Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 538
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[Page 538]
5.
truth. The Sinn Fein Commission is somewhat funny. The conspirators are of the melodramatic Tom Fool variety, & if they are not kept interned, they ought to be sent to Callan Park. Some of the evidence for the Crown was amusing. Bill Hinton, a friend of the Mullinses, who was at Bert Norris's wedding, is a Captain in the Intelligence Service. He was giving evidence about the different persons suspected of nefarious practices, & was cross-examined by Sid Mack (today made a K.C.). He spoke of references to Robert Emmet & Wolfe Tone among the prisoners' papers. "Who was Robert Emmet?" said Mack. "Oh, I believe he was an Irishman who was killed in a motor accident near Parramatta last year," said the guileless Bill. "And who was this man Tone?" said Mack. "Well I am not quite sure", said William, "but I believe he was a man mixed up in the Dublin rising in 1916." When the yells of laughter in the court subsided, Mack said "Would you be surprised to hear that both of them have been dead for more than a hundred years?" and then Hinton ruefully confessed that he was very much surprised indeed. Just imagine putting such an ignorant fathead into a witness box, to give evidence about a present day Irish conspiracy!!! I send you a cutting with Ralston's opening speech for the Crown.
Do you remember the jarbie in Cork who said, when I drew his attention