The Washington times., 1920-09-14

police at the same time. II reads as
follows:
10 ...............
II name OF volunteer) being the
officer for the Millstreet area. re-
sponsible for the lives and property
OF all Irish citizens. hereby arrest
you on the charge OF having with
others) wsylaid and robbed certain
bank officials on the morning of
November IT.
as the enemy police '(the Royal
Irish Constabuiary) have aided and
Ing down the culprits. 1t Is my duty
to the public until such time a. an
Irish police is established to capture
and punish the robbers In this
particular outrage, which is only one
OF many carried out at this period
when Irishmen are making the nnal
struggle for independence.
"Signed - Commander.
whether they are committing the
assaults which the British call out
RACES" and they call "acts OF war"
or whether they are hauling a man
into court for being -unkind to his
mother-as they did while was In
Ireland-they are acting illegally and
are subject to arrest.
AMAZING SECRET SERVICE.
They have q system OF secret serv-
Ice which is amazing. Hidden away
In whitewashed cottages In the hills
they have hospitals where they take
their wounded, and their sisters,
trained in first aid, are welcomed into
the ranks of this strange army.
There are many girls among the vol
unteers. They are especially used as
dispatch riders and carry messages
from town to town on bicycles or on
horseback.
There are volunteers in every
crowd that assemblies. On the last
Sunday night that ! spent In Dublin
the city was In an ugly mood. Some
| soldiers got into an alteration with
civilians on O'Connell street. A crowd
grew, the quarrel threatened to be a
riot. The police could not disperse
the crowd. their presence only in
creased the tension. Two or three
mon stepped out from the shadow.
They spoke q few words quietly and
firmly. Tho crowd broke up. The
danger was over.
But they can make . lightning
change from acting as preservers Of
the peace to being violators OF the
law Some few weeks ago tho vice.
roy at Dublin Castle. the headauar-
ters of the British administration in
Ireland. was accustomed to send an
officer to the postofhce every morn
ing at o'clock to get the official
mail. AT ten minutes to 3 one morn
ing a smiling British officer rode up
on horseback. took the mail which
was handed to him and rode away.
! At 8 o'clock another officer rode up.
asked for the mail and was promptly
, arrested. Only. unfortunately. he was
the emissary from Dublin Castle and
the Volunteer had the mail
RAIDING THE MAILS.
with guards everywhere the castle
| mail continues to be raided. During
| the time that / was In Ireland thirty
| men. armed, but unmasked. held up
| the mail in the streets OF Dublin in
! daylight with such speed and pre-
| cision that no one was disturbed.
| More daring still was the raid on the
postofnce itself some weeks pre-
vious. when a dozen or more armed
men came sliding down the mail
chutes with the post bags and leaped
into the sorting room with rovolyers
In their hands.
| II hope the Irish question will be
settled soon" complained an Irish
man. because we are training fine
| bunch OF highwaymen."
But they are not without a sense
| Of honor. In Cork a man showed me
a copy Of a letter which he had sent
| a few weeks previous to his wife in
another city. He had inclosed f36 in
| banknotes. Twice on the way the
mails had been raided by masked men.
holding up the mail wagon on the high
road. Both times the letter had been
opened. But two weeks after 1t had
been posted IL reached its destination.
1t was pasted up. stamped with the
seal OF the Irish republic and It stiil
contained the f2S.