The Irish standard., 1919-11-15

From: Daniel T. OConnel Director, Irish Ma
tional Bureau.
To: William Sowden Sims. Admiral U. S. N,
Washington, D. c.
Subject: Article in "The Worlds Work"
/. The Irish National Bureau making due allow
ance for your right as citizen to publish the story
OF your experiences, respectfully enters protest
against your officer of the United States
Navy in promulgating statements which, with di-
reStness of accusation but indrectness of support
ing evidence of fact constitute slander of the vast
majority of the people of Ireland and offend griev
ously 2OOOOOO Americans of Irish blood, who, with
hearts loyal to the Stars and Stripes, cannot
forget that their blood is wholly partly the same
as that which courses through the veins of those
whom you attack.
2. Secretary Daniels has informed us that our
letter to him under date of November l has been
referred to you. In that letter we wrote that a
further protest would be made to you, personally
Will you, therefore, consider the facts set forth III
the letter to the Secretary as part OF the general
protest. thereby making it unnecessary for us now
to repeat them in their entirety?
5. Before giving detailed answer to your attack,
it is right that you should know from whom the an
swer comes, that you may have clearer under
standing OF the views which we express. The sgner
is an American citizen; he was born and reared in
Boston, Mass. Both his parents were born in Cork
County, Ireland and, like millions of other men and
women, were forced by conditions, born of British
misgovernment, to come at early age to the
United States to obtain for themselves and for their
children the blessings of liberty which this nation
having thrown off England's oppression offered to
the oppressed peoples Of the world his father in the
Civil War; served in the United States Navy; and
the signer himself, in the recent war, served as
Captain in the Judge Advocates Section of the
United States Army and at present holds commits
sion in the Reserves and, when the selective service
pointed Provost Marshal of his home dis
trict and subsequently was Government Ap-
peal Agent; and later upon recommendation OF
the American Bar Association, served the Depart
0f Too0~ old ros~s-a fo~
States Employment Service. The signer was for
several years an officer, for time President of the
Boston University Law School Association which
today numbers among its members five of the seven
Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachu
setts For references to his standing in the com
munity and member of the Bar, and of his
willingness to be fair in any controversy in which
engaged, you at liberty to inquire of any member
OF the Massachusetts, Judiciary the United States
Judiciary of the Massachusetts District, or of the
officers of the Boston Bar Association the Massa-
chusetts Bar Association, the American Bar
Association in all of which the signer holds men,
bership. This personal reference would not be in
cluded herewith it not that previous protest
from the Irish National Bureau Secretary Daniels
has aroused widespread comment and that you, per-
haps, may with reason insist upon knowing the
standing of the person who, as Director of this Bu-
reau, protests against your writings.
a. The burden of your attack is as follows:
(a) That Sim Fein was pro- German and that it
not only failed to contribute towards the winning Of
the Allies;
(b) That this active pro- -Germanism showed itself
in attacks upon American sailors in the streets of
Cork;
(c) That President De Valera of the Irish Repub-
lie, now in the United States, is one of "ths same
brotherhood" and consequently represents cause
unworthy of American encouragement and support:
(d) And indirectly, but the less clearly, that
American citizens in large numbers are supporting
morally and financially movement which is inimi-
cal to the best interests of the United States
5. In support of these statements, all of which
based upon gross msinterpretation of facts you
offer nothing but indefinite, indirect and unfair gen
eralizatons sla99
g. 1t is represented to the Irish National Bureau,
however, that the actual writing of the article in
question not done by you but that it is the work
OF another who, though perhaps more accustomed to
expressing himself in writing, was handicapped by
dependence upon mere fragments from your expert
ence, contributed in part by you and in part by
unsupported statements which previously had ap-
helpful to proper understanding if you will state
definitely and officially whether you are or are not
the writer of the article in question: and if it is not
entirely the child of your pen, to what extent any
Z other person assisted in its preparation.
z z. You say: "There is a certain pertinence in
y informing Americans just what kind of treatment
their brave sailors met with AT SINN FEIN
HANDS IN IRELAND." The capitalization is
ours. We desire to point out to you that this will be
& accepted by the American people as sweeping in
dctment not alone of Sim Fein in Cork but of Sim
& Eein - whole Now, since the war began English
sailors have been attacked while in American ports
B but would you approve if Sir Edward Carson con-
demned the entire American people or the rank and