The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-12-07
ing on the western front.

The behavior of the American SAIL
they did not openly manifest hatred
of Great Britain and love of Germany
Infatuated the Sim Feiners. And tht
eternal woman question also played it's
part. Our men had much more none,
than the native Irish boys, and couN
entertain the girls more lavishly at the
movies and ice cream stands. The men
of our fleet and the Irish girls became
excellent friends; the association, from
our point of view, was a very whole
some one. for the moral character oil
the Irish girls of Queenstown and Cork
-as indeed, of Irish girls everywhere
was very high, and their companion
ship added greatly to the wellbeing and
ccntentment of our sailors. not 4 few OF
whom, indeed. found wives among
these young women. But when the
Slim Fein element saw their sweet
hearts deserving them for the Ameri-
can boys their hitherto suppressed an
ger took the form of overt. acts
Some of the Scuff!cs.
Occasionally American sailor
would be brought from Cork to Queens
l
pressing medical attention. When he
regained consciousness he would re-
late how he had suddenly been set
upon by half a dozen roughs and beat
en- into a state of insenSibility. Sew
eral of our men were severely injured
in this way. AT other times small
groups were stoned by Sim Fein sym
pathizers and there We're many hostile
demonstrations in moving picture
houses and theatres. Evan more fire.
quently attacks were made, no upon
the American sailors, but upon the
Irish girls who accompanied them.
These chivalrous pro-German agita-
tors would rush up and. attempt to tear
the girls away from our young men:
they would pull down their hair. slap
them and even kick them. Naturally
American sailors were hardly the type
to tolerate behavior of this kind, and
some bloody battles took place
This hostility was increased by ono
very regretable occurrence in Queens
town An American sailor was prom
enading the main thoroughfare with an
Irish girl when an Infatuated Sim
Feiner rushed up, began to abuse his
sweetheart in vile language, mad at
tempted to lay hands on her. The
American struck this hooligan ter
rifle blow; he fell backwards and
struck his head on the curb. The fall
fractured the assailant's skull and in
few hours he was dead. We handed
our man over to the civil authorities
for trial. and a jury, composed entire
ly of Irishmen, acquitted him. The
action of this jury in itself indicated
| that there was sympathy among
| the decent Irish element-which con-
| tributed the great majorfty-for this
| sort of tactics, but naturally 1t did not
improve relations between our men
and the Sim Fem
! The importance of another incident
which took place at the cathedral has
been much exaggerated. 1t is true that
a priest in his Sunday sermon de-
nounced the American sailors as van
da1s and betrayerS of Irish woman
hood but it is also true that the Roman
Catholics of that section We're them
selves the most enraged at this absurd
proceeding. A number of Roman Cath
Ollie officers who were present left the
church in a body: the Catholic Bishop
of the diocese called upon Admiral
Bayly and apologiZed for the insult,
and he also punished the offending
priest by assigning him to new duties
at a considerable distance from the
American ships.
brewing, for our officers discovered
that the American sailors were max
ing elaborate plans to protect them
selves Had this discovery not been
made in time, something like an inter- z
national incident might have resulted
No Leaves at Cork.
Much to our regret, therefore, we had
to issue an order that no naval men.
British or American, under the rank
of commander, should be permitted to
GO to Cork. Ultimately we had nearly
5000 American men at this station;
Queenstown itself is a small place OF
5000 or 1000 so it is apparent that 1t
did not possess the facilities for CIV
ing such a large number of men those
relaxations which were necessary to
their efficiency. We established club
in Queenstown, provided moving pic
lures and other entertainments and
did the best we could to keep our sail
ors contented. The citizens of Cork also
keenly regretted our action. The great
majority had formed a real fondness
our boys; and they regarded 1t as
a great humiliation that the rowdy ele-
ment had made it necessary to keep our
men out of their city. Many letters
were printed in the Cork newspapers
apologizing to the Americans and call
ing upon the people to take action that
would justify Us in resembling our
order The loss to Cork tradesmen was
great; our men received not far from
100000 to 100000 month in pay;
they were free spenders and their pres
ence in the neighborhood for nearly
two years would have meant fortune
to many of the local merchants YET
we were obliged to refuse to accede TIC
tho puy,aro,,s reo,Iests that the Amerf