Republican farmer., 1919-07-11

| of the American Commission to Ire ! land. hoping upon their return that | he could press upon them the Eng | fish point of view" to be used as pro- | paganda in America.
 | The Lord Chancellor, officially re- | plying to the same questions in the ! House of Lords, likewise denied, or ! behalf of the Prime Minister. that | there was ever any intention 70 grant
 safe conducts to Ncssrs. De Valera, | 1t was tho purpose of the Prime Min ! ister to have present at his interview | with the American Commission upon | their return from Ireland. all of the | American newspaper correspondents, i so that he (the Prime Ministcr) | might make a statement of England's | attitude on the Irish Problem, which
 would tend to allay the growing pre- | iudice against England tr the United ! States.
 When the passports were handed to | the American Commissioners on the | morning of their departure for Ire 1 iand, Sir William Wiseman stated | hat Mir. Lloyd George wished the | Commission to go to all parts of Ire | land. If possible, and it was his spe- | cial request that they should visit ! Belfast.
 i Upon repeating Sir William Wise | mans request to Messrs O'Ceallaigh 1 and Gavan Duffy. the Irish Envoy's | at Paris. they joined in the request | that WIG should make a close investi- ation of conditions ir Ireland, and 1 especially urged that we should visit | the tails. particularly those in the ! larger cities where they asserted, I hundreds of men and women were ] confined under circumstances of the 1 most shocking nature.
 Crossing the Irish Sea from Holy ! head to Dunleary we came upon the | first evidence of the military occupa- | ton of Ireland The vessel and | wharves swarmed with soldiers, fully | equipped Cor the field going to and coming from Ireland.
 When we arrived in Ireland we ! found soldiers everywhere. A care ! ful investigation, made on the day before we left Ireland, showed that | tho Army of Occupation numbered ! considerably over one hundred thous- and men, to which additions are be- ! ing made daily. The troops are ! equipped with lorries ,armored cars. | tanks. machine guns, bombing planes. 1 light and heavy artillery; and in fact i all of the engines of war lately em- | ployed against the Central Powers. In addition to this, there are ap- | proximately 15,0OO members of the | Royal Irish Constabulary. The con- | stabulary is a branch of the military | forces. They are armed with rifles, as well as small side arms. engage in ! regular drills and field nanouvres. | They are never residents of the dis ! tricts which they occupy, and have | quarters in regular government bar | racks.
 | After our arrival in Ireland we : conferred with President De Valera ! as to the prisons which we should
 visit, and Mountjoy Jail, in the | city of Dublin, was selected, for the l reason hat it contained a large num-
 of political prisoners. many of them | men of the highest character and l standing Mounttoy. so far physical | equipment and brutality of conduct | goes is not as bad as many of the | other jails in Ireland.
 | We made our demand for permis-
 sion to visit this jail through the 1 municipal authorities of the city of | Dublin. The governor of the prison
 n resident of England, who has been l in office but a few weeks, refused us
 admission. It was then explained l to Sir John Irwin, chairman of the Visiting Justices of Mounttoy Prison that the Commission was travelling ! on diplomatic passports and was in ! vestigating conditions in Ireland, partly at the solicitation of the Prime l Minister. With this explanation, Sir l John Irwin. who is in supreme au-
 thority of the jail, overruled the de- cision of the governor and we were | admitted to Mountjoy.
 | When we appeared at the gate we
 were ushered into the office of the governor, where we found Sir John
 | Irwin. The governor told us that
 we were to be admitted to the prison.
 but with the understanding that we
 should not speak to any prisoner, nor
 seek to fix the identity of any prison
 CT exhibited
 Although Mountjoy is called a jail,
 it is, as a matter of fact, a comb pima
 tion of jail and penitentiary It is
 surrounded by q stone wall twenty feet in height, and is larger than any
 | of the mid-western American peniten-
 tiaries such as Jefferson City or Joliet.
 and almost large as Sing Sing. It
 has immense cell houses, built to ac- commodate approximately 1000 pris- oners It is equipped with work shops. where men convicted of serious crimes are confined at hard labor It
 is also used for the confinement of ; persons awaiting trial, as we'll as mis- , demeanants serving sentences for , petty offenses.
 Exclusive of the political prisoners there were but twelve persons in con- hnernent, all of them undergoing sen i tences for petty mira ctions of law : One of the men Swho accompanied l us upon the visit was an official of , the city of Dublin, well acquainted
 i with all of the political prisoners; so s that we had no difficulty in identify . ing them. They weSe confined for : the most part in groups. the majority , of them being locked up in steel I cages. built in the yards of the pris- s on. entirely outside of the buildings
 proper These cages are exact dupli- . cates of those used for wild animals . In the larger Geological gardens. such , as Lincoln Park and the Bronx, In