The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-27

party because they wished to end the
 British connection absolutely. and be-
 lieved that the only way to do it was by force
 Most of these men are ideaiists, and
 there is no denying that the acquisition
 Of q practical man like Sir Roger Case
 ment gave them importance that they would not otherwise have attained. Sir
 Roger will be remembered for his work
 in exposing the Congo atrocities and
 later those in the Putumayo country. He
 is man of great organizing ability, of
 high character, and is universally re-
 spected.
 Next to Sir Roger Easement the best
 known figure among this group of Irish
 patriots Is Jim Larkin. the labor leader
 who leapt into fame through the Dublin
 transport workers strike a couple of
 years ago. Irish politicians and British
 labor leaders soon defeated Larlin on
 that occasion. He is a man of a good
 deal of natural eloquence, but of little
 real ability. and is not considered dan
 gerous. On the literary side the only men of any consequence associated with the party are Prof. John MacNeill, who occupies the chair of Gaelic at the Ma | tional university and Arthur Griffiths. editor of the weekly newspaper, sim F'ein." Both are men of high literary at- tainments. When these four men have ! been named we have the whole member ship of the pro-German party whose l names are known outside the circle of their personal friends. What their fol- lowing may be it is impossible to tell
 but their utmost efforts have not pre- vented Ireland from supplying Lord Kitchener with a far larger number of re- cruits in proportion to it's population than England, Scotland and Wales. Only New castle and Derbyshire in England and | the Highland districts of Scotland have | md Qf ] the Newcastle recruits are Trishmen. i However, they seem to have a firm grip | on a large section of the country and | it is impossible to conceal the fact that recruiting in this section has been disap- pointing.
 these men are men of high personal , character and that no one suspects chat l they have personally been bought. Ev eryone is convinced, however, that their propaganda is being financed either di-
 rectly or indirectly by Germany or by
 Irish Americans. A man who has just returned to Dublin from a trip all
 round Ireland tells me that there can be no doubt that large quantities of
 money are being spent here now and have been spent here for the last three or four years. Little weekly papers like
 Sim Fein. Larkin's Irish Worker Pro- lessor MacNeill's Irish Volunteer and Irish Freedom which, before the war. had a weekly circulation of few hun drew each and a struggle to exist, are now being carried in thousands throughout the length and breadth of
 Ireland in motor cars and distributed free Motor cyclists, with side cars full of the papers and of seditious pamph- lets emanating from their offices have penetrated the mountains and glens of Connemara, Donegal and even An trim, scattering the literature broad l ra cf av,1at ha fptr Da p,t,l,1 ,1ofc in Gaelic have even been provided for the Irish-speaking districts. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on this campaign during the last two
 months. am told that a good many of these colporteurs seem to be returned Americans and my friend met two at
 least who spoke English with a strong German accent, but who claimed to be American citizens.
 It must not be forgotten also that for some years past Ireland has been overrun by German pedlars of books.
 musical instruments. gaily colored shawls and trinkets of all kinds They have penetrated into the most out of the way districts and paid special at tcntion to the mountains of Donegal and the coast region of the north and northwest. One of their favorite lines
 was gaudy Autograph of the Kaiser.
 who they always declared was a true
 friend of Ireland. They sold this for
 few pence and it may be found on the
 wall of many an Irish cabin, whose
 owner has a son fighting for King
 George.
 In this connection it may be as we'll
 to dispose once and for all of a slan-
 der which has received wide currency
 in this country. It has been stated that
 the mine field off the northwest coast
 in which the Audacious came to grief
 was laid by Irish fishermen under the direction of German officers. Now there are no steam fishing boats on the northwest coast except a few owned in
 Dublin, the character of whose own- CTS Is above suspicion. One cannot con ccive of mine field being laid by sailboats, and in any case how could
 the mines have reached Ireland? It is much more likely that they were laid flag.
 One cannot get away from the fact that the Irish nation is split on the sub ject of the war. I have heard of few cases during the last week or two in which pedlars suspected of being Ger mans have been mobbed and badly beaten by the Donegal and Connemara peasan- try, and then handed over the police. They were able in every case to prove their innocence. The men who have been doing the serious spying have not been seen in Ireland since the beginning of the war. few night ago the Sim Fein- CTS tried to hold an anti-recruitng meet ing in Galway City. They were mobbed, and so serious did the situation become that they had to appeal to the police to protect them. They were guarded in their hotel all night and placed safely on a 1 train for Dublin in the morning. Similar scenes have occurred in other parts of the country.
 What loyalists in Ireland cannot under stand is the attitude of the government | Reputable newspapers in Dublin and Bel | fast and in all the English cities are he.a to the strictest account by the authori- | ties for the slightest indiscretion in the publication of news. There Is, of course. l no question of disloyalty. but only of Judgment in these cases but the four little weekly Irish papers which are being | printed for free distribution are allowed to say what they please. Larlzin's paper, the Irish Worker. last week spoke of "the gallant German army" ssnd wished it success in its struggle agai1st the cow-