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Telephone No. P.O.9 Cnoc Mo Rúin Knockmaroon, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. July 7 1916 My Dear Bernard
Shaw Although you do not
usually answer my letters I
hope you will answer this
one to the extent of
signing the enclosed petition.
It is far from being
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my own view but Sir R Conan
Doyle wrote it & it represents
a view that may help me
to get signatures from 'moderates' &
I am led it is likely to have
an effect. Yours very truly Clement Shorter
Letter from British literary critic Clement King Shorter (1857-1926) to playwright
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950). Shorter was married to Dora Sigerson (1866-1918),
a friend of Casement's, and in the letter he asks Shaw to sign a petition compiled
by Sir R. Conan Doyle for a reprieve for Casement. The campaign, he writes, hoped
for support from 'moderates'. Shaw himself became heavily involved in the campaign.The
letter was written while Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916) was imprisoned in London after
he had been arrested while landing on the coast of Kerry in a submarine on the eve
of the Easter Rising. A campaign was launched featuring many prominent figures such
as W.B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw to secure a reprieve for Casement but he was
hanged on 3 August 1916.