I beg to move the adjournment of the Dáil until to-morrow at three o'clock.
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. - ARMY SITUATION.
The general position is indicated as follows:—
Donegal Command.—Situation quite normal, no resignations, no absconsions, no incidents and there is the utmost loyalty on the part of officers and troops.
Claremorris.—Quite normal, four resignations of officers, no absconsions, no incidents, and the utmost loyalty on the part of officers and men.
Athlone.—Quite normal, no resignations, two absconsions in connection with one incident in Roscommon. The utmost loyalty.
Limerick.—Situation quite normal, no resignations, no absconsions, and no incidents; the utmost loyalty.
Dublin.—Situation normal. There have been 19 resignations, two absconsions, and incidents at Gormanstown, Baldonnel and Gorey. There is the utmost loyalty on the part of officers and men.
Curragh.—Situation quite normal. There have been no resignations and no absconsions. The only incident is the escape of a prisoner from one of the detention camps. The utmost loyalty.
Waterford.—Situation quite normal. Two resignations; 8 absconsions of officers, and 25 men deserted with arms from Clonmel. There have been incidents at Cashel, Templemore, and Clonmel. Some additional resignations were tendered under circumstances of which I am not aware, but they were withdrawn.
Kerry.—Situation normal, no resignations, no absconsions, no incidents. A number of officers who were understood to have some sympathy with whatever is behind the letter of the two officers read to-day, have come forward and dissociated themselves from those officers.
Cork.—The situation is quite normal. The Second in Command is the only resignation. He has resigned here in Dublin. There have been no absconsions, and no incidents. A movement has been worked among the officers. The officers in "Micheál" Barracks and in other places have been approached individually by somebody during Saturday night and Sunday morning, and have been asked to sign a document tendering to Major-General Tobin their resignation. The following is the document:—
"I, So-and-so, do hereby request that you tender to President Cosgrave on my behalf my resignation from the Free State Army as a formal protest against the action of the Army Executive Council in their continued and studied neglect of the best interests of the country as evidenced by their action in continual demobilising of officers who have endeavoured to place our country on the road to complete freedom."
A number of officers in Cork did sign that document, but when it became understood that there was not a general signing of it, and that the majority of officers did not sign, those who had signed made arrangements to have their papers destroyed. The original G.O.C. of the Command has been brought to Dublin and the Second in Command resigned in Dublin. The new officer in command has inspected the Command and reported everything normal. A certain wire was sent from Cork on yesterday, the 10th, by a person there:—"All here resigning; are you ready?" That was sent to Kerry, where the situation is perfectly normal, and where there has been a repudiation of the document. In Cork a large number of persons who signed documents of resignation have endeavoured to have them returned.
In connection with the Baldonnel incident, the O.C. of the Aerodrome yesterday tendered his resignation on the 'phone. He was told that his resignation would not be accepted in that way, and he said that if that was so he would have to be regarded as a deserter. The Second in Command, who was absent irregularly yesterday from the camp, has been placed under arrest, but he has stated his absolute loyalty to the State. The total number of officers who have resigned, and whose resignations have been sent in, is not to be understood as meaning sympathy with the document read to-day. A number of officers were resigning in the ordinary way, and some of them have offered to withdraw their resignation until any crisis there is is over. The number of officers who resigned up to the present is 45. These figures include absconsions. So far as ranks go, the O.C. at Baldonnel was a Major-General, the Second in Command in Cork was a Colonel. Five Commandants have resigned, and 27 Captains. The remainder were Lieutenants.
The whole officer personnel has been examined, and the total number of officers who might be in sympathy, not with the action taken by these officers in sending that letter, but with whatever is at the back of that letter, is 90 odd. A number of officers that we thought it well to place on that list of suspicion have in the meantime come to the officers at General Headquarters and told them, in case they were suspected because of their association with some of those people, that they were absolutely loyal to their commissions. So that from the point of view of national safety and security, the military position in the country is quite sound, and the incidents that have taken place have been incidents of absconsion rather than of any definite attempt to take military action of any kind.
The Dáil adjourned at 6.7 p.m.