The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-09-11
Irish Refugee on
Srs&$}%k|iing Tour

:; : = ! lOul
csai 10
one pa. 80 another; it wa
not till the y. IN orders took tn
form of telling n to leave Irelan,
altogether that they refused. Tn,
success of that refusal makes it likel.
that county deportation orders vii
also be resisted in future.
'The National Volunteers, on tn,
other hand, are torn by internal dis
sensions, which have recently led t,
the firing of Gaynor, the editor o.
their paper, the National Volunteer.
This paper is now edited by Jamel
Greed Meredith, a Trinity College bar
rister, who has never pretended to b,
anything but Home Rule Imperial
ist.' The first issue Of the paper I'm
der his editorship is not disfigured by
the disgraceful attacks on other Ma
tionalists which earned for it, under
Gaynor, the title of the 'Felon-Setters
Gazette; instead, 1t records protest
against the deportation policy, which
it describes as 'Prussianism.' Thai
shows how feeling is moving even ir
the inner circles Of Redmond's dis
tracted and disillusioned following"
"Can you give US any figures as tt
the actual success or failure Of the
recruiting policy?"
"The figures of actual recruiting,
said Mr.. Sheehy Skefington, "have
been sedulously concealed. In the
early days of the war, they used t.
publish weekly figures of the recruit
ing in Dublin; but they soon stopped
that; the figures were too miserable
In all the statements now published
recruits and reservists are mixed VI
together, SO as to make it appear that
1rishmen already in the army before
the war, who had to respond to the
call as reservists, are new recruits
The number of these reservists was a,
least 10000, and that figure has to be
deducted from any statement as to the
number Of Irish recruits. These re
servists, in the days before the war
were largely employed by the Volun
teers as military instructors; that IL
the foundation for Redmond's state
ment that $4,000 National Volunteers
have Joined the British army. Out
side these reservist instructors, the
number of Volunteers who have beer
'duped into Joining the army could al
most be put into street car"
"Is it possible to make any accu
rate calculation of the actual numbers
of Irish recruits?"
1--WE can make a rough calculation
which will certainly not be an under
estimate, on the basis of the figures
given by Redmond himself, in his Ores
ham hotel speech of July 1. He said
in the first place, that there had beer
a STEADY weekly increase in recruits
since the beginning of the war; ani
secondly, that in the four weeks end
ing June 16 there had been $500 en-
listments in Ireland. If both those
statements are true, the total Irish en-
listments for 10 months of war would
not exceed $4,000 and would probably
be much less than that"
"That, of course, includes Unionist
recruits as we'll as those from Nation
alist districts?"
"Yes. In the same speech, Red
mond said the Irish recruits were di
vided in the proportion of seven Cath
olics to five Professionals. Taking re
ligion as rough index of politica
feeling, this would mean that of $4,000
recruits only $4,000 would be Nation
alists. Compare these figures with tn
fact that there are about 100000 mel
Of military age in Ireland, and yol
can estimate Redmond's success in hi
recruiting campaign. And mus
again remind you that am takin
these figures as supplied by Redmon'
himself, who has every interest in put
ting them at the highest. He is prot
ably not so reckless III statement q
Mr.. John Dillon, who in recen
speech credited Limerick City with
number Of recruits which was show
to be two hundred in excess Of tn
total male population of military az
in that city, but still he is not likel
to have understated the figures"
what were the most powerful II
huences working on those Irish Nj
tionalists who did enlist?"
Undoubtedly Belgium. The r
cruiting agencies worked Belgium Il
all 1t was worth to excite Irish warn
hearted sympathy. Blood -curdlin
stories Of atrocities were manufa
tured and employed with great skill
especially stories Of outrages on won
en-. And meantime women were beiu
found drowned in the Liffey with 4
publicity and no inquiry-even thoue
i they were pulled out In the neighbo
hood Of the barracks where the En-
lish soldiery are quartered = eve
though IN one case the dead woms
| tightly clutched khaki belt In hi
SO go al