A SWEDISH SAILOR’S MITE FOR IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1919, Page 35

A SWEDISH SAILOR’S MITE FOR IRELAND.

He came into National Headquarters of the Friends of Irish Freedom and said that he wished to give a small sum to the Irish Victory Fund (says a writer in the Monitor). He was so keenly disappointed when told that individual contributions were not received there, that one of the office staff agreed to take the gift and enter it 1 on an official New York collection card. When he gave his name, the remark was made that it did, not sound Trish. “No,” he said, “it ,is Swedish.” . * . > • (

Sensing the surprise of his auditors, the visitor con- : tinued; “I am of Swedish birth, but an American citizen, and I fought for America in the war. I have received my honorable discharge from the United .States .Navy. And it is because of what I saw and learned as an , American sailor that ! want to help the Irish cause. My ship was in Irish harbors a good deal. It was in English harbors, too, and there was all the difference in the world between the ways the English and the Irish treated us. The English were so . arrogant that it makes my blood boil to think of it. But in Ireland every/ American was treated like a brother. The Irish people made us at home, gave us comforts, treated us like men. And we saw the men and women of Ireland compelled to stand up and fight for the rights of freedom, which we had gone across" to fight for. We saw them denied those rights by the same English whose - arrogance and ingratitude we had felt. It made me think of what I’d read in history about the American Revolution. Here was a people suffering the same things the founders of-this Republic had suffered/" and putting up the same fight for liberty. We used to get in the Sinn Fein processions over there to show:, how we felt. And now I’m back, even though I haven’t a-job yet and can’t give much, I want to give all I can to help the Irish Republic