WHY CASEMENT DIED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 7

WHY CASEMENT DIED.

TRAITOB OF WOKST KIND.

WILLING GERMAN AGENT.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT.

Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received 7 p.m.) LONDON. August 3.

The Press Bureau has issued a statement in connection with the Roger Casement case. This states that the Government, before deciding not to interfere with Casement's sentence, carefully and repeatedly considered all the circumstances. Casement was convicted of treachery of the worst kind to the Empire, and of being a willing agent of Germany.

The Irish rebellion had resulted in much loss of life, both soldiers and civilians. Casement had invoked and organised German assistance to the insurrection. Although for years a British official, Casement had entered into an explicit agreement with Germany for his "Irish Brigade" to be employed in Egypt against the British.

Those Irish prisoners who had resisted Casement's solicitations and disloyalty had been subjected to exceptionally cruel treatment by the Germans. Some had since been exchanged as invalids and had died, and Britain regarded Casement as their murderer. The suggestion that Casement left Germany for the purpose of stopping the Irish rising was not raised at the trial. Moreover it had been conclusively disproved, not only by the facts disclosed at the trial, but by further evidence which had since become available.

Another suggestion, namely, that Casement was insane, was equally without foundation. His counsel did not raise that plea. Casement's demeanour subsequent to his arrest, throughout his trial, and since then, gave no ground for any such defence, indeed it was sufficient to disprove it.