G-MEN SEIZE I.R.A. LEADER

Southland Times, Issue 23838, 8 June 1939, Page 5

G-MEN SEIZE I.R.A. LEADER

EVE OF ROYAL VISIT TO U.S.A. EXTRAORDINARY SECRECY MAINTAINED (United Press Assn—Telegraph Copyright) DETROIT. June 6. On the eve of the Royal visit to the United States, Federal agents (G-men) took into custody “General” Sean Russell who is reputed to be one of the leaders of the outlawed Irish Republican Army. Russell had been touring the United States making speeches. Extraordinary secrecy surrounded the arrest, Government officials refusing to discuss the case. The King and Queen are due at Windsor (Ontario) across the Detroit river from Detroit, where the arrest was made, tomorrow. Russell was charged with entering the United States with an improper passoort. The authorities said that the arrest had been made on orders from Washington. Russell was unarmed. When he was arrested he was accompanied by Joseph McGarrity, of Philadelphia, leader of the Irish-American Society, who said that he and Russell “had no intention of going to Windsor. After all, the King has not invited us. We planned to stop here only for a short time and then to go to New York.” Meanwhile immigration officers at the Tunnel Bridge ferry, the connection between Detroit and Windsor, took special precautions to check the thousands of Michigan residents who are trooping into Windsor to witness the brief visit by the King and Queen tonight. “As for the visit of the King and Queen, if you read the papers you know that the Irish Republican Army does not kill people. There should not be any apprehension there,” said McGarrity. Officials said that the Department of Labour’s order for Russell’s arrest charged him with being a “falsifier,’ which is interpreted to mean that he was not entitled to enter the country because his immigration visa was invah'd or that he gained entry “by fraud and misrepresentations.” Russell was arrested at the request of the Chief Constable of Scotland Yard (Mr Albert Canning), who travelled aboard the Royal train, says the special representative of the Australian Associated Press. Mr Canning had kept track of Russell’s movements ever since he arrived in America and began delivering inflammatory speeches. In one speech he said: “I ordered the recent bombings in England. I shall keep on until the British troops leave Ireland and my men are released from gaol.” “A state of war exists between Britain and Ireland and will continue until the British troops are withdrawn,” said Russell in another speech. Mr Canning told the Australian Associated Press that he had had G-men trailing Russell for the past three weeks. “His arrival at Detroit just across the river from Windsor on the eve of the Royal visit satisfied me that he meant no good. I requested the Detroit police to detain him,” he said. Asked if he had any apprehension about the Royal visit to the United States Mr Canning replied: “Not so much now.”