The Irish standard., 1915-09-11


that county deportation orders will
also be resisted in future.
.'The National Volunteers, on the
other hand, are torn by internal dis
sensions, which have recently led to
the firing Of Gaynor, the editor Of
their paper. the National Volunteer
This paper is now edited by James
Greed Meredith, q Trinity College bar
rister. who has never pretended. to be
anything but Home Rule Imperial
ist.' The first issue Of the paper un-
der his editorship is not disagured by
the disgraceful attacks on other Ma
tionalists which earned for 1t, under
Gaynor, the title Of the 'Felon-setters'
Gazette; instead, It records a protest
against the deportation policy. which
It describes as 'Prussianism.' That
shows how feeling Is moving even in
the inner circles of Redmond's dis
tracted and disillusioned following"
"Can you give us any figures as to
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 to
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 UP
together, so as to make It appear that
Irishmen 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 at
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 is
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 been
.duped into Joining the army could al
most be put into a street car"
''Is it possible to make any accu-
rate calculation of the actual numbers
of Irish recruits?" &
''We can make 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 been
a steady weekly increase in recruits
since the beginning of the war; and
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 well 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 Protestants. Taking re
ligion as a rough index Of politica
feeling, this would mean that Of 0,00l
recruits only $4,000 would be Nation
aiists. 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 I mus
again remind you that am takinl
these figures as supplied by Redmon'
himself, who has every interest in put
ting them at the highest. He is prob
ably not 80 reckless III statement .
Mr.. John Dillon, who In recen
speech credited Limerick City with 1
number Of recruits which was show
to be two hundred in excess Of th
total male population Of military ag
in that city, but still he is not likel
to have understated the figures"
what were the most powerful i
auences working on those Irish N,
i tionalists who did enlist :" s3
Undoubtedly Belgium. The r
cruiting agencies worked Belgium Il
ali It was worth to excite Irish warn
i hearted sympathy. Blood d-curdlin
|stories Of atrocities were manufa
Il tured and employed with great ski
especially stories Of outrages on Won
!. en-. And meantime women were beir
4 found drowned In the Mney with
!. publicity and no inquiry even thoul
thsys were pulled ont IN the neighbc
& hood of the barracks whore the I'm
\ lish soldisry are quartsred - ey.
!. though an one case the dead woma
!. .ttishtly ciutehed Z khaki belt IN b
! hand. Thsrs 4 no boom y the Pre-
8 tcontinued on Pass -