Beschreibung:

File of papers of Sir John Sankey (afterwards Lord Chancellor), principally as Chairman of the 'Advisory Committee to Try Sinn Feiners', established after the Easter Rising of April 1916; with further papers as presiding judge of the tribunal established for the same purpose in June 1918, in a folder marked "The Hon Mr Justice Sankey/ Sinn Fein", comprising: (i) Typed abstract of correspondence between the army command and Home Office, headed "Sinn Fein Rebellion./ Headquarters, Irish Command" ("...Home Sec says Prime Minister wishes process of combing out innocents prosecuted with vigour. Home Sec wants those who are to be interned got out of prisons and into camps as soon as possible... June 6 Troup to Byrne. Undesirable to send ladies to Aylesbury to consort with German brothel-keepers..."), 3 pages, 4to, 22 May to 6 June 1916 (ii) Correspondence between Sankey, the Home Secretary, Herbert Samuel, and Mr Justice Pirn, comprising Sankey's office copy of the letter to him from the Home Secretary of 8 June 1916, suggesting that Pirn join the committee ("...it would be advizable to add to the Committee an Irish Judge, so that it should not be said that Irishmen were being tried by an almost wholly English tribunal...") and raising another question, namely: "a certain number of Civil Servants in Ireland are suspected, presumably on good ground, of connection with the Sinn Fein movement... It is felt that these men ought not to be left as Officers of the various Departments if they are in fact actively disloyal; and, on the other hand, it would not be right to dismiss them... without careful investigation..."); Sankey's retained signed draft of his reply, agreeing to look into civil servants as well; and Sankey's signed retained draft of a long letter to Pirn ("...The persons retained are at present at many centres... but there is an idea of transferring them to an Internment Camp at Bala in North Wales, and it may be necessary for us to sit there, as well as in London and Dublin..."), 10 pages, folio, on official blindstamped paper, folio, 8 and 10 June 1916 (iii) Manuscript note of the powers of the Committee under Defence of the Realm Regulation 14B with a Carbon typescript, headed "Sinn Fein Rebellion. Points to be discussed", 5 pages, 4to, undated [c. June 1916] (iv) Four typed letters signed to Sankey by his committee secretary, W.J.H. Brodrick ("...The War Office suggest making 'omnibus' orders, viz one order for the whole population of a camp, leaving us to sort out the people afterwards... I have asked [Ball] to classify the cases by centres of revolt; that is to say all the people connected with the Cork outbreak together, and similarly for Kerry, Dublin and other places... Baldwin appears to be very keen to serve on the Sinn Fein Committee, if it is in any way possible. He talks of chucking all his private engagements... It appears from what [Mooney] says that there is still a faint possibility of an amnesty, but he doubts himself whether the Ulster Nationalists are going to consent to a settlement, in which case of course there can be no amnesty..."), 9 pages, 4to, 3 June to 26 July 1916 (v) Autograph retained drafts of two letters by Sankey to the Home Secretary, informing him that "The Advisory Committee considering the Sinn Fein cases met for the last time on Monday. There were only 5 cases left which were deposed of & the final figures are now as follows..."; and drawing his attention to the cases of Edward and James Rooney [both of whom had taken part in the Battle of Ashbourne as part of the Easter Rising]; the second thanking him for his kind remarks on the work of the committee, 4 pages, 4to, 30 August 1916 and undated (vi) Letter signed to Sankey by Clause Schuster, Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office, giving the Chancellor's assent to Sankey and Younger "trying Sinn Fein prisoners", 1 page, 8vo, 5 June 1918 (vii) Two typed charge-sheets of appeals to be heard before Sankey and Mr Justice Youn