The Wilmington morning star., 1940-07-01
FAMOUS EASEMENT
SCANDAL RECALLED
Distinguished English Noble
man Was Executed For FO-
menting Rebellion
By GEORGE TURNER

IoAhIAs opiS oo' "a
column activities in the European
war recalls the sensational World
war case of a distinguished Eng.
lish %nobleman, Sir Roger Easement.
who was hung twenty-four years
ago as a traitor in London.
In cahoots with the Germans. he
was charged with fomenting Irish
rebellion. Landed in ireland by
a German submarine, he a ar
and taken to the medieval
of London.
During his imprisonment, world
wide sympathy was arouse In his
especially among Irish
American societies In the United
States. AS an ardent Irish ma
tionalist, he had visited this coun-
try in the cause Of Irish indepen-
dence.
Efforts were made in the senate
to get President Woodrow Wilson
to intercede in sparing him from
the gallows. Pope Benedict XIV in
terceded, without avail; protestant
and Catholic clergymen, as well as
laymen in England, urged a stay
in his execution.
His trial got under way before
the lord chief justice Of England
June rs, 1915 and lasted only three
days. Appeals were denied. He died
on the scaffold, was deprived Of
his knighthood and his body buried
in quicklime in a gloomy prison
yard.
He had endeavored, fruitlessly, to
organize an Irish brigade among
the prisoners of war in German in.
ternment camps and fight England.
On the eve of the bloody Easter
week uprising" in Dublin in 1916,
he left Wilhelmshaven in a Ger
man U-boat for the Irish coast and
landed in a collapsible rubber boat,
only to be captured.
Fire arms and ammunition,
rought by the submarine were
found buried in the sand. One of
lie I"O companions ldIcI LuIIlGu
kings evidence at his trial. One Of
his counsel, Francis Doyle, was an
American.
Born in K~ingstown, Co., Dublin,
on Sept. 1, 1864, Sir Roger had a
brilliant career In the British con-
sular service, which made his crime
more shocking to the eyes Of Eng
fish people in The hysteria of war
times.
Among his accomplishments he
had exposed the cruel treatment of
natives in the Congo state in the
rubber trade, which led to an in
vestigation by Belgium and a
change in the form of the Congo
government. AS consular agent to
Rio De Janeiro, he conducted a
similar investigation in Puru's rub
Der trade, which disclosed atrocities
among the Aborigines.
For this meritorious service he
was knighted in 1911. He was
L%onorably retired on a pension in
1912 and returned to Ireland the
following year to round out his
days. Then the World war changed
his whole life. Always intensely
interested in the cause of Irish in
dependence, he Joined in q move
ment opposing the participation Of
Irishmen in the conflict.
lie published a number Of anti.
British pamphlets and made a visit
to New York and elsewhere in the
United States to enlist the support
Of Irish-American societies active
in the fight for independence. He
elieved the circumstances Of the
war made the time ripe to strike
the long-cherished blow for Irish
freedom.
From New York he went to Ber-
lin, where he apparently was well
coined in high quarters, for he
was allowed to attempt the for.na-
ton of Irish war prisoners into a
brigade to wage war against the
British. He gained only a few re-
cruits, however.
Early in the morning Of good
Friday, April 81, 1916, a Kerry
/ easant walking along the seashore
near Banna discovered a collap-
sible boat and noticed the footprints
of three met leading to the sand
hills.
Early in the morning Of Good
Friday, April 81, 1916, a Kerry
peasant walking along the seashore
near Banna discovered a collapsible
boat and noticed the footprints of
three men leading to the sandhills.
He notified the police. The con-.
stables found a tall mar hiding be-
hind underbrush, covered him with
a rifle and arrested him. He gave
English name and an English
address.
At the police station it was no.
ticed that he resembled pictures Of
Sir Roger Easement; a London in
vestigation followed, his identity
was established and imprisonment
In the famous Tower resulted.
Meanwhile, his two companions,
Robert Monteith and Daniel Julian
Bailey, had tramped to Tralee and
interviewed local leaders of the Irish
volunteers. Bailey, who had been a
private in the Irish Rifles, had been
captured by the Germans and Joined
Irish brigade at a prison
camp. The police nabbed him and
he later was to testify for the
News of Sir Rogers arrest and
agitated Irish.American circles
n this country. A mass meeting Of