We were treading a path that had already been sung (for even bitterness
has its song) but we trod it in greater comfort. Above all we had one
another’s company. The boon of this might conceivably have been blurred
a little, as with the passage of months it became difficult in our
cramped space to avoid treading on one another’s toes. And certainly
it was impossible for each man not to know each other at his best and
worst. The knowledge so gained had its value for future days. For at
bottom the solidity with which we began was only cemented with the
passage of time.
Yet our company was first to be revised, by a process of addition and
subtraction, before it took its final shape. One Friday in August we
were informed that on the Monday and Tuesday following we were to be
taken in two parties before the Advisory Committee. We were asked to
give our word that we would make no attempt to escape. If we gave
that pledge we would be sent to London with warders in plain clothes;
otherwise it would be necessary to send us handcuffed together. On
this a keen discussion took place; for while the majority was content
to give the undertaking there were some who would give no pledge, who
would leave it to the authorities to decide for themselves on any
action they pleased. Finally the Governor, who was very anxious to
avoid handcuffs, assumed an undertaking, and so the issue was muffled.
Two warders in plain clothes accompanied each party to Wormwood Scrubbs
Jail; and nothing was done to advertise the fact that we were prisoners
travelling. Had the question arisen a few months later hardly a man
would have given the undertaking, or even have suffered it to be
implied. The public display of handcuffs would have been coveted rather
than avoided; for it was certainly not to comfort us that the offer was
made, whatever the Governor’s personal inclinations might have been.
For jails but straighten the back and harden the mind.
We also differed in our attitude towards the Advisory Committee.
None of us differed in our opinion of its function. It sat, so the
purport ran, to decide which of us might be liberated; or rather,
more technically, in respect of which of us our internment orders
should be confirmed; but these things, as we know, would be decided by
political considerations quite outside the review of the Committee.
None of us doubted that its main function was to check and complete our
_Leabhrain_, as far as possible, by question and cross reference. But
we differed in our attitude. Some refused to recognise the Committee
in any way, as being a body set up by a foreign government, having no
authority over Irishmen. These, when brought before the Committee,
firmly defined their attitude, and were promptly escorted again into
the outside air. Others answered the brief interrogatory to which they
were submitted, and went their way in a matter of minutes. My own
attitude was somewhat different.
In the first place, I had now been in prison for some months, without
much chance of enlivenment. The opportunity of a debate through the
labyrinth of the Defence of the Realm Regulations seemed too good a
thing to be lightly put by. Moreover, I was anxious to discover some
of the items that furnished my _leabhran_. I was not disappointed. As I
had expected, deftly mixed among the questions put to me about my own
doings were a number of questions that involved others. Also, as I had
expected, a week’s study of the Regulations left the rather interesting
legal debate not altogether a one-sided matter; for a number of points
were conceded to me, which, when I afterwards sought to take advantage
of them, proved to have been made without any deep knowledge of the
possibilities the Regulations offered. One or two matters of interest
emerged, however.
For instance, the Committee had some little difficulty in explaining
exactly why, if I as an Irishman was to be interned as an
* * * * *
This, I was told, was a political matter. Strangely enough, it was
exactly so I had conceived it. Then I was informed that I was only
considered as an _alien_ for the purposes of that particular act, that
in other matters my citizenship under the law was not disputed. By
which it appeared that I was an alien when my imprisonment was desired,
but not an alien when my personal and national freedom was to be
consulted.
Then, among other questions, I was asked if I had or had not
endeavoured to get Irish farm labourers into touch with Irish farmers
in order to stay their migrating to England, where they could be taken
under the Military Service Act. On my asking on what authority the
question was put, I was answered that it was so alleged in the local
police report. My answer was an admission of the charge. I suggested
that it might have a bearing that the assurance had been made in
Parliament that farm labourers from Ireland could not be taken under
the Military Service Act. But it was interesting to discover that a
benefit intended to Ireland was made the basis of a charge; and it was
interesting to discover the furniture that found its way into police
reports.[A]
When I came out and explained how it was I had remained so long, when
all the others had been dispatched in two minutes or three, I was told
that I had at least ensured continued internment. The price was not
exhorbitant.