FROM THE ARCHIVES:Seán Russell, the leader of the IRA during its bombing campaign in Britain in 1939, was arrested in the US and a year later travelled by liner to Genoa and on to wartime Berlin. This report described his arrest in Detroit while the British King George was visiting Canada and about to visit the US.
– JOE JOYCE
SEÁN RUSSELL, stated to be an Irish Republican Army leader, has been detained here. Federal agents accosted Russell and another man as they were about to enter a taxi-cab in front of Michigan Central Railway Station.
According to a Detroit newspaper, Russell’s companion, who was not arrested, is Joseph McGarrity, of Philadelphia, said to be known as I.R.A. leader in the United States.
McGarrity described himself as “merely an old friend” of Russell.
Russell, he said, had been in the United States for some weeks on a legal passport.
It is reported the noted Detroit criminal attorney, Mr. Thomas C. Hawke, and his associate Mr. Frank Kane, have been engaged to represent him. The State Department in Washington stated that they received no request for extradition.
According to a Washington telegram, the Labour Department stated that Russell was taken into custody for having, it is alleged, overstayed his thirty-day visitor’s visa.
It was added that a hearing would be held at Detroit to determine the question of whether he should be deported.
Detroit, where Russell was arrested, is just across the river from Windsor, Ontario, where the King and Queen are to-day.
When Seán Russell arrived in Los Angeles he was reported to have said: “I ordered the recent bombings in England. They will keep on systematically until the British troops leave Ireland and my men are released from jail.”
Our London Correspondent writes:– I learned officially at the Home Office last night that the British authorities have not applied for an extradition warrant against Seán Russell.
A well-known Irish-American in London who is well acquainted with U.S. procedure told me to-night: “What has almost certainly happened is that the police have pulled in Seán for a few weeks while the King and Queen are on their United States visit, fearing that speeches he might make among the Irish population about the crime of Irish partition might produce ‘incidents.’
“Seán is travelling on an Éire passport, which is, of course, backed in the name of the King. I do not know if he received a visa from the U.S. Consul-General in Dublin, and it is likely the Federal agents may state that they have arrested him on suspicion of being illegally in the city.
“Public opinion in America would be all against handing over Russell to any English Court.
“Many powerful organisations there, such as the Civil Liberties League, apart from our own people, would raise a terrific storm in the event of the British Foreign Office asking the U.S. State Department to extradite Russell.”
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