Imperial Valley press., 1920-12-01

consisnd to duty on the civil detective
and police force, although full-fledged
I members are also used in this work.
Each company is entrusted with the
task of securing their own arms, and
; in most cases funds with which to
carry out their various missions. Sim
Fein has large funds, and in the
words of prominent business man OF
Cork, "can get more where that comes
from" - namely, popular subscription
to the recent Irish republican loan"
and funds raised by various Irish so
cieties. but big expense is entailed
in caring for the families of men in
Jail ore who are fleeing from the Brit
ish authorities.
When a company of Sim Fein vol
unteers is seen directing crowd or
functioning in any way an observer
is struck with their discipline and IA
miliarity with drill manual. The cN-
act drilling places are closely guard
ed, but it is still difficult to under
stan dhow they are able to receive
training of this kind at all in land
| that is said to be flooded with British
"spies." | requested information on
| this subject of high Sim Fein lead
err. Accordingly a promise was made
to show how it was accomplished, but
for obvious reasons no engagement
was set and the manner in which |
would be shown was left in the dark.
l was standing at the Hotel I'M
porial, Cork, when the following after
noon after my talk with the Sin Fem |
err I was approached by young man
in the hotel lobby who announced him.
self as volunteer officer" A num- |
Der of men known to have been Brit
is hsecret service agents were present |
in the lobby at the time, and he glanc-
cd around toward them rather anX
iously
That's all right, come along with
me-" said the young man, and without
more ado strolled out of the hotel to
a waiting car A short ride and the
car stopped in front of a small shop.
The volunteer lead the way out back
door into the rear entrance Of anoth-
or building, thence to the opposite
street, where donkey cart was wait
ing. 1t was now about dusk and we
logged off to a plain looking house on
the outskirts of the town. On entering
the house we passed a woman in the
hallway, and few words in Gaelic
were spoken. Climbing the stairs we
came to a doc (which opened into a
fair-sized unfurnished room. Eight
young men, several of them mere
boys, were inside. They were in stock
ing feet and were going through
squad drill under the tutelage of a
youngster, who evidently knew what
he was about. Drill practice on a
larger scale than this is carried out
in the country districts, in secluded
fields, after nightfall.
The system of communication used
by Sim Fieners is not known official
ly, but it is known that they are sur
prisingly well posted on nearly all
events effecting them and sometimes
the news of an attack on military or
police or the burning of an Irish vii
lage by Black and Ton police in dis
tant and isolated section of the coun-
try is known to the Sim Fein leaders
before it has come over the telegraph
wires to the British authorities. When
it is remembered that 81 per cent of
the people of south and west Ireland !
are Sim Fein in sympathy, as evil
denced by the last general election,
and that many of the telegraphers be-
long to the party, it is easily seen how
this can happen.