KIDNAPPED IRISH LADY

Otago Witness, Issue 3525, 4 October 1921, Page 26

KIDNAPPED IRISH LADY

EXECUTION OF A SPY. "A MARTYR IN THE EMPIRE’S j EYES. (Fbom Our Own CoRREsroxDENT.) LONDON, August 5. On February 17 a lady named Mrs Lindsay was kidnapped from her home in the South of Ireland, and last week her sister, Mrs B. Benson, of Dublin, received the following letter, headed Dail Eireann Department of Defence, and signed Catnal Sruga, Minister for Defence:—“In accordance with instructions from the President I have made inquiries from our local commanders into the case of Mrs Lindsay. The information sent us is that she was executed as a spy some months ago. The charge against her was that she was directly responsible for conveying to the enemy information which led to the execution of five of our men by British authorities, to the death of a sixth from wounds received in action, and to a sentence of 25 years’ penal servitude passed upon a seventh. Mrs Lindsay wrote a letter to General Strickland, pointing out the consequences to herself should our men be executed. Five days after their execution in Cork Barracks the sentence which nad been passed on Mrs Lindsay, and suspended pending General Strickland's reply, was duly carried out. We regret tho circumstances .and the stern necessity to protect our forces which necessitated this drastic action by our local commanders.” airs Lindsay’s butler also, apparently, was murdered by Sinn Feiners. . Yesterday questions regarding the subject were addressed in the Plouse of Commons to the Government and indignation was expressed that no action had been taken to bring the persons responsible to justice while in the House of Lords, too, Lord Selborne brought up the matter, and asked whether Mrs Lindsay “had done anything more than any loyal citizen was bound to do viz., give such information to tiie police against criminals as wag a cqaired by her in the normal experience of her daily life.” Lord Selborne said : “Some of the facts about 11 :13 terrible crime are only too well known, but there are other facts not so weil known, and. the motive of my question is to elicit further information. What is known is that Mrs Lindsay was foully murdered by a gang of cowardly assassins, ihere seems to be an attempt by some persons who took away her life to besmirch her reputation by attaching to ittho stigma of a spy. I ain not going to say anything detrimental to those brave men who take their lives in their hands when they join the Government service, it is obvious, however, that: the word ‘spy’ has been used deliberately to turn away from her the sympathy which would be felt for her throughout the British Empire. I am told that it is alleged against her by her murderers that in the normal experience of daily life she obtained some information which she passed on to tho police—information against criminals which was likely to lead to the apprehension of criminals. If that was what she did, she did nothing whatever but what every honourable citizen ought to do, and nothing that anybody would not wish to do who was too proud to be terrorised by the Sinn Fein organisation. If that is" the story, as I am informed it is, then throughout tlie English-speaking- world Mrs Lindsay’s name will run parallel with that of Nurse CSavell, and she will be nothing else than a martyr in the eyes of the Empire.” Describing the tragedy as one of the most painful of a long series of happenings in Ireland, the Earl of Crawford admitted that the Government of Ireland had very little information on this subject beyond what had appeared in the press. The report which had reached the Irish Government from police inspectors and others confirm what had appeared in the newspapers. “ The only question which Lord Selborne asked is whether this lady heard that an attempt, was to be made to assassinate Crown forces, not openly, but by concealed methods, and in the hope of saving these men from assassination she gave information to the police. She was then apprehended; her house was burnt down; she was removed to some place which has not yet been identified; and four or five months afterwards a person styling himself ‘ Minister of Defence ’ published in the Irish newspapers a letter announcing that this lady had been executed because she was a spy. The word ‘ spy ’ did not appear in the letter, but that is the implication. There is every reason to believe that the report that the lady had been shot—slaughtered—is correct, I gather from Lord Helborno that he wants no more than an assurance that the Government repudiates in the warmest manner any allegation that this ! lady did anything which was inconsistent J with her duty as a loyal subject of the Crown. That assurance is. of course, obviously given, and given wholeheartedly.” JUSTICE AND THE TRUCE. In the CormnoriS questions were addressed by Lieutenant-colonel Archer-Pheo and Lieutenant-eo’onel Newman. Tho former asked whether the Chief Secretary had seen the reply given by the so-called “Minister of Defence” of Sinn Fein to Mrs E. Benson with reference to the k:.lnapping and murder of Mrs Lindsay and her butler; _ whether Mrs Lindsay d-d convex- information to tho Crown Forces with reference to an ambush; whether this letter which Mrs Lindsay- \\rote to General Strickland pom I - iug out the consequences to herself should the captured rebels fcc executed, was written while the lady was in the custody of tho Sinn Feiners; and why. if Mrs Lindsay did give information of the ambush, proper protection was not accorded to her’ in view of the obvious danger of her heiim kidnapped and murdered. Colonel Newman inquired if the murder of these two British subjects in the South of R-dand was to be left without an effort to bring the parties responsible to justice. I'll' T. W. Ilrown. the Sobeitor-gcneral for Ireland, replied that Mrs Lindsay did warn ( town forces ni a possible ambush in the hope of saving the lie- of members of tbe Crown forces. “In doing this she acted as every good citizen in Great Britain or Ireland is bound to act. —(Cheers.) A letter purporting to come from Mrs Lindsay after her disappearance was received by General Strickland, jn accordance with the fettled policy of the authorities, it was decided not to pay any attention to it because it was a common practice of the rebels to threaten to murder people if certain of their adherents who had been duly convicted were executed. At the lime. Mrs Lindsay gave the information to the forces she neither asked for protection, nor was there any reason to believe either that

it would become known that she had given such infotination, or that the rebels would murder this delicate old lady if the facts c.i Ino to their knowledge. On somewhat similar occasions houses had been burnt by the rebels, but this was the first occasion on which they murdered a woman in such circumstances simply because she had done her duty as a loyal citizen. Every effort was made to bring to justice those responsible for t.he kidnapping and murder of Mrs Lindsay. In view, however, ot the agreement for the cessation of hostilities it has clearly been impossible to carry the matter any further at the present time. I have no information regarding the fate of James Clark, her butler or groom, beyond that, he was kidnapped at the same time as his employer, and probably suffered tho same fate.” Lieutenant-colonel Archer Sliee: “In view of the fact that this elderly lady gave her life for the country as much as Nurse Cayell did, and that she gave information which undoubtedly resulted in the saving of the lives of a large number of Crown forces, why were proper steps not taken to give her protection, whether she asked for it or not, seeing that the Sinn Fein rebels have murdered seven women su ce January ?” Mr Brown: “It was not expected or believed that any such action would be :aken.” Colonel Ashley: “Are we to understand because there is a truce a man who writes and acknowledges that he has murdered an old woman is not going to be had up for murder?” Mr Brown: “I understand no steps will be taken in the matter till the cessation of Iho truce.” Colonel Newman: “Is not this man an accessory to the woman’s murder?” Mr Moles asked if it was not a fact that the information communicated to the authorities leaked out to Sinn Fein through official sources. Mr Brown said he was not in a position to confirm or deny that, rumour. A DOPED BRITISH PRESS. In the Government’s admission that on account of “the cessation ot hostilities,” no steps are being taken at present to bring- to justice the perpetrators of this ghastly deed, the Morning Poet secs the first-fruits of the policy ot capitulating to crime—a shameful acquiescence in such cold-blooded barbarities as the murder of Mis Lindsay. ’iho- miscreant who sanctioned the murder can now openly vaunt bis responsibility; and the Solicitor-General has to confess that "no steps will be taken in the matter until the -cessation of the truce.” “Imagine it, To such an ignominious pass have we been brought that his Majesty’s Ministers are constrained to grant a license to murder —and murder as brutal and cowardly as has ever stained even the annals of Ireland. . . . Public opinion in this country has been doped—systematically and unscrupulously doped—by tiie withholding of the truth. ‘Why,’ ingenuously exclaimed Mr Will Thorne yesterday, ‘lms not, tins matter been brought up before?’ Well may lie ask; and wo will give him the answer. It is because there has been a conspiracy on the part of a large part of the press of this country to keep the facts about Ireland from public knowledge— to hide away the abominable acts of the Sinn Fein murderers, or, where they cannot be hidden, to pass them without comment or more than formal reprobation. . . . The Government and the Northcliffe press may be at feud on other points, but they are very much at one in keeping the doings of Sinn Fein out of the field of vision, and in this discreditable effort, they are zealously supported by all those newspaper's which Mr Lloyd George has known how to bring within his sphere of influence, to say nothing of those other organs which are proud to become propagandasheets for Sinn Fein. To know that this is no overstatement of the case- that the British press in respect of Ireland is to-day a doped press— it is only necessary to note the. complete silence in which the unspeakable brutality of Mrs Lindsay’s murder has been received by every London newspaper. Not a word of reprobation, not a tremor of moral indignation, not a murmur of protest. '} he journals which were once filled with ringing denunciations of the doing to death of Nurse Gavell and Captain Fryatt have not a word to say about, Mrs Lindsay. But stay, we are unjust. The Daily Herald has a leader note on the subject. It is headed: 'Judicial Murder’ (sic), and it says: ‘We very much regret that De Valera and his Government should have followed so closely the wicked example set them by other Governments, the British Government included.’ ”