§ Mr. JOHN WALSHasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he is aware that John and Peter Donovan, of Cashelilky; Edward Sullivan, of Kilben; Jim Walsh, of Knockea; Timothy and John Crowly, of Letter, all in the vicinity of Clonakilty, county Cork, were arrested on the 5th May and removed from Cork prison on the following Tuesday at 5 a.m. and got nothing to eat or drink until 8 a.m. the following morning; when are they to be tried; on what charge and where; and is any opportunity to be afforded them of consulting a solicitor or making a defence?
§ Mr. TENNANTIt is not the present intention to try any of these men by court-martial. If they were to be charged and tried a solicitor would be allowed for consultation.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War, seeing that there has been no insurrection in county Mayo and that there is no evidence connecting the seven men arrested at Balla with any illegality, whether those men will be allowed to return to their civil avocations and to answer before a civil tribunal any charge that may be made against them?
§ Mr. TENNANTAll such cases are now being investigated as rapidly as possible, and where no hostile association detrimental to the public safety and the defence of the realm is apparent the military authorities will order release.
§ Mr. T. M. HEALYasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if Edward O'Dwyer, of Ballagh, Goolds Cross, county Tipperary, was arrested at Killenaule on Saturday, 29th April, unarmed and without having committed any offence, and has now been four weeks in gaol without trial or a charge being made against him; and will he say with what object his confinement in Richmond Barracks is prolonged?
§ Mr. TENNANTFull inquiries are being made, the result of which will be communicated as soon as possible.
§ Mr. HEALYasked the Under-Secretary of State for War, if on the 4th May, Mr. William Sears, editor of the late "Enniscorthy Echo," was arrested and has been deported to England; if he is aware that he was never a member of any political association and took no part in the rebellion; will he inquire if, for many 2925W years past, Mr. Sears has been an invalid, unable to take solid food, and subject to heart attacks; if he is aware that he is the sole support of his wife and three children, who have now no means; if he will say in what gaol in England he is confined; and will he be brought to trial if there is any evidence against him?
§ Mr. TENNANTThis man is at Wandsworth. His case is being investigated with a view to release.
§ Mr. HEALYasked the Under-Secretary of State for War how many Belfast Nationalists who had no part in the rebellion have been arrested; how many of them have been deported, and to what prison; and is it intended to make any charge against them or bring them to trial?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe numbers of prisoners from particular areas are not yet available.
§ Mr. HEALYasked the Under-Secretary of State for War why Mr. John P. O'Shea was arrested at his residence, 20, Arran Road, Drumcondra, on 3rd May, although he was attending to his business during the rebellion and had no part in it; whether he has been deported to Wandsworth despite ample written proofs sent to the authorities testifying to his innocence; and is he to be left in prison without trial or accusation?
§ Mr. TENNANTThis man was arrested in connection with the recent rebellion. His case has already been investigated, and he was released from Wandsworth Detention Barracks on the 25th May.
§ Mr. HEALYasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether the brothers E. and L. J. Moran, of Rose Villa, Curragh of Kildare, were arrested while at work on their farm and sent to Wakefield on 12th May, although they had no part in the rebellion; and, as no charge has been made against them, will they be allowed back to their work?
§ Mr. TENNANTThese men were arrested in connection with the recent rebellion and sent to Wakefield Detention Barracks. Their cases are now under investigation.
§ Mr. NOLANasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, in view of the present slow rate of progress of the investigation into the cases of the men at present confined in Wandsworth Prison for assumed complicity in the recent rising in 2926W Ireland, he can see his way to appoint a small commission of inquiry of, say, two or three Members of this House to investigate the claims for immediate release of those amongst them who declare that they are entirely innocent; and whether in the meantime he will give instructions that the prisoners confined in Wandsworth and elsewhere in England will be dieted on a similar scale to the one adopted in the prisons in Dublin for the same class?
§ Mr. TENNANTMy right hon. Friend the Prime Minister stated yesterday what action has been taken in regard to the release of these prisoners, and how they would in future be dealt with. I do not think the proposed commission is feasible. Under the new procedure the men would be in an internment camp and not in prisons, and the question of discrepancies in the diet scales between one prison and another would not arise.
§ Mr. NOLANasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that none of the men of South Louth took any part in the recent disturbances in Ireland; whether, notwithstanding this fact, a number of young men belonging to the division who had been at home attending to their business from the time of the outbreak to the time of their arrest, were taken from their homes and removed in irons to various prisons in Ireland and England; whether he can give the names of the men so arrested and the names of those already released; whether he can state what steps are being taken to investigate the cases of the young men in question who are still in prison, and who are prepared to prove that they took no part in the insurrection; and whether the mayor and corporation of Drogheda, from which most of the prisoners from South Louth have been taken, have declared their belief in their innocence and respectability?
§ Mr. TENNANTAs regards the steps being taken to investigate these cases, I would refer to my answer to the previous question. I am not aware of what is stated in the last part of the question.
§ Mr. W. O'BRIENasked the Under-Secretary of State for War why Messrs. D. J. Hegarty and Christopher O'Connell have been arrested in Mallow, where the Irish Volunteers were never seriously organised and where the Army has found hundreds of its bravest recruits; and whether he will direct the immediate 2927W return home of these young men from the Wakefield Detention Barracks to which they have been deported?
§ Mr. TENNANTI have no information about these two men, though the reputation of Mallow in reference to the supply of recruits is known to me. I cannot, I fear, direct the immediate return of these two men, whose cases must be dealt with in the same way as those of others.
§ Mr. O'BRIENasked whether the following prisoners from the Fermoy district: Patrick O'Shea, engineer, John O'Brien, gardener, Patrick Devane, teacher, Martin Kinery, shopkeeper, Martin Kinery, car-owner, James Moore, teacher in the Christian Brothers school, and Messrs. Spillane (Rathcormac) and Savage (Castlelyons) are now detained; and whether, after one month's incarceration without any definite charge and deprivation of any communication whatever with their relatives, they will be either promptly put on trial or returned to their homes?
§ Mr. TENNANTI have not received any information that these men have yet been released.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked where John Coleman, arrested in Galway City and taken away the first week in May, now is, his relatives having failed to get any account of him, public or private?
§ Mr. TENNANTIf John Coleman's present position is not known to his relatives, this must be due to his having failed to communicate with them. I know of no reason why he should not have done this.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, to render possible systematic attention to the special wants of all the untried Irish political prisoners now in custody, he will supply a list of names of those in each place of detention?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe prisoners are supplied with forms upon which they can apply for release, and most of them have already done this, and do not, therefore, need the hon. Gentleman's assistance. Lists of the prisoners at the various places of detention have also, I think, been published.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked whether the anonymous writings which have led to the arrest of young men at Ballaghaderreen and to their deportation have been traced, 2928W or whether any effort has been made to trace them, to local business rivals of the men deported; and, if not, whether a competent and impartial outsider will be sent to examine and trace those writings, so that those young men may be tried or released to return to their homes and business?
§ Mr. TENNANTAny necessary investigation into the circumstances attending the arrest of these young men will be made and they will be released, if it is found there are no grounds for detaining, them further.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked on what charge, if any, is Mr. John O'Hanrihan, ex-sergeant of the Royal Artillery, who served twenty-one years in the Army, now in Richmond Prison, Dublin; and, if there is no charge, whether he will be released, forthwith?
§ Mr. TENNANTIf there is no sufficient ground for detaining this man, he will be released under general instructions already given.
§ Mr. O'BRIENasked whether, now that Mr. Louis J. D'Alton, of Tipperary, has been set at liberty from Glasgow Detention Barracks, the other Tipperary men arrested with him, who have now been detained for more than a month without charge or trial, will also be released?
§ Mr. TENNANTI am not at present able to say whether these other Tipperary men will be released.
§ Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSYasked whether Maurice Collins, a prisoner at Wandsworth, has yet been released?
§ Mr. TENNANTNo, Sir.
§ Mr. FLAVINasked the Under-Secretary of State for War (1) whether he is aware that Mortimer O'Connor, who is an American citizen, was arrested by the military at the residence of his sister, Mrs. Lovett, on Monday, the 15th May, at Abbeydooney, North Kerry; whether he will state what charge, if any, has been made against Mortimer O'Connor; whether O'Connor has claimed the protection of the American Consul at Queenstown and the Alaskan delegate at Washington on the grounds that he is an American citizen, and arrested and detained by the military authorities without any charge being preferred against him or any trial given; whether his release will be ordered; and 2929W (2) whether he is aware that Joseph O'Leary, of 11, Tremadoc Road, Clapham, London, who is spending his holidays in Ireland was arrested on Tuesday, 16th May, in Dublin, and detained since in the Bridewell; whether he will say why Joseph O'Leary was arrested and detained; what charge, if any has been made against him; and whether his release will be ordered immediately?
§ Mr. TENNANTI regret that I cannot add anything to what I stated yesterday.
§ Mr. O'BRIENasked the Under-Secretary of State for War (1) on what charge Mr. P. J. Cahill, secretary of the firm of Messrs. Donovan and Company, Tralee, has been arrested and deported to England; whether, if no offence in connection with the recent rebellion can be alleged against him, he will be at once liberated; (2) whether his attention has been called to the case of Mr. William O'Brien, of Galbally, county Limerick, who was a member of the Queenstown corps of the Irish Volunteers before their Proclamation as an illegal body, and who, like the rest of the members of the Queenstown corps, had no connection whatever with the recent rebellion; whether he was, as a matter of fact, confined to his bed for a fortnight previous to his arrest, under medical treatment, suffering from tuberculosis in a dangerous form; whether considering he has now been nearly a month under arrest, without any stated charge, and is in danger of permanent injury to his health, he will be at once released from Wakefield Detention Barracks to which he has been deported; and (3) whether he will inquire into the cases of a number of respectable young men in New Ross, county Wexford, who were arrested on 4th May, and, after detention in various prisons, were finally deported to Walsham Detention Barracks; whether no offence can be alleged against them except membership of the Irish Volunteers, which, up to the date of the Proclamation, was as legal as membership of any other unrecognised volunteer association; whether he is aware that the New Ross Volunteers took no part whatever in the recent rebellion and surrendered the few firearms in their posssesion on the publication of Sir John Maxwell's disarming order; and whether, under these circumstances, the memorial for their release signed by the townspeople of all classes, including the parish priest and the Protestant rector, will be complied with?
2930W
§ Mr. TENNANTIf the facts in regard to these men are as stated in the questions they will be released without avoidable delay.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will invite the American Ambassador to arrange for the representative of the American Government, who inquired into the death of Nurse Cavell, to visit Dublin and investigate the death of Nurse Kehoe, and also to visit the prisons there in which young ladies are now detained for having rendered first aid to the wounded in the recent insurrection?
§ Sir E. GREYI do not propose to answer this question, which, as usual, contains a statement the facts of which are not within my knowledge, and which I have no reason to suppose is true.