Show t ENGLISH COERCION I ACT SCORED BY BRITONS Noted Liberals Defend Irish Advocates of Freedom LONDON LONDO Oct 9 9 Denunciation I.-Denunciation Denunciation of ot English military repression in Ireland Is is contained In a letter to the Times signed slimed by thirteen leaders of liberal opinion in Great Britain including II I. I G. G Wells C C. P. P Scott editor of t the e Manchester Guardian John Masefield Gilbert Murray and Desmond MacCarthy Mac llac- C Carthy I Few ri- ri Englishmen have any idea of ot the lengths lengths to which this policy has been carried they wrote Most os osEn En Englishmen know know simply that some eighty members of ot the Royal Irish constabulary have been murdered and ana they take it for granted that the Governments government 6 repressive measures are necessary to put an end to these outrages outrages out out- rages and that they are designed for forno forno forno no other purpose Consequently the actual state of ot government and Justice justice justice Jus jus- tice In Ireland has not bee scrutinized scrutinIzed scrutinized carefully and Englishmen hear little of proceedings proceedings' that are bringing danger and dishonor upon us If It these proceedings were of a kind to put an end to outrages and not to cause further mischief they would not have called down the condemnation i tion of men like Lord Monteagle Lord Lord Shaftesbury S Sr Sir r Horace Plunkett Plunk- Plunk ett tt and the other leading Irishmen who took part in the conference at Dublin I Ivr ACT vr IU E PRESSIEU U The 1 h issued coercion sued IOro fo act al rits s wl with administration n the regulations regula regula- I II marks the climax of the repressive I policy polley Justice will wilt i I become the rule It Is provided that men may be oe kept indefinitely in prison prison pris pris- on without t trial A court may sit in I secret If It a court believes that a particular person is able to give evidence evi evi- I evi-I dence he or she may be arrested Any person who does not act with a view to promoting or calculated to promote the objects of an unlawful association association tion is guilty of an offense against these regulations As As the Gaelic league which was founded to revive Irish culture and Dan Dall ann which represents two- two thirds of the Irish people are unlawful unlawful ful associations all but a small email minority mi ml- of Irishmen may be convicted on this char charge e. e This is not a system of Justice e adapted for the detection and punishment of a crime it is 15 de designed designed de- de signed for tor the punishment of a a. political political po po- po- po movement and it puts every Irishman who holds the opinions held beld by the bythe the great majority of Irishmen at the mercy of the military authorities PROTECTION GONE CONE These authorities are the officers of an army employed on a task hateful hateful hate hate- ful to British soldiers and living in an atmosphere of bitter hostility to the native population Indignation has been naturally excited 1 in is this army by a series of murders which the government has been unable to pun pun- u ish Discipline has broken down A sort of military lynch law Is in force applied not to the culprits but to the villages and towns of Ireland It is not an uncommon experience for tor whole streets to be burned creameries destroyed destroyed and life lite taken In the indis indiscriminate Indis indis- criminate reprisals by which soldiers and policemen avenge the murder of constables Not for fez a centry has there been there been s such an outbreak outbreak of mill mili tary tl violence in these thesa islands The Government has bas failed to restrain or punish nia thIs vl violence lence and it has bas now taken ir any steps to prevent any civilian civil civil- ian Jan court from calling attention to It It It the L has fc Issued i an order forbidding forbidding- holding of ot coroners coronets inquests inquest in nine counties This removes the last vestige of ot protection from the civilIan civilIan civil civil- Ian population population- In the Manual of ot Military Law it Is laid laM down that tha whereas in a a civil civil a o court man rt acquitted ma ma not be berret or retried convicted led by a military court a person subject to from military the lar law civil Is ls law not by to reason b be exempted empted of his military status Th TM The government has now decided that if It soldiers or policemen fire a town or shoot civilians civilians civil civil- ians they are to be immune from the under danger of an Inquiry by a court not military direction |