IRISH REVOLUTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXVI, Issue 15, 15 December 1945, Page 7

IRISH REVOLUTION

FOMENTING BY GERMANS. PLAN, THAT MISCARRIED. (Rec. 12.25 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 14. The German Intelligence Service .attempted to foment a revolution in Ireland with the help or the Irish Republican Army, to take place simultaneously with a planned invasion of Britain, said the sabotage chief, Major-General Lahausen, in an interview with the Associated Press correspondent at Nuremberg.

The attempt failed when a key, Irish revolutionary figure “mysteri- j ously died” aboard a U-boat while crossing the English ..Channel. Lahausen said that Itibbentrop considered the plot so important politically that the Foreign Office took over/ its direction. It consisted of two parts: (1) To establish agents in Ireland to work with the I.R.A. and use Ireland as a base for sabotage operations, against the major British industries;; and (2) to collaborate with the I.R.A. Jhrough one of its leaders to lay the political groundwork for , a rising. One of the key agents was an Irish sailor who was living in the United States. He went to Germany via Italy and saw Ribbentrop, after which the scheme was immediately implemented. He was an idealist and a dreamer. A second agent, also a sailor, was described as a typical revolutionary type. , . - ’ Lahausen said the relations between the two men became strained, probably due to the clash of personalities.

The agents boarded the U-boat Wilhelmshaven for an point on the Irish coast. The Intelli-“’ gence Corps arranged to drop by parachute, a radio transmitter and special sabotage equipment l to the agents at a prearranged rendezvous. The agents were to establish contact. Jwith the German Foreign Office through secret signs to be given by a different arrangement of flowerpots on a window-sill in the German Embassy in Dublin.