THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.

14 July 1915

(page 5)

PLEDGED A “FREE” IRELAND.

A CEREMONY AT DAWN JULY 3

UNDER STATUE OF LIBERTY.

Members of a “Secret Revolutionary

Committee” Also Declared War on

England, but They Will Not Start

Fighting at Once.

New York, July 14.—As dawn was slowly spreading over the city the morning of July 3, a 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 to them was a profoundly solemn and significant ceremony.

In the prow of the boat was Aleister Crowley, Irishman—a bit of a poet; a bit of a philosopher; a reported explorer of accomplishment; a man of mystic mind—the leader of an Irish hope.

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 both in Ireland and England, and Patrick Gilroy, an Irish agitator. All those in the launch were Irish. Most of them have come to this country since the beginning of the war.

WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT.

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 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 under the Statue of Liberty. Crowley arose to begin the ceremony. Solemnly then the declaration of independence of Ireland was read.

The particular avowed purpose of the representative of the “committee” in America is to spread propaganda that will accrue at the end of the European was to the establishment of the republic of Ireland. Members of the committee in Ireland, according to information obtained, now are 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.

WON’T START A WAR NOW.

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 impractical war.

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.