Fianna Fáil—5th December, 1914.

Sir Roger Casement was received yesterday at the Foreign Office in Berlin, and said that statements had been published in Ireland to the effect that victory for the German arms would result in great loss to the Irish people, whose homes, churches, priests and land would be at the mercy of an invading army, actuated only by motives of pillage and conquest. These statements, coupled with the recent speeches of Mr. John Redmond, had caused apprehension among the Irish regarding the German attitude in the event of a victory for Germany in the present war.

The Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, by order of the Imperial Chancellor, officially declared that the German Government repudiated the evil intentions attributed to it, and only desire the welfare of the Irish people, and their country. Germany, he said, would never invade Ireland with a view to its conquest, or the overthrow of any Irish national institutions, and should fortune ever bring the German troops to Ireland’s shores, those troops would land, not as an army of invaders to pillage and destroy, but as forces of a nation inspired by good will towards Ireland, and her people, for whom Germany desires national prosperity and freedom.