The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-09-02
IRELAND IN THE WAR
irish are Willing to Fight But Oppose
CONSUMPTION

The Irish volunteers, the organlza
ton in Ireland formed to resist con
scription being forced upon the men
OF Ireland and obliging them to take
arms in the English ranks. have ad.
vanced in their opposition to the gov
eminent. According to recent copies
of the Irish Volunteer. the official or
gan of the troops which have been
received in Worcester this week, they
will oppose compulsory registration,
which has been classed under the
head Of Registration, and condemn
ed as such.
Several lrishmen have come to
Worcester from Ireland in the last
two weeks and declare that they left
their homes because they were afraid
they would be forced into the English
army. They declare that when the
English authorities began to register
all persons in Ireland between the
! ages of 16 and 55 years, with special
| question relating to the fitness OF all
the individuals for army service, the
| SNHcAp al AtElliE VI uui COZ hHiNh Noo
manifest in Ireland was increased.
At the last meeting of the executive
board of the volunteers July 18, the
| attitude of the volunteers toward corn
! pulsorary registration was defined as
one Of Tesolute opposition. Any at
tempt, they say, on the part OF the
government to apply compulsory
| scheme Of registration to Ireland or
| to any part of Ireland will be untlinch
ingly opposed by the Irish volunteers.
Editor Mcneil OF the official organ
expresses his attitude on registration
in the editorial column of the issue
as follows: Let us put this registra
| ton business to the test. My life is
all my goods The workingman's life
is all his goods. In this well robbed
land OF ours for % men out OF 100
our lives are all we have to live by
II we are asked to put our names on
a goernment resistrater, so that the
government may commanded our
lives, our work and our livelihood,
we answer
when Lord Lansdown, Lord Lon
donderry, the Duke of Abercorn and
other great imperial patriots aband-
on all the common stock, when the
law compels them to do so, then it
will be time enough to come down to
the poor man and compel him to sur
render life and ALL Till then your
compulsory proposals thin end or
thick end are no better than a tyranni
cal scheme to enable your wealthy
land owners and capitalists and your
diyidenders to live on in riches, com
fort and luxury by sacrificing the
lives and labors OF the poor"
Irish people in America, who are
not in direct communication with per.
sons affiliated with the volunteers or
their publication the Irish Volunteer,
arc impressed by the99 late arrivals
who declare that for the PAST few
months a wall OF secrecy and oGrsil-
ence has been built up around Ire
land. One OF the lrishmeA rWlD
came to this country to avoid con-
scrintion and is now working in a
Worcester factory explains the situa-
ton as follows; England has control
OF all the means of communication,
and has done her best from the start
to hide from the outside world the
seethingl mass OF discomfort that ex
lists in Ireland.
Irish papers that were telling the
facts We're suppressed, and subsidized
sheets like the Dublin Freeman's Jour
nal have attempted to create the i'm
preston that the Irish people are at
| heart and soul with England. 1t is
their part of the work to misrepre-
sent Irish sentiment and for this they
are paid form Dublin Castle.
"The fact that several Irishmen
have been made the victims of the
| defense of the realm act has only
tended to make the spirit of unrest
increase The government has order
ed three Irish nationaylsts, Ernest
Blythe, Clare William Malows, Ath-
eny ard II. j. PIN, Belfast, to leave
Ireland because they spoke against
recruiting. Already Is men have been
expelled from ireland for similar reas
ons in Tipperary farmer was arrest.
cd for having used language calculat-
| ed to prejudice against recruiting,
and he is still being held in custody,
Jeremiah Lynch, on American citi-
zen, was arrested and brought be-
| fore the northern police court be-
cause it was claimed he had not reg
| istered as an alien The man has
| been in Ireland for over eight years
! as a representative of an American
| insurance company, and was we'll
thought of wherever he had gone.
! Thre are cases all through Ireland
! where innocent men have been made
to suffer nooriety and even punish
ment under the defense OF the realm
act which have served to incite hat
red for England among the Irish peo-
pie, and | can assure you there was
! enough there to start with without
adding to it,
| Worcester Irishmen were surprised