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Condition of the Irish People and the Demands
of Ireland.
IF I DID not know that Ex-Gov Edward F. Dunne of Illinois and Frank P.
Walsh were reputable men, I should unhesitatingly denounce the subjoined
report on the condition of affairs in Ireland as base slander of the
English Government. But these men are not capable of telling a deliberate
lie about this matter. They are telling the truth -- the hard cruel
unanswerable truth. Read this report, Mississippians and then congratulate
yourselves on the vote of your great and good senior senator against the
resolution of sympathy for these outrageously persecuted and oppressed
people.
There is nothing in the annals of government more
reprehensible than England's treatment of Ireland except possibly Williams
vote:
After a general review of conditions prevailing, the report makes
the following specific charges:
"First -- Within the past
few months at least ten citizens have been killed by soldiers and
constables under circumstances which, in a majority of the cases the
coroner's juries found to be willful murder under the laws of England. the
last man having been murdered less than a month ago, In all these cases
the perpetrator of the crimes have gone unpunished.
Second -
Hundreds of men and women have been confined for months in the
vilest prisons without any charges being preferred against
them.
Third - At least five men have died as a result of
atrocities perpetrated against them while in prison. Post mortem
examinations in some cases disclosed marks of violence upon the
bodies.
Fourth - Prisoners were confined in narrow cells
with their hands handcuffed behind them day and night. In this condition
they are fed by jail attendants They are permitted no opportunity for
answering calls of nature and are compelled to lie in their clothing
befouled for days at a time.
Fifth - Many persons are
confined cells which are not large enough for one man. They are not
provided with beds or bunks of any kind but are compelled to sleep on hare
floors. There are no toilet facilities, and men are compelled to sleep in
filth night after night.
Sixth - The food is insufficient
and unwholesome. The prisoners, both men and women, are compelled to live
days upon water and poorly baked, sour, stale bread.
Seventh - Hundreds of men and women have been discharged from jail with
impaired constitutions, in many cases incur able invalids. as a result of
their treatment.
Eighth - During part of the winter and
spring streams of ice-cold water were poured over the men confined in the
jails
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and they were compelled to lie all night on cold floors in unheated
cells in their wet clothing. Many of them were afterwards removed to
outside hospitals suffering from pneumonia.
Ninth -
Policemen and soldiers habitually are permitted to enter cells where
political prisoners are confined and beat them with their
clubs.
Tenth - Solitary confinement in its most. horrible
form has generally been practiced. Numbers of prisoners have been taken
directly from jails to insane asylums, rendered maniacs by their
treatment.
Eleventh - Large bodies of political prisoners
in certain jails have been kept without any food whatever for days at it
time.
Twelfth - The right of privacy no longer exists in
Ireland. Homes constantly are being invaded by armed men and the
occupants, including delicate women and young children, are cruelly beaten
and otherwise maltreated.
Thirteenth - Children of
suspected republicans, many of them of tender years. are kidnapped and
their parents kept in ignorance of their whereabouts for
weeks.
Fourteenth - Women and children of refinement and
respectability are arrested with warrants, and in company with rough,
brutal soldiers arc. transported to distant parts of Ireland and England,
where they are confined in jail with the lowest
prostitutes.
Fifteenth - The right to own private property
no longer exists in Ireland The places of business of republicans are
invaded by soldiers and constables the fixtures destroyed and the,
property confiscated without compensation. In many cases the owners of
such business property have been utterly ruined.
Sixteenth
- The heads of hundreds of families have been jailed or deported, leaving
their dependent women and children without means of subsistence These
dependents are being rendered objects of public charity.
Seventeen - Men and women on the mere suspicion of being republican
sympathizers, are being taken from their homes or arrested in the streets
or highways and deported to England or else they are confined in gaols in
places remote from their homes, while their families some. times are kept
in ignorance of their whereabout for many months.
The recommendations
were summarized as follows:
First - An impartial committee
should be named by the peace conference and authorized to sit in London
and Dublin to take testimony concerning the alleged facts herein set
forth. None of the members of such committee should be residents or
citizens of Great Britain, or Ireland, or of any country under the
domination of Great Britain or over which Britain claims a protectorate or
control.
Second - That the committee be composed of seven
members and he selected immediately in the following
manner:
The premier of England to select three
members and the elected representatives of Ireland, including-the
Unionists, Nationalists and Republicans. shall by a majority vote select
three members and the six members thus select shall agree upon a chairman
who shall be a resident and citizen of the United States, France or
Japan. In case of the inability or failure to agree upon a chairman, the
selection shall be made by the United States Supreme Court; that the
government of Great Britain and the elected members from Ireland shall
each have a right to select counsel to conduct the examination of
witnesses and to assist in the investigation, the only restriction being
that the counsel so selected shall be a reputable member of the legal
profession in good standing in the country of which he is a
citizen.
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