SIR ROGER CASEMENT AND THE IRISH PLANS
While preparations were thus being pushed forward on board, I myself was
ordered up to Berlin, where also various preparations were in train.
There I learned at last something more definite regarding the
destination of the _Libau_.
Sir Roger Casement, the well-known leader of the Irish Sinn Feiners,
who, as one of the most zealous representatives of the cause of
Ireland's liberty, had long been an object of suspicion to the English,
was now in Germany.
Casement, who was a fiery patriot, and cherished a deadly hatred for
England, believed that the world-war had at length brought the
opportunity to deliver his country from the age-long oppression of the
English. The favourable military situation of the Central Powers at that
time justified the hope that they would be victorious. If, then, the
Irish people made up its mind to rise against England, and had
sufficient tenacity, and a sufficient supply of arms and ammunition, to
maintain the struggle, the existing situation was undoubtedly the most
favourable for the realisation of Ireland's hopes, that Ireland had ever
had--or ever will have.
Roger Casement, as appears from his earlier writings, had years before
foreseen this world-war, and the opportunity for Ireland that it would
bring in its train. Long a friend and admirer of Germany, co-operation
with Germany seemed to him the only hope of deliverance for his country.
He had, therefore, both before and during the war, been carrying on by
speech and writing a vigorous propaganda in support of this idea.
According to his own statements, he had behind him a great part of the
Irish people; this was the so-called 'Sinn Fein Party.'
The driving force behind the whole movement, however, was
supplied--doubtless on account of their greater liberty of action--by
the partisans of the Irish Republican cause in the United States.
The principal representatives of these Irish-Americans had, some time
before, approached the German ambassador in Washington, Count
Bernstorff, with the urgent request that he would forward their plea for
German military support for the projected rising in Ireland.
The desired support, in the form of a landing of troops, had to be
refused by Germany; but, on the other hand, Germany declared herself
willing, after carefully examining the situation, to fall in with Count
Bernstorff's proposal to the extent of sending a ship with arms and
munitions to Ireland. This would, on the one hand, give solid proof of
Germany's willingness to help the oppressed Irish. On the other hand, it
was hoped that an Irish rising, if energetically carried out, would not
only bring to the Irish the realisation of their hopes, but would
shorten the war by several months. The assumption was that England would
be compelled to withdraw from the front great masses of troops and
material, in order to cope with the insurrection.
A simultaneous naval demonstration on the east coast of England was to
create a favourable opportunity for the landing of the arms, by
diverting attention from the west of Ireland.
The questions which had to be considered were, first, whether the ship
would be able to run the blockade and succeed in landing her cargo, and,
second, whether the Irish would be sufficiently vigorous and energetic
to carry out the rising successfully.
Neither question could be answered with certainty. Accordingly, both the
ship's mission and the rising planned in connection therewith, from the
first involved a large element of risk. Either undertaking without the
active support of the other would be purposeless, because fore-doomed to
failure.
In view of the return of the _Möwe_, which had succeeded in getting home
shortly before, and the attempted break-through, still more recently, of
the auxiliary cruiser _Greif_, which the English had unfortunately
caught, we had now to reckon on the blockade being still further
tightened up. The prospects for my blockade-running enterprise were
anything but rosy. The more so as the attempt had to be made at a time
when the moon was nearing the full. The Irish had insisted that the
rising must take place at Easter, which had for the Catholic Irish so
very special a significance, and against Easter in the calendar stood
the words 'Full Moon'--the very last thing I could have wished for at
the time when I should be approaching land.
Casement, who, of course, was in the closest possible touch with his
fellow-countrymen across the water, had, in consultation with them
already, taken the most necessary steps in Germany.[1]
The plan had therefore been discussed in all its bearings, and was fully
communicated to me at various interviews with Sir Roger Casement. I now
knew, therefore, that I had been selected for an enterprise which called
for a very high degree both of vigour and of circumspection. It can be
understood that I was well pleased.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] It may be expressly pointed out here that Germany was fully
justified, according to the provisions of the Law of Nations, in giving
the desired support to the Irish.--Author's note.