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Show J City of Dublin a I Military Camp ' j mrmm i British Coercion of Ireland Enforced by Troops Constantly j Drilled with Rifles Political Prisoners Refused I Trial and Hurried to Prison. U ! (Copyncht, 1002, by Chicago Tribune.) Dublin. Nov. 8. Dublin is the storm I center cf the Irish nationalist move- ment, and British oppression is direct- J rd from here. The entire city, with its j population of 400.000, is practically un- I dr military rule. All Dublin has been I j-,r'K'laimed under the crimes act by I t ho authorities of Dublin castle, who at 1 the behest of the British government I rule with the severity of the czar of Kussia. The most oppressive coercion I tactics are employed. Right of trial by " jury is denied. Men arrested at the iu- lance of the British government are tried bpfore British magistrates and sent t" jail without recourse. The right of habeas corpus is denied. ! Arrests Made by Wholesale. Arrests are ma.de by wholesale. Since last August eleven members of parlia-ment parlia-ment have been sentenced to terms of I imprisonment by resident magistrates, j who are creatures of Dublin castle, j right of jury trial being denied in each I I case. William Redmond, M. P., the latest victim, has been sent to Kilmain- i ham prison for six months, and is now J serving his sentence. j Free Speech. Is Denied. j On the threshold of the Mansion j j house, where the lord mayor resides, a sj J I big meeting of members of the United I Irish league was held last Thursday f night. After the speeches had been j made the police arrested O'Sullivan, a I prominent organizer, and sent him to I Mount Joy prison. His co-worker, Kil- tnirne, had already been taken there, j I In each case the arrest was made on the I vague charge that in their speeches the j Irish leaders had used language "emi- . I ricntly calculated to cause social dis- I nrd. dusturb the public peace, promote j discontnent in the minds of his ma- j July's subjects." Trying to Crush, the League. j The real aim of the government is to I crush out the Irish league, which is al- I ready almost as powerful as the famous old Land league. J The use of the boycott is the most j powerful weapon of the Irish national- j its. This was the policy urged by "William Redmond in County Wexford i and was the cause of his arrest. He re- J fused to give bail to keep the peace, j Other Irishmen arrested on the same I harge followed Redmond's example, 1 and they are all in jail. As the lord J mayor of Dublin says: "We never give bail. If we did we I would bind ourselves not to make more I f-peeches. Our policy is to accept pun-. I ishmeiit. The arrest of a dozen of j V.mmi-r will not stop us. It will I merely make our cause the stronger." J No Excuse For Coercion. ?! The excuse for the application of the j encn ien act to Dublin is that crime is rampant in the city. It is admitted by ' the government authorities, however, S that there is no crime here, compared j 'Hn the vice that exists in so large a s.-rile in London. The pole aim of coercion is to crush f out one persistent Irish newspaper. I It is mockcy to call it the "United j Kingdom" while England keeps Ire- '"n.i under the hand of an iron police ! h'rp- Dublin a Military Camp. military force of the city carries I M'-leanns. It always drills with rifles i "nd is assigned to various places like j F'iMil rs. j Dublin is supposed to have its own p"li'-e. but the 1.200 men which comprise t!i" municipal force are under the eon- j tro of two commissioners appointed by 1 'h" iord lieutenant at Dublin castle. Tl'e l .rd mayor of the city has not one j V":. to say as to their control, i )'' this is a part of the Dublin castle rui. which England maintains in Ire- l.m ! .ny by Jnp pheer weight of a force j polieH which costs $7,000,000 a year to maintain. Only Russia affords any comparison to this state of affairs. The coercion power used is sweeping. Already twenty oue of a total of thirty-two thirty-two counties in Ireland have bn proclaimed pro-claimed under the crimes act. This means arrests of Irish citizens at will, but the only result has been an increase in the membership and the determination determina-tion of the league. Coercion Will Be Continued. "The policy of coercion will be Jcept . up,", asserted the chief secretary for Ireland, Mr. Charles Wyndham. to the Chicago Tribune correspondent in London Lon-don two days ago. He said he realizes that coercion will only do harm, but that he is bound to preserve "law and order" and refuse to permit boycotting. Irish leaders may talk all they like, but when they urge their followers to "persecute" "per-secute" any man or set of men then i they violate the law. That will not be tolerated. Because the boycott is urged by a member of parliament, said Secretary Sec-retary Wyndham, makes no difference. Everybody urging the boycott will promptly be arrested. British Rule Denounced. The Mansion house meeting on Thursday was held in the room built specially to entertain King George IV in 1S12. The lord mayor, Timothy Hea-ly, Hea-ly, presided. Various speakers urged all loyal Irishmen to join the league and thus aid in the fight against British Brit-ish misrule. The meeting adopted reso lutions declaring that the action of the castle in suspending the constitutional rights of the people a grievance that no j freedom-loving, people should allow to continue. Chief Secretary Wyndham and Lord Lieutenant Dudley were denounced de-nounced in the strongest terms. Rdmqnd Visited in Jail. . The Tribune correspondent saw Wil liam iteamona in Kiimainnam prison yesterday. The Land league leader was imprisoned there in 1882, and his present pres-ent sojourn in the same jail is, therefore, there-fore, not a new evperience to him. The warden stood by all the time, and Mr. Redmond was not allowed to talk of political matters. He asserted that he would serve the full six months' sentence imposed if need be. Relief Expected Soon. Coercion results only in suffering. The attempt of the British government to degrade its opponents has failed. It is the general belief here that there will soon be important land legislation. The pressure is too strong to be resisted. A number of landlords already favor conferences con-ferences with the tenants over some scheme looking to the sale of the land to the latter, the government providing the funds, as has been done under former for-mer purchases. Home Rule Comes Next. All the nationalists believe the settle-i settle-i ment of the land question will be the first step The lord lieutenant, Earl I Dudley, has been in London for important import-ant conferences with the king. Secretary Secre-tary Wyndham and Sir Anthony McDonnell, Mc-Donnell, the new under secretary for Ireland, believe it most important to pave the way to a gradual settlement of the land problem by legislation allowing al-lowing the tenats to purchase their holdings. No Compulsory Purchase Act. Secretary Wyndham, in his London interview with the Tribune correspondent, correspond-ent, said there will be no compulsory land act passed. He says the change must come by the landlords and tenants ten-ants agreeing in each case, the government govern-ment acting as the loaning agent and supplying the tenants the funds, allowing allow-ing them to pay back in annual installments. in-stallments. Secretary Wyndham says he believes this is sure to come, and that it will mean the settlement of the land question after centuries of trouble. GUY CRAMER. |