高神 信一

In February 1837 the Whig government introduced the Poor Law (Ireland) Bill in the House of Commons. The Bill was based on the English Poor Law: the poor should be relieved in workhouses and outdoor relief should be prohibited. The Bill passed the second reading in May 1837 and was considered in committee, but it was dropped owing to the death of King William IV in June 1837. The government introduced the second Poor Law (Ireland) Bill in December 1837, which passed the House of Commons in April 1838 and the House of Lords in July 1838. Opposition to the Bill was not great. Tory leader Robert Peel supported the Bill; this weakened the force of the Bill as a political issue for the Tory opposition. But some Irish members of all political parties, who accepted the principle of the English Poor Law system, were critical of the details. The main controversial issues in parliament were the administration of the system by the English Poor Law Commissioners, the size of the union, outdoor relief and the introduction of a law of settlement.

The Irish war of independence, which started in 1919, intensified towards the end of 1920 and many Irish people suffered from distress caused by the war. In December 1920 some Irish-Americans in the U.S.A. held a meeting to discuss about Irish relief operations and decided to found the American Committee for Relief in Ireland. The Committee made forty eight state committees in every states in the U.S.A. in order to extend its influence and started a nation wide campaign for Irish relief fund in March 1921. The campaign resulted in $ 5,069,194.39, most of which was sent to the Irish White Cross in Ireland. The Irish White Cross, established in December 1920, relieved distressed people by three ways. First, the Irish White Cross distributed about ￡740,000 by 'personal relief (grants and weekly allowances). Secondly, loans (about ￡ 270,000) were granted for 'Reconstruction'. It enabled people to repair their houses. Thirdly, the Irish White Cross relieved the people by 'specialised forms of relief'(about ￡200,000): feeding of school children; the support of infant welfare societies; provisions of means of employment through workrooms; aid given where economic distress prevailed; children's fund; grants to children's hospitals and hostels.

In January 1919 the IRA attacked two policemen of the Royal Irish Constabulary at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary, which marked the start of the guerrilla warfare that continued by Truce' in July 1921. Many policemen, which were objects of the attack of the IRA, resigned. Responding to the situation, the British government recruited ex-British soldiers for the Constabulary and established 'the Black and Tans' constituted of privates, and 'the Auxiliary' of officers. The Black and.Tans and the Auxiliary were not under the direct control of the Constabulary and acted their own way. Their activities, especially 'reprisals', caused serious problems; and reprisals meant that the authorities burned buildings and engaged in looting of shops as reprisal for the military activities of the IRA. Reprisals outraged the British public opinion and cast doubts about the government policy on Ireland. The British Labour Party asked the government to establish a commission to investigate reprisals, but the government did not accept the proposal by the Labour Party. Subsequently the Labour Party established their own commission, which was sent to Ireland in November 1920 for about two weeks. The paper aims to examine the report of the commission.

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