

The diary'of Sir Roger Casement's lieutenant, published in "Land and Water," tells a curious story of the fifty men who were inveigled into forming the "Irish Brigade," to fight for the Germans. He says: "I am sure we got as great a crowd of blackguards together as any twenty regiments of the British Army could boast of. . . The German* officer

Bcehm had promised the men that they would be housed in a German barracks, trained and treated like German soldiers. Whei the men arrived at Wuensdorf they were without much ceremony pushed into a camp tenanted by all the colored savages of the Allied armies.'' The German authorities evidently set little value on the men who had consented to enlist, and these soon learned to mistrust them. Those who refused Casement's iniquitous offer were harshly treated in the prison camp," but those who accepted it were hooted by the Irish soldiers whenever seen in the regular camp. They were throughout treated by the Germans as prisoners, though better fed than the others. They resented being referred to as VEnglander." They even begged to be allowed to return to the prison camp, and> after the armistice to be ajlowed to surrender to the British. According to the narrator they were in the end allowed to apologise to the British Government and regain their liberty.