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(123255/45A)
No. 559 BRITISH EMBASSY WASHINGTON June 23rd 1916. Sir, I understand that His Eminence Cardinal Farley of
New York has consented to become Honorary President of
the Irish Relief Fund as he has done in the case of the
Polish and other charitable associations, only upon the
express condition that no political significance should
be attached to his honorary protection of the work. His patronage has attracted a great deal of attention
and was thought at one time to signify his
sympathy with the extreme section of the Irish party who advocat—
ed a policy of physical force and were promoting a
revolution in Ireland. You will observe however that
the action taken by His Eminence was in a line with
that already taken in regard to charitable funds for
Catholic sufferers by the war. His present intention
is, I believe, to convey the money collected by the Re—
lief Society for the sufferers by the troubles in Ireland
by a special messenger to Dublin where the funds will
be received by His Grace Archbishop Walsh. The Arch—
bishop has, I understand, undertaken to consult with
the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The delegate
chosen is a friend whom the Cardinal knows well and
highly appreciates as well as recommends. The sums are
to be distributed for benevolent and not political purposes. In the opinion of some competent observers it is
thought that in the highly strained condition of Irish
opinion here it might be dangerous to send any one re—
presenting The Right Honourable
Sir Edward Grey Hart., K.G., M.P.
etc. etc. etc. 2 presenting the Irish Political party to Dublin. There is
however a proposal which would probably be considered ob—
jectionable by His Majesty's Government, namely to dis
tribute the product of the collection, which represents
a considerable sum, through the hands of persons here
formerly strong adherents of Mr. Redmond but who are now
strong opponents of any sort of connection between England
and Ireland. It would seem to be the wisest course to
take advantage of the good offices of Archbishop Walsh
and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in order to se—
cure the distribution of the fund to bona fide sufferers
and to prevent the misuse of the money for political
purposes. I have no doubt that His Majesty's Government
will adopt a benevolent attitude to any movement actuated
by motives of racial sympathy and of christian charity
such as is outlined in the scheme which appears to be view—
ed with favour by Cardinal Farley. It will of course have been apparent to you from the
reports which I have sent home as to most of the meetings
held in order to collect subscriptions for the sufferers
from the Dublin insurrection, that the spirit animating
most of the speakers was one of extreme hostility to
England. Many of the meetings have a strong pro—German
tinge and most of the promoters were men who have no intent—
ion whatever of residing in Ireland and whose main motive
in promoting Irish hostility to England is not by any
means their concern for the welfare of Ireland but the
necessity in which they are placed to maintain their own
position here on the basis of hostility between the two
neighbouring islands. As I have already reported this 3
hostility has very much increased as of late by the
Irish executions and is at present so far as Irish
Americans are concerned as intense as it has ever been.
The main difference between the present situation and
that in former years is that on the whole the opinion
of the general American public is more indifferent to
the Irish cause than it was, a fact which is mainly due
to the German Irish alliance which has excited great
antipathy here, and to the general sympathies with the
cause of Belgium and France with which that of England
is united. I have etc. (Sgd) CECIL SPRING RICE