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Show TO SERVE NATION HE FOUGHT Col. Arthur Lynch, Condemned to Dlo-for Dlo-for Treason to Great Britain May Go to Parliament. London. Col. Arthur Lynch, who has just been invited to stand for parliament parlia-ment in West Clare in Ireland on the death of its member, is known to the world for having fought in the Boer war against England, and holds the record for already having been elected a member of the house, of commons without ever having sat in that body. This was in 1901, when he was elected as member for Galway City while the Col Arthur Lynch. war was in progress, defeating Sit Horace Plunkett. But on setting foot In England he was arrested for high treason. He was tried and sentenced to death In January, 1903, but was reprieved a few days later, and, after serving a year in prison, was released. In 1907, on the occasion of a visit to Ireland, King Edward granted him a full pardon, par-don, which annulled his disqualification disqualifica-tion for becoming an M. P. All his life imbued with that hatred of England which led him to fight against it, the opportunity was offered him by his being sent out as war correspondent cor-respondent of Le Journal, a Paris daily paper. Arriving on the scene of action, the fighting instinct became too strong for him, and, after sending one dispatch to his editor, he cast away his pen for a rifle, and joined President Kruger's army as a "volunteer "volun-teer and private." He soon attracted the attention of his superiors by his talents, and, after rapid promotion, Gen. Botha at length intrusted to him the task of organizing the "Irish brigade." bri-gade." An able Itguist, speaking French and German with equal fluency, he soon attracted a crowd of cosmopolitan cosmopoli-tan adventurers, who had flocked to the scene in search of excitement, and his corps contained representatives from all parts of the world, including one solitary Englishman, and amounting amount-ing to about 200 men in all, the strangest band that ever came together. togeth-er. Col. Lynch's officers were Maj. Mitchell from Galway and Capt. Oates of Kerry, and these three quickly made friends with their strange recruits re-cruits and drilled them into a homogeneous homo-geneous fighting unit which afterwards did service with Joubert's army in ita retreat from Ladysmith. |