THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 8 September 1921, Page 7

THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND

INTERIM REPORT (Continued from last week.) CHAPTER IV —(Continued.) “Sinn Fein Extremists” In the campaign of murder and arson in Ireland, "shot trying to escape,” ‘’refusal to halt,” and “reprisal” have appeared to us as tenues jvstifivutifs employed by the Imperial British authority. An exculpatory term, “Sinn Fein Extremist, was also presented to us in the course of the evidence. We first noted the term “Sinn Fein Extremist” in the testimony of the assassination of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain, and so far ns we could discover the term first received its British connotation in connection with that crime. Lord Mayor Mac Curtain. —The Misses Walsh, sisters-in-law of the Lord Mayor, and members of his household when he was assassinated, appeared before us. The story of the murder was told as follows by Miss Susanna Walsh; “There was a slight knock at the door about one o’clock or quarter past one. Mrs. Mac Curtain heard it, and she put her head out of the window.and called to find out what they wanted. They said “Open the house quickly or we will break the door in.” Mrs. Mac Curtain wanted to go down. He said: “I will go, Mary.” She said: ‘No,’ you mustn’t. I will go down.’ But before she could get down to the door, it was burst in. Eight or nine men rushed in, with blackened faces and long coats, and caught her. Several of them hold her, and the restrushed upstairs. At the same time—l had a little red coat 1 used to throw over me, and I went out to the top of the landing. I heard the noise downstairs, and 1 heard the baby cry, and I ran downstairs to take the baby, for I knew that my brother-in-law would be in a terrible way. I arrived at the first landing just as two big men .with blackened faces and big coats on them got to his door. And I heard the first man say, Come out, Curtain!’ And my brother-in-law said: ‘Give me time to dress. I am not yet ready.’ When my brother-in-law said ‘ Give me time to dress,’ I said: ‘Give me the baby, please.’ And they pushed me back. And I ran back to the bathroom, and I heard my sister shout; Murder, murder, the police are murdering us all.’ And a neighbor woman who lives next door said Who is shot And I said: ‘My brother-in-law, MacCurtain.’ I rushed upstairs. T thought I would die with all of them. And as I went upstairs I heard heavy moaning in the corner, and I looked, and my brother-in-law lay just outside his bedroom door with blood coming from the region of his heart.” Mrs. Mac Curtain called for help from the windows and immediately the house was fired on from the street. The disguised raiders then disappeared. Shortly afterwards, armed British soldiers, uniformed and undisguised, made a supplementary raid on the house, but the Lord Mayor was already dead and laid out for burial. Thomas Mac Curtain, Lord Mayor of the City of Cork, was a successful young business man. He had five children, the oldest ten years, and he supported three orphan nieces and an aged father. Several witnesses have testified to the high personal regard for him among 'people of all classes in Cork. In his funeral procession marched the local Protestant Episcopal Bishop, the Jewish rabbi, and clergymen representing the other local religious organisations, as well as thousands representing every phase of the Republican movement in Cork, A few days before his death, the Lord Mayor had protested in the City Council against the terrorisation of women and children by the British military and police, and declared that the Irish Volunteers w’ould preserve order. In the months preceding his death his home and business premises had been raided by the military or police several times. On one of these occasions the raiders made a. thorough search of Mrs. Mac Curtain’s room, three days before one of her children was born and a few days after the burial of another. It was alleged before us that rumors

were prevalent in Cork that the Lord Mayor was to be killed by the police. On March 16, four days before the murder occurred, Denis Morgan, chairman of the Urban Council of Thurles, then in Wormwood Scrubbs Prison, London, heard that Mac Curtain "had been sentenced to death by the Eoyal Irish Constabulary."

After the death of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain the British Administration in Ireland' announced that he had been killed by "Sinn Fein Extremists." We can discover no basis for this statement. Testimony was presented to us that at the inquest the British authorities responsible for this charge were directly challenged to produce any evidence of the participation of "extremists" in the crime. No such evidence was produced nor was the charge officially repeated thereafter. Nevertheless, it persisted in the press while public indignation Mas at its highest pitch. Our record shows that at the inquest a great mass of evidence was introduced attaching the responsibility for the crime to the "police." The Coroner's jury held certain British officials, including Inspector Swanzy, responsible for Lord Mayor Mac Curtain's death.

Miss Susanna Walsh testified that the home of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain's widow had been raided by Imperial British Forces twenty times since the murder. Your Commission had occasion to call the attention of the British Ambassador at Washington to one of these raids, in which Mrs. Mac Curtain was reported to have been shot at, and which occurred a few days after we had cabled to her an invitation to testify before us.

Father Griffin. While we were sitting, a priest named Father Griffin was mentioned in testimony as the possessor of a great deal of evidence regarding atrocities committed by British forces. A few days later he disappeared; and his body was subsequently found in a bog. Death had apparently resulted from bullet wounds. During interpellations in the British Parliament, brought to our notice concerning this murder, the British press reported that Sir Hamar Greenwood, hesitating for a reply, was prompted by a whisper, "Say the Sinn Feiners did it," loud enough to be heard in the press gallery. According to the newspaper accounts this prompting whisper came either from Mr. Winston Churchill, or, according to the correspondent of the New Siatesnutn, London, from Premier Lloyd" George.

"Extremists."—The phrase "Sinn Fein Extremists" easts doubt on the loyalty of the deceased to the Irish Republic, and in the Republican view contains an aspersion on his memory. It tends to make Irish Republicans suspicious one of another. It was invoked in the murder of a Republican Lord Mayor and of a Republican priest. It was also invoked in the burning of Cork. The attention of the Commission was called by several witnesses to the persistent efforts of officials of his Britannic Majesty's Government to create the impression, without the offer of evidence, that citizens of Cork had burned their own city. Destruction of Cork.—Lord Mayor O'Callaghan testified, in effect: On the night of December 11, 1920, by the military curfew law Cork citizens were forbidden to be out of doors, without military permission, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. About 9 p.m. the streets were cleared by shots from the British military. The fires began at several points about 10 p.m. in the main thoroughfare of the city. At 3 a.m. another fire was started in the City Hall, separated by the River Lee from the 10 p.m. conflagrations. Previous attempts had been made to fire the city. During the night in question military trucks filled with soldiers patrolled the deserted burning streets. The fire brigade deposed that they were shot at while attempting to extinguish the flames. Exclusive of the* area, of the City Hall fire, about one square mile of the city was burned out. The loss was estimated at 20,000,000 dollars. Besides the business premises, and the seat of the Republican administration with its records, all the premises of the Republican political organisation were destroyed.

It may be noted that in his testimony before us Lord Mayor O'Callaghan definitely charged the burning of that city to the Imperial British forces, but did not offer direct proof to establish this charge. He placed in evidence an attested copy of the following telegram sent by him together with Messrs. Walsh and De Roiste, members of .the Dail Eireann, to Sir Hamar Greenwood, Lord R. Cecil,

Messrs. Asquith and Henderson, and Commander Kenworthy :

"On behalf of the whole citizens, we absolutely and most emphatically repudiate the vile suggestion that Cork city was burned by any action of the citizens. In the name of truth, justice, and civilisation, we demand an impartial civilian inquiry into the circumstances of the city's destruction."

"Wo are quite willing to submit evidence before any international tribunal, or even a tribunal of Englishmen like Bentinck, Henderson, Kenworthy, and Cecil." Lord Mayor O'Callaghan further testified: "That demand for an impartial inquiry was supported by the Cork Chamber of Commerce, which, as, I told you a short time ago, had already wired to Sir Hamar Greenwood, Imperial Chief Secretary for Ireland, and had asked for protection for their property. Up to then the demand for protection had only resulted in increasing the incendiarism, and they sent the following wire: 'The Cork Incorporated Chamber of Commerce and Shipping express their astonishment at the statements made by you in the House of Commons with reference to the destruction of Cork. Wo demand that, as Chief Secretary, you make personal investigation on the spot of the true facts, when incontrovertible evidence will be placed before jrou, and that a judicial commission of inquiry be set up without delay. We claim that all damage be made good out of Government funds.

The Chamber begs to draw your attention to the fact that on November 29 they wired you with reference to incendiary fires occurring in Cork, and requested immediate protection for citizens' property, to which telegram no reply was made by you.

" ' (Signed) Danckert, Honorary Secretary.' "That was also adopted by the Cork Harbor Board, on the motion of Mr. Benjamin Haughton, one of the Unionist members of the Board; and by the Cork Employers' Federation." The Imperial British Government ordered an inquiry to bo held, presided over by Major-General Strickland, in Cork, who was the officer commanding in Cork. MajorGeneral Strickland duly reported to the Imperial British Government. His report was suppressed by that Government.

Your Commission had submitted to it copies of the reports of the British Labor Commission and of the Irish Labor Commission, both of which bodies, having made a direct and searching investigation, concluded that the forces of the Crown were guilty of the destruction of Cork. The conclusions of these two Commissions as to the guilt of the Crown forces and the responsibility of the British Government appear to us to be given greater weight by the refusal of the British Government to permit a civil inquiry, by the secrecy with which the military inquiry of General Strickland was conducted, by the suppression of the report of General Strickland, and by the admission in tho House of Commons of Sir Hamar Greenwood, Chief Secretary for Ireland, that certain "Black-and-Tans" had been mildly disciplined for the part they ' were shown by the Strickland report to have had in the burning of Cork. "Sinn Fein Extremist" would seem to be a term used exclusively by the British. The term is sometimes employed by them to connote murderers and incendiaries, engaged in the destruction of the lives and property of Irish Republicans. In the case of the murder of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain, a British-summoned coroner's jury charged certain agents of the Imperial British Government with the crime;, and in the case of the burning of Cork, General Strickland's military tribunal apparently found certain "Black-and-Tans" were culpable; though in both cases members of the Imperial British Government had averred that the guilty parties were "Sinn Fein Extremists." We would deprecate the use of the term "Sinn Fein Extremist" by responsible Ministers of the Imperial British Government.

Selected Irish Republicans would appear to have been murdered, singly and in numbers, surreptitiously and publicly. In domiciliary murders, without notoriety, silence followed. When the position or profession of the victim made silence impracticable, the British-made "Sinn. Fein Extremist"' was invoked. When the victim was in British

custody, the Ley tie Fuga acted. And wholesale slaying and destruction were justified by the British "reprisals."

Indiscriminate Shooting.—Besides the v slaying of selected Republican citizens, and the destruction of Republican cities, towns, and villages, indiscriminate violence also occurred. Miss Ellen Wilkinson, of Manchester, England, was an eye-witness of a shooting expedition to which she testified as follows:

"Curfew was at ten o'clock. We went to our room. According to law no one is supposed to have a light or look out of the window. But we turned our lights out and wrapped ourselves up and went to the window. First of all there came the soldiers in extended formation, each wearing tin helmetsthe shrapnel helmets —and carrying guns with fixed bayonets. And then came three armoured cars packed with soldiers. . . . They went on by and when they came back they fired into the houses at a certain level. We saw the bullet marks next morning. That, of course, is a terrible thing. Many people have been killed on account of this indiscriminate firing from motor-lorries.

It lasted from ten till three."

Mrs. Agnes B. King, of Ironton, Ohio, testified to the use of searchlights by the Imperial British Forces, in a similar shooting expedition witnessed by her.

It would appear that the Imperial British Forces, in organised bodies, on certain occasions, testified to before us, have engaged in indiscriminate shooting of the noncombatant Irish people in their homes at night.

Where the Responsibility Lies

It was testified before us that coroner's juries, summoned by the Imperial Administration in Ireland, found that Thomas Dwyer, of Ragg, James McCarthy, Patrick Lynch, and Lord Mayor Mac Curtain were murdered by the members of the Royal Irish Constabulary; John A. Lynch and the Buckley youth are alleged to have been assassinated by the military. It was deposed that in the case of Nunan the attempt to murder was made at the order of an Imperial British soldier, and that in the case of the Buckley youth an officer of His Majesty's regiment of Cameron Highlanders was in command of the party. Most of the other murders including the Croke Park massacre were attributed to "police" or "Black-and-Tans."

Tribunals. —Your Commission has been impressed by the fact that ordinary civil processes early ceased to be involved by British authority in the investigation of surreptitious and public assassination of Irish citizens by agents of, or members of, the Imperial British ,forces, officers and men, disguised or wearing His Majesty's uniform; and that such investigation was relegated to specially formed military tribunals, sitting usually in secret.* The British military seem to have been at the same time prosecutor, judge, jury—and accused.

The testimony shows that the Imperial British authorities in cases such as the burning and slaying in Balbriggan,! Thurles, Galway, Mallow, and other Irish towns, have abstained from punishing the forces engaged on the alleged ground that the actual criminals could not be identified. It seems improbable to lis that the considerable

forces employed for such expeditions of murder and destruction could absent themselves from their barracks, could use military motor trucks to transport themselves to the doomed towns, and expend British ammunition in shooting Irish citizens and gasoline in burning their property, and yet could leave behind no discoverable signs of their identity.

Officers in Reprisals.—The testimony before us mentions the participation of District Inspector Cruise in the Galway reprisal; of an unnamed officer in the Mallowreprisal; of District Inspector Lowndes and three suborinate officers in the reprisal at Ballylorby. The Mallow reprisal is shown to have resulted from a concerted military manoeuvre participated in by troops from Fermoy and Buttevant. The Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial British forces in Ireland, General Macready, forewarned, did not prevent this military sacking of Mallow. The Imperial British General commanding in Galway commended the assassins and incendiaries in Galway City; incited them to repeat their depredations; and immediately thereafter two more murders occurred there.

The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act of 1920 would seem to give to the Imperial military authorities in Ireland the administration of criminal law in set areas there. But this law does not dispense with trial; and it gives the military no sanction either for assassination, or for the invention of new crimes; and subsequently the penalty attached to such crimes is also illegal. There seems no sanction in the published civil or military codes of British justice for these assassinations. If the Irish are rebels to British authority it would seem to xis that their assassination at least in custody must be contrary to British law.

Such assassination would seem likewise to be contrary to the assumption that the Irish are prisoners of war, for it is forbidden by the Hague Convention.

And the ethical as well as the legal aspects of the killing of the handcuffed Buckley and of the indiscriminate shooting up of sleeping towns and football crowds would seem to be defensible by no standard of human conduct.

tAfter describing the murder of two men, the destruction of more than twenty houses and a factory at Balbriggan, Sir H. Greenwood (House of Commons, October 20, 1920) said: "I myself have had the fullest inquiry made into the case. I will tell the House what I found. I found that from 100 to 150 men went to Balbriggan determined to revenge the death of a popular comrade shot at and murdered in cold blood. I find it is impossible out of that 150 to find the men who did the deed, who did the burning. I have had tho most searching inquiry made." (Lor. tit., vol. 133, col. 947.)

* Lord R. Cecil (House of Commons, November 1. 1920): When my right lion, friend speaks of inquiries, are these inquiries made in private or public?

Sir H. Greenwood: Some inquiries are made in private and some in public. My own experience in Ireland is that the most effective inquiry is made in private.

Mr. Devlin: From whom does the right lion, gentleman make these inquiries?

Sir H. Greenwood: From those officers and persons who are responsible to me for their conduct. (Loc. cit., vol. 134, cols. 27-28.)

Mr. Kiley (House of Commons, November 11, 1920) asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether at every inquiry held into alleged reprisals in Ireland there has been present some person with legal training or qualifications; and if not, in the case of hoiv many inquiries such a person has been present?

Sir H. Greenwood As I have already stated, the inquiries into such allegations are conducted by responsible police or military officers upon whose findings I can rely. (Loc. cit., vol. 134, cols. 1344-45.)

(To be continued.)