§ 80. Mr. BYRNEasked the Home Secretary whether he will state the charge and the nature of the inquiry on which the five Irish ladies were deported from Mount joy to internment camps in this country; if he will say whether any evidence was taken from the ladies, or if they were allowed any opportunity to defend themselves at the inquiry which ordered their deportation; and, if not, will he say why this was not permitted?
Mr. SAMUELThese ladies are interned because of their hostile associations and of their having favoured, promoted, and assisted an armed insurrection against the King. Very careful inquiries were made by the military authorities before they recommended internment. Their cases will now be considered by the Advisory Committee, who will allow them to make any statements they desire in their own defence, personally, as well as in writing.
§ 46. Mr. GINNELLasked the Prime Minister whether the case of Dr. Richard Hayes, of Lusk, county Dublin, has been or will be considered by the Government; whether he is aware that for having gone to Ashbourne and given medical aid to the wounded there, irrespective of the side to which they belonged, and having no other than this professional connection with the occurrence, he has been sentenced by a court-martial to penal servitude for twenty years; and whether he will take immediate steps to have this gentleman released and reinstated in the public position which he has been filling?
§ Mr. TENNANTDr. Richard Hayes was tried and convicted by court-martial for complicity in the rebellion, and it is not proposed at present to interfere with the finding and sentence of the Court.
§ Mr. GINNELLMay I ask what has been done with his motor car?
§ Mr. TENNANTI am afraid I shall require notice of that question.
§ 47. Mr. GINNELLasked the Prime Minister whether he has received from Belfast a memorial signed by the Bishop of Down and Connor and other prominent citizens, and by many thousands of Belfast people of all political and religious opinions, asking, in the interest of justice and peace, for the immediate release of the Belfast men imprisoned without charge or trial, or an immediate trial if there be any charge; whether he is aware that evidence is available showing that all those men were at their ordinary avocations in Belfast or its vicinity during the week of the insurrection in Dublin; and whether, in all these circumstances, their immediate release or trial will be ordered?
§ Mr. TENNANTThis case, in common with others similar, will no doubt receive the immediate attention of the Advisory Committee.
§ 48. Mr. GINNELLasked the Prime Minister, having regard to the credit claimed for the dietary treatment of insurrectionary prisoners on the occasion of his visit to Richmond Barracks, Dublin, will he say why that scale has been substantially departed from in all the places in which those prisoners are now detained; those men being untried and detained against their will, by what rule or principle is the food given them in all those places so inferior in quality and insufficient in quantity that they would starve but for the additional food sent in by friends; and, if unwilling to order them a sufficiency of wholesome food for the maintenance of health, whether he will immediately order them at least the same dietary scale set up on the occasion of his visit to Richmond Barracks?
§ Mr. TENNANTThis question is a repetition of that put by the hon. Member on the 20th June. I have nothing to add to the answer I then gave.
§ Mr. GINNELLWill the Prime Minister say whether the scale of rations ordered on the occasion of his visit was for a political purpose; if not, for what purpose was it?
§ The PRIME MINISTERThere was no alteration in the scale of rations on my visit—
§ Mr. GINNELLYes! Will the right hon. Gentleman see that the scale is carried out in the camp as well?
§ The PRIME MINISTERIt is.