IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 December 1919, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

ss%m - GENERAL. ~ ,>- ,-. v ..\ r - c ;":If Lloyd George won ■ the war, it was apparently a Franco-Irish officer who showed him how to do it. When George became Minister of Munitions, he attended a conference at Boulogne "called to : discover the defects in the material of the Allied artillery. A young French officer, a descendant of one of the Irish "wild geese," who had served with the FrenchWartillery, convinced Lloyd George that the war was going be one of big guns and high explosives. George, it will be remembered,; on his return to England began at -'once to * specialise in and rapidly increase the production of such armaments, and so the eventual superiority of the Allied forces was begunat the instigation of Captain Walsh, ; of the French Artillery.

~ : The announcement that the Ulster Unionist clubs of pre-war days are to be revived, has caused little, surprise, and the only question asked is what attitude will the Government; adopt to an armed organisation which in 1914 threatened to fight tho forces of the Crown (writes the Belfast "correspondent of the Daily News). The attitude of the Cabinet and Dublin Castle will be watched, considering tho present measures adopted towards the Sinn Fein movement. "Will Sir Edward Carson's armed bands be allowed with impunity to drill, wear uniform, and prepare for war with the same impunity as in tho olden days, while a different law obtains in tho South and West of Ireland? It is believed that some German rifles and ammunition are still at disposal, and it is even said that the store rooms are well known to the authorities and public. Not long since, the Sinn Feiners raided one of' the depots near Newry and carried off some hundred rifles and many boxes of ammunition. It was stated that a meeting was to be called early in September to revive the organisations. However, it is not too certain that the clubs will achieve their prewar popularity. A great percentage of the former day members have had enough of war and military life. AMERICA AND IRELAND. . The Washington (U.S.A.) correspondent of tho London Times telegraphs: —American opinion is beginning to show signs of renewed impatience at the British Government's procrastination over Ireland. By American opinion 1 mean non-Irish-American opinion. The New. York World, for instance, which has always taken a keen, but reasonable, interest in the Home Rule question, writes to-day: "The one policy towards Ireland which Mr. Lloyd George apparently adheres to in all circumstances is the policy of procrastination. The trouble with the Government under Mr. Lloyd George's guidance is that it always has a plan which it either fails to reveal or quickly abandons at the first show of opposition. The Prime Minister's convictions on the subject of Ireland have had a way of evaporating, until it is generally .suspected that he has no settled opinions on the Irish question and is hoping to get out of the scrape by good luck. The dangers of the policy of muddling through somehow in Ireland should be obvious to the British Government, and the British people, after the troubles of the last three years." ULSTER SCANDAL. In the House of Commons on August 12, Captain Guest, in reply to Mr. MacVeagh, said as explained in a letter to the hon. member an unfortunate error had been made in the last part of an answer to a previous question by the hon. member. General Hackett Paine was in command of the Northern District. He retired from the army on February 5, 1912, and was reemployed on September 4, 1914. Mr. MacVeagh: Was this officer responsible for smuggling rifles into Ireland from Germany, and is he now- in charge of the same rifles as an officer in the British Army ? ._ ..",,.- Captain Guest: I am not in a position to accept the statement that this officer smuggled arms into Ireland. To the best of my knowledge these arms are in Ordnance charge, a very different thing from being under his direct control and disposition. ,„./ r Mr. T. P. O'Connor: Was this gentleman not Chief. of the Staff of what were called the Ulster Volunteers ? Was he not engaged in organising before the war the employment of armed force against the Crown, and is this same gentleman at the present moment the competent officer.'to order, court-martial, and sentence his political opponents to one, ■ two, or three years' imprisonment ? Captain Guest: That raises, quite a different question. The officer referred to was, as everybody knows, connected with the movement in Ireland at that time, but that he has "now disciplinary powers which an officer commanding

carries as regards military affairs is not in any way connected with the question on the _ paper. * Mr. MacVeagh: . Is it calculated, to restore public confidence in Ireland or retain public confidence in Great Britain' that such a - scandal should continue? .i.;/, ; . Captain. Guest: I do not admit for a moment .that it is a scandal that' an officer* of-high ■ efficiency should be performing duties in v that part of the United Kingdom during three; or four years of the war. > c, 'Mr. T. P• O’Connor: Is- it that the administration of all the penal clauses of D.O.R.A. by court-martial oyer political opponents should be entrusted to an ex-rebel against the Crown? - ..

The Speaker: That is > a question for the House. It is a matter upon which we can all form our opinion. - It is not a matter for departmental answer. ■ v

THE REFINEMENT OF CRUELTY: ’ SHOCKING TREATMENT OF IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS. in Writing ion the present conditions of political prisoners m. Cork Gaol, and especially of the case of Patrick Griffin, ‘CnfawL ° lB , «"dfrgomg six months’ imprisonment for ti unlawful assembly, 111 connection with the funeral of Listotvef, Syj:- ' T ' D ' E " Mr ' ***** Bri “ n > • , “When I left prison he was then weak, and I am informed by a fellow-prisoner recently discharged that his condition is now very grave. It has been stated that the o Coik prison doctor, who recommended his discharge three weeks before, and whose recommendation, it appears, was ignored by the Prison Board, has resigned as a protest against the continued detention of Mr. Griffin and com--1 atics. If this latter news is correct, it reveals a very serious state of things for the only interpretation that can be placed on the doctor’s decisive action is that he declines any longer to be responsible for the life of this man and his comrades.

“Considering.the fact that Mr. Griffin is in solitary confinement for 13 weeks, his condition is certainly not to be wondered at, for solitary confinement is the refinemeat of cruelty, and, physically, has most baneful effects, When to solitary confinement you add bad food, surely it is ,ung short of miraculous that political prisoners can escape permanent disablement. How long more is this state of barbarity to exist—• to see brave men done to death in this brutal and unchristian fashion ? It is surely time the country demanded the release of political prisoners whose lives, like Mr. Griffin s hang in the balance, and whose only crime is that they love their country better than themselves. “I earnestly hope that a healthy public spirit will be aroused' by this exposure of prison methods in Cork, and that pressure will be exerted in every direction to secure the release of Mr. Griffin and the hundreds like him who are being methodically and scientifically done to death.”