HC Deb 09 August 1916 vol 85 cc1047-8
66 and 68. Mr. HEALY

asked the Home Secretary (1) what is the charge on which Mr. James Hannigan, of Mitchelstown, county Cork, is being detained at Frongoch; if the Advisory Committee was divided in its decision to keep him in gaol; will any public trial be afforded him; and (2) if the Advisory Committee was unanimous in recommending the detention of the 551 Irish prisoners detained without trial; has each of these prisoners been furnished with the decision concerning him and a statement of the grounds thereof, or will they be given any opportunity of rebutting the allegations leading to their continued imprisonment, or of lodging an appeal, or securing a rehearing of their cases?

Mr. SAMUEL

The order for the detention of James Hannigan was made on the ground that he is of hostile association and a prominent member of an organisation called the Irish Volunteers, or of an organisation called the Citizen Army, which have promoted armed insurrection against His Majesty. The recommendations have been sent to me as from the Committee as a whole. It would be contrary to practice, and would be setting a bad precedent, to state what course individual members of the Committee have taken in their discussions of particular cases. I may say, however, that I have received no dissent from any member with respect to the recommendations. Every prisoner retained in internment is being informed of the decision affecting him. As the decision is merely the confirmation of the original order for his internment, and as each man received at the time a statement of the grounds for his internment, no further statement is necessary. As regards the last part of both questions, I have nothing to add to the answers I have repeatedly given in this House.

Mr. HEALY

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether all the prisoners whose discharge has been recommended have now been released; and is there anybody now kept in detention except those whom the Advisory Committee, with the approval of the hon Member for Newry, recommended should be so kept?

Mr. SAMUEL

think that is so. There may be one or two cases in which the recommendations have only just come in, but substantially they have all come in.

Sir W. BYLES

Will the right hon. Gentleman issue a list of those who are detained in internment?

Mr. SAMUEL

I am proposing to supply a list of those detained in internment. Those who have been released have all gone home.