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Show GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND KNEW OF REBEL ACTIVITY ' rVnN'nON. May IS, 1:21 p. m. From testimony developed today at. the hearing hear-ing opener! hy the royal j-om mission to inipiire Into the irlsh - relVllion, it appeared ap-peared that the government had received advance information of preparations for an uprising with help from German sources. The testimony was given by Sir Math-thew Math-thew Nathan, who resigned as undersecretary undersec-retary for Ireland after the rebellion bm'ip nut. The government had received ! advices, km id Sir Matthew, that an at- 1 tempt would be made to land arms In j Ireland from (lerman submarines: also I .that rifles had been purchased from Irish soldiers on homo leave, while others had been taken into the country in passengers' passen-gers' baggage. The former undersecretary gave this testimony in the course of a, lon state- ment outlining the formation of the Na tional Volunteers, of which he declared a II section onlv had shown themselves Nl isloya I. the leaders of this section having hav-ing issued a manifesto declaring that Ireland Ire-land should provide for Its own defense and indicating an intention to establish a free national government of Ireland. The leaders of the movement, he said, directed thir efforts to securing more rifles and ammunition and to storing fl? lare an amount of material as possible. The executives in Ireland being in possession pos-session of sui'lif iunt evidence of the association asso-ciation of the movement's leaders with a foreign enemy, continued Si'.' Matthew, had decider! upon their arrest, and were discussing the matter on April 24 when the rebellion broke out. He defended the failure of the government to disarm the volunteers on the ground that such action ac-tion might have alienated the sympathies sympa-thies of many loyal volunteers, and added : "There are 2o,n0 Irish Catholics enlisted en-listed In the army." The Royal Irish constabulary was considered con-sidered strong enoug.h to cope with disorders, dis-orders, the witness continued. A mobile mo-bile force of foo mounted men and 20iX others, with three machine guns, was always al-ways in readiness, and these, with 2500 men from the Curragh, were thought capable ca-pable of dealing with the outbreak in Dublin, but. contrary to expectations, they were insufficient. In the course of his testimony Sir Matthew Nathan declared that the fear that the military service act would be applied to Ireland induced a number of the national volunteers to join the Sinn Fein movement, so that at the beginning of the disturbances there were 16,000 hostile hos-tile volunteers throughout Ireland, of whom liurtO were in Dublin. Considerable sums of money, he said, had been coming' from America, the funds being used for the purchase of arms and tile .printing of seditious papers. It was estimated, he added, that 516,000 had been received from America and paid into Dublin banks from the middle of September, Septem-ber, 1914, to the following April, when the money was withdrawn. The police estimated before the outbreak out-break that the volunteers had, about 1800 ' rifles and olhor firearms. Explosives had .also been found in different parts of the country, he said. Steps had been taken, continued Sir Matthew, to deal with the movement before be-fore the insurrection by volunteers, preventing pre-venting civil servants from belonging to the Irish volunteers. I'ntil three days before the outbreak of the rebellion. Sir Matthew testified, there had been no proof of connection of any antl-Brltish party in Ireland with a foreign enemy. A memorandum which was said to be In the possession of one of the leaders with pro-German sentiments, senti-ments, he added, stated that the Germans contemplated a combined offensive by land, sea and air in order to secure victory vic-tory before May and requesting the Irish volunteers to render their promised assistance. as-sistance. On May G, the witness stated, young Irish volunteers were anxious to commence com-mence operations, but the heads of the movement were against a rising at that moment, Thomas McDonaugh declaring that it would be sheer madness to attempt at-tempt any such thing If the help promised prom-ised was not forthcoming. Baron Hardinge asked Sir Matthew why no action had been taken to prevent drilling under arms. ""We were deterred because we were afraid to, enforce the act." said Sir Matthew. Mat-thew. "We were deterred practically for i political purposes." When asked what action had been taken to report this to the then chief ! secretary for Ireland, Augustine Birrell, : i Sir Matthew declared the chief secretary! i was fully aware of it. Tho witness also admitted that he. knew women were being trained to look after wounded men and that sham fights j for the taking of Dublin castle were be-1 be-1 ing held. These facts, he said, also were j known to the chief secretary. "It was thought," Sir Matthew said, I ':that forcible Interference would certainly cer-tainly lead to bloodshed and that if affairs af-fairs were let alone they might blow over without bloodshed." Sir Matthew Nathan caused surprise by stating that he had communicated on two occasions with the Irish leaders, John Redmond, John Dillon and Joseph Devlin, in regard to the condition of affairs in Ireland, but had been unable to discuss them with Timothy Healy. The reason Iven by Sir Matthew was "shortly after I went lo Ireland he said things about me which made it impossible." The remainder of Sir Matthew's remarks re-marks were taken In camera, after which the commission adjourned. |
