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THE NEW YORK TIMES
New York City, New York, U.S.A.
13 July 1915
(page 7)
Irish Republic Born in New York
Harbor.
Ten Patriots at Daybreak Renounce
Allegiance to England Near Statue of
Liberty.
Independence is Declared.
Sympathy with Germany, They Say, a
Matter of Expediency.
—Then They Breakfast at Jack’s.
As dawn was slowly spreading over
the city on the morning of July 3, a thirty-foot launch
slipped from the recreation pier at the foot of West
Fiftieth Street and glided down the Hudson. On board were
ten persons, silent and serious with the consciousness of
what was to them a profoundly solemn and significant
ceremony.
In the prow of the boat was Aleister Crowley, Irish-man-poet, philosopher, explorer, a
man of mystic mind—the leader of an Irish hope. Of nearly
middle age and mild in manner, with the intellectual point
of view colored with cabalistic interpretation, Crowley is
an unusual man, capably so to those who believe and feel in
common with him. He has spent years exploring in Persia,
India, and Tibet, and he is the author of several volumes of
translations of the early writings of those countries. He is
said to be a close friend of
William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet, and he has written
several Irish poems himself.
In the boat also was Miss
Leila Waddell,
whose mother was an Irish refugee of the last generation and
who believes herself an Irish patriot. She is a violinist
and has appeared publicly on several occasions since her
recent coming to America. And among those in the exotic
party were one J. Dorr, an Irish editor who has published
papers in both Ireland and England, and Patrick Gilroy, an
Irish agitator. All of those in the launch were Irish. Most
of them have come to this country since the beginning of the
war.
Ready to War on England
The members of the party consider
themselves members of the secret Revolutionary Committee of
Public Safety of the Provisional Government of the Irish
Republic, and their early morning mission of July 3 was to
declare the independence of the Irish Republic, which
included a declaration of war against England, and to pledge
their allegiance to the government of their vision.
The little launch passed from the
river into the bay and stopped off Bedloe’s Island, under
the Statue of Liberty. The time and place chosen for the
ceremony were considered brightly propitious. There was the
poetic significance of the dawn, the great figure of Liberty
enlightening the world was symbolic of the dreamed-of
republic, the season was the anniversary of the Declaration
of Independence of the United States. And the leader of the
party, Crowley, in whose mysticism there is something of
astrology, had read the heavens and found that the
conjunction of certain stars was auspicious for Ireland at
exactly 4:32 o’clock on the morning of July 3.
So, with the launch a few feet off Bedloe’s Island, at the moment of 4:32 o’clock, Crowley rose
to begin the ceremony. He said:
“I have not asked any great human
audience to listen to these words; I had rather address them
to the unconquerable ocean that surrounds the world, and to
the free four winds of heaven. Facing the sunrise, I lift up
my hands and my soul herewith to this giant figure of
Liberty, the ethical counterpart of the Light, Life, and
Love which are our spiritual heritage. In this symbolical
and most awful act of religion I invoke the one true God of
whom the sun himself is but a shadow that he may strengthen
me in heart and hand to uphold that freedom for the land of
my sires, which I am come hither to proclaim.
“In this dark moment, before the
father orb of our system kindles with his kiss the sea, I
swear the great oath of the Revolution. I tear with my hands
this token of slavery, this safe conduct from the enslaver
of my people, and I renounce forever all allegiance to every
alien tyrant. I swear to fight to the last drop of my blood
to liberate the men and women of Ireland, and I call upon
the free people of this country, on whose hospitable shores
I stand an exile, to give me countenance and assistance to
my task of breaking those bonds which they broke for
themselves 138 years ago.
Unfurl Irish Flag
“I unfurl the Irish flag. I
proclaim the Irish Republic. Erin go Bragh. God save
Ireland.”
As the bits of the torn English
passport scattered over the surface of the water the Irish
flag, a green field supporting a golden harp, flapped free
in the breeze from a mast in the bow of the boat.
Solemnly then the Declaration of
Independence of Ireland was read. It is:
We, the secret Revolutionary
Committee of Public Safety of the Provisional Government of
the Irish Republic, hereby authorize our spokesman and
delegate, Brother Aleister Crowley, No. 418, in our name and
in our behalf, to promulgate the proclamation following:
In so grave a circumstance of
human affairs as the declaration of war or revolution, it is
customary that those whose conscience and free-will alike
impel them to take up arms against other men, should state
openly the causes of their resorting to so dread efficacy of
protest.
Peace and good-will are the ruling
passions of the better sort among mankind; and for these to
turn there-from argues the existence of a state intolerable
to free men. We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all
men and women are created unequal; and our justice wills
that this prejudice of nature be redressed, so far as is
possible to human effort, by assuring to each and every one
of them equality of rights before the law, and the right to
make, alter, or repeal that law itself; and, by assuring to
each and every one of them freedom to develop the powers of
the soul, spiritual, moral, mental, or physical without
interference from any other person or persons, so far as
that development may prove compatible with the equal rights
of others.
Right to Rebel
To obtain these advantages of
security and freedom is the object of all proper government;
and it is not only the right of every man for himself, but
his duty to his neighbor, to refuse obedience to any
authority which does not serve its people to this end with
loyalty and fidelity. What then must be the right and duty
of every member of a nation not only misgoverned, but
governed for the purpose of exploitation by an alien,
usurping, and inferior race?
For many centuries this particular wrong has been suffered
with a patience and gentleness not unworthy of the Saviour
of Mankind, by the Irish people; but as to endure oppression
with meekness is the pride and prerogative of God, it is not
for man to usurp it. The free and independent spirit of the
people of Ireland is weary of the continued crimes of the
English tyrants; and, seeing no end possible but the success
of the oppressors in their systematic annihilation of the
people, dares the desperate alternative of revolt.
For, as is notorious in every
country of the inhabited globe, the deliberate policy of
England from the first conquest of Ireland has been endowed
with that admirable virtue of consistency which is the spine
of good intention, but in this case props the determination
to destroy a people.
The land of Ireland has been
stolen from the people of Ireland, both by armed aggression
and by the chicaneries of unjust law.
The labor of Ireland has been
sterilized and thwarted by the envy of British industries.
The people of Ireland have been
enslaved by a ferocious constabulary, militia, and soldiery,
enforcing laws intended to weaken the people directly by
coercion or indirectly by impoverishment. The right of
political action has been denied to them, and the
sacrilegious hand of atheistic oligarchy has been lifted
even against the freedom of religious thought.
The means of private assassination
and of public massacre have been freely employed against the
people, and when even the soldier turned with disgust from
the task of a butcher, famine and pestilence were
deliberately brought upon the land by the calculating craft
of the robbers, tyrants, and murderers that bear rule over
them.
So comprehensive, so infamous, and
so continuous a conspiracy is unparalleled in the annals of
humanity; and were we to precise and to detail the crimes
against our people which already overload the scroll of the
recording angel, and now bare the sword of the avenging
angel of God, we think that not even earth itself could
contain the document of their mere enumeration.
“Hatred of Their Tyrant”
Nor have the Irish people been
inactive in measures directed to appease the unnatural
hatred of their tyrant. They have sought by every lawful
means to obtain some alleviation of our sempiternal
suffering. They have made political overtures only to be
rejected, or nullified by the adroitness of the lawyer. They
have sacrificed freely their best blood, for their sons have
been the best soldiers of the usurper; and England has
answered by their deliberate massacre in battle.
We believe that earth itself
revolts at the recital of these tyrannies and treasons; we
believe that God Himself is weary of beholding these
intolerable evils; and we believe in consequence that the
hour is come when desperation should be transformed into
resolution, patience inflamed to wrath, and Peace, folding
her wings upon her face, mournfully beckon war.
We, therefore, the secret
Revolutionary Committee of Public Safety of the Provisional
Government of the Irish Republic, by the mouth of our trusty
and well-beloved delegate and spokesman, Brother Aleister
Crowley, No. 418, do decree and proclaim:
1. That, we put our trust and
confidence in the Judge of the whole world, appealing to Him
to witness the righteousness of our intent.
2. That, declaring England the
enemy of civilization, justice, equality, and freedom, and
therefore of the human race, we do hereby lawfully establish
the Republic of the Men and Women of the Irish People, free
and independent by right human and divine, having full power
to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliance, establish
commerce, and to do all other things which independent
States may of right do.
Repudiate England
3. That we do hereby dissolve all
political connection between that Republic and the usurper,
absolving of their allegiance to England (a) all free people
of good will that are of Irish blood, (b) all free people of
good will born in Ireland, (c) all free people of good will
who may hereafter desire to partake of the benefits of the
Irish Republic, and effectually acquire these rights by the
forms provided.
4. That, we do hereby declare war
upon England until such time as our demands being granted,
our rights recognized, and our power firmly established in
our own country, from which we are now exiled, we may see
fit to restore to her the blessings of peace, and to extend
to her the privileges of friendship.
And for the support of this
declaration, with a firm and hearty reliance upon the
protection of God, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Long live the Irish Republic.
The official copy of this
declaration of independence is “signed by order and on
behalf of the committee” by “Aleister Crowley, 418,” and
“attested” by “L. Bathurst, 11.”
With the conclusion of the reading
of the declaration, the launch headed up the Hudson River,
proceeding near the western shore, Miss Waddell playing
patriotic Irish airs on her violin. The music and the large
Irish flag, now plainly visible in the increasing light,
identified the boat to the seamen on the German ships
interned at the Hoboken waterfront, and they cheered the
small company of Irishmen lustily. The Captain of the
Hamburg-American line tug which happened to be standing off
with steam up near the Vaterland, turned out into the river
and escorted the launch to its landing at Fiftieth Street.
Incidentally it was noted by those in the launch that as
they passes by the French and English ships at the piers on
the eastern side of the river the sailors on them cheered as
loudly as the Germans had.
Breakfast at Jack’s
The party left the launch and went
to Jack’s restaurant for breakfast, where a number of late
revelers did not seem to disturb the spirit of their
gathering.
A touch of comedy to the
ceremonies over which Crowley and his companions laughed
themselves the next day was that the party had intended to
go through their ritual on the steps at the base of the
Statue of Liberty, but, giving more mind to the vision of
the Irish Republic than to practical details, those who
arranged the journey neglected to obtain Governmental
permission to land on Bedloe’s Island. When the launch
stopped at the dock, therefore, a stolid watchman who
displayed neither Irish nor English sympathies, but who had
fluent command of New York’s most emphatic language, refused
to let the patriots set foot on the “land of liberty.” So
the ceremonies were held in the boat while it drifted near
the island.
The particular avowed purpose of
the representatives of the “committee” in America is to
spread propaganda that will contribute, at the end of the
European war, to the establishment of the Republic of
Ireland. Members of the committee in Ireland, according to
information obtained by a representative of the New York
Times are now engaged in a secret effort to dissuade
Irishmen from enlisting in the English Army. But those
members of the committee who will talk of their business at
all admit that there is no immediate intention of an attempt
to wage active war on England by the instigation of an armed
rebellion in Ireland. It is said that the present purpose of
the formal declaration of war against England is more to
enlist the sympathies of Irish and of Americans to the
“cause” than to bring about what even the most visionary
enthusiasts of the movement recognize as an impracticable
war.
Aleister Crowley was displeased
when the news of the ceremonies at Bedloe’s Island and of
the formation of the “committee” came into the possession of
The Times, and he declined to discuss his plans and purposes
further than to acknowledge the fact set forth. An American
who is acquainted with Crowley’s beliefs and intentions,
however, while frankly admitting that the Irishmen of the
“committee” sympathize with Germany in the present war,
asserted that this was due to anti-English feelings and not
to any natural love of things Germaine. The members of the
“committee” see in Germany, according to their unofficial
spokesman, a factor that will impair the power of England to
oppress them. That is all.
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