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Show 'HEAD OF IRISH REPUBLIC ARMY IS INTERVIEWED Anonymous Colonel Denies' There in Break in Morale of His Troops ATTACKS UPON CROWN TO BE MORE FREQUENT Difficulties of Organizing Forces Pointed Out to Associated As-sociated Press Writer I DUBLIN. Feb. 5. A high officer of I the Irish Republican army has given to the Associated Press a statement on i tho army and its operations. This ls ' the first authorized statement thus made, public, but the Identity of the : officer and the circumstances of the j Interview rannot be disclosed, nor Is the correspondent permitted to publish pub-lish the statistical Information sup-piled sup-piled regarding the total number of j forces, both regular and "irregular." ' now In tho field. The officer who will be designated as "Colonel X" spoke freely, answer-! answer-! lng every question, but he roquet d ' non-publlcatlon of various statements, j which he said, "might give information I to the enemy." Dl NIE8 BREAKUP He denied the declaration of Major General Strickland, In command of the British troops, that tho Irish repub Mean army organization was dismembered dismem-bered and repudiated the suggestion that the remarkable activity In tho last fortnight was a demonstration to disprove dis-prove the assertions that the morale of the volunteers was Impaired. "The recent increases in the attacks at-tacks on the crown forces," he said, "was only a natural development due to the perfecting of our organization. From now on there will be further extension ex-tension and Intensification of our operations op-erations In all parts of the country." Ho Intimated that the republican army would soon begin the Issuance of a military communique, probably weekly, and added: "Our system of communication is not yet rapid, but it Is certain." VI I S RF.F )IV! l! M f" l 11- sn ll l at M-t'erence nlled to hi attention that Ml iiaei rollfiiH was head of the Republican army, saying "that Is a delusion persdsted In not only by the public, but by tho British government." He did not say whether the direction of the Republi an army was ln the hands of one man or a committee. There Is u large reward outstanding for the arrest of Collins. Colonel X began: "The Irish Republican Re-publican army dots the country. Our plnn is to account for every district either by battalions or companies; every ev-ery foot of ground Is being surveyed and studied with reference to the most promising spots, for ambushes and with regard to tho disposition of the crown forces. The size of our forces varies according to the nature of tho country and the number and character charac-ter of the inhabitants. County Meath Is sparsely settled and the terrain Is flat making conditions for fighting unfavorable ORGANIZING DIFFIOUIT "We are slowly but steadily carrying carry-ing out our plans. It should be understood, un-derstood, however, that we must organize or-ganize and train men while we are fighting." i The unit of the orgnnlzatlon, h said, is the company, whose full strength normally Is 100 men. each company being tactlfully self-contained and furnishing Its own signalled signal-led engineers and machine runs flan of vn igk "The tendency, though, ' he continued, contin-ued, "Is to operate ln smaller units in areas like Ulster, where certain districts dis-tricts are either too thinly peopled or tho population Is hostile Wo havo "only small groups engaged in reconnaissance recon-naissance and Intelligence work. In areas where conditions are wholly favorable, the companies are formed Into battles and brigades. This is our regular army. The men on the run are somewhat similarly organized, but in small units. They work In con-Junction con-Junction with the regulars and are kept well armed, clothed and equipped. equip-ped. But the vast bulk of our men I are not on the run; thoy ore available avail-able for operations In the daytime, 1 others at night." PI i:ty or MOPi i I The Irish Republican party is not I hampered by lack of funds, a largo part of which. Colonel X declared comes from America In subscriptions to the Republican loan. Dooal quartermasters, quar-termasters, he went on, look after the flying columns and provide billets and , supplies. "The men are well fed and in good health." he added, "and their continued con-tinued resilience Is amazing. Nothing deprOMes them; they are always game for a new Job, even If knocked about night a tter night ' Asked why Individual police were shot down, he said that no policemen was picked off becauso ho happened to be on officer, asserting "no attack is made unless something Is wrong with the policeman's record, such as engaging in intelligence work." Discussing the Republican army':-, methods of warfare, ho explained: .METHOD SI OOESSFDIi, "Guerrilla fighting Is not as futile as many people may believe. Our poo-ple poo-ple In '08 camo out ln masses against tho British and were mowed down In one summer's campaign. W- would be quickly annihilated too, If we attempted attempt-ed to otipose the military In bulk. Hut, we hit them without being htt W-kept W-kept o:i for a year and th boys are (Continued ou Pgo Twoj J IH Head of Irish Republic I Army Is Interviewed (Continued from Page One.) still full of ginger and eager to continue. con-tinue. PRESTIGE GONE. ih "Our methods arc undermining the j morale of all the crown forces. Take ' tho auxiliaries for example u first tho auxiliaries were B dashing lt, and handy with their guns. But now, since they have been forced to take refuge I in armor plated cars covered with netting tirtlr prestige is g.(,.- We no longerycar. We aro also undermining England economically. The cost to England we estimate. Is a million pounds weekly to maintain armed forces In reland and It will be n, sary to Increase the forces tremendously tremend-ously before they can make headway against us. Furthermore, we are undermining un-dermining England's reputation abroad " 00 |
