Conan Doyle Here, Expects Irish War

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Conan Doyle Here, Expects Irish War is an article published in The New-York Times on 28 may 1914.


Doyle Fights on to Aid Edalji

The New-York Times (28 may 1914, p. 10)

Says Ulster Will Surely Fight if Home Rule Puts Her Under Insular Parliament.

CALLS T. R. "A SUPERMAN"

Suffragettes Have Strained British Patience, He Declares, and May Expect Lynching Soon.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrived yesterday on the White Star liner Olympic after- an absence of twenty years from this country.

He was accompanied by Lady Doyle, who is visiting the United States for the first time, she said, and believes, from what she saw of the city from the harbor, that it more than comes up to her expectations.

Sir Arthur is more than 6 feet tall and broad shouldered. He has dark gray hair and mustache and gives the impression of a country gentleman. It is easy to realize what he meant when he wrote in a book about having to knock a man down without fuss.

By a coincidence there was a passenger on the list named R. H. Baskerville. Sir Arthur, when his attention was called to the name, smiled and said that he did not believe the passenger was related to the owners of "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

In an interview on the deck of the Olympic, Sir Arthur said that after spending a week in New York he and Lady Doyle were going to Montreal and then out to the Canadian Rockies to camp in the Selkirk Range north of Banff, where he visited twenty years ago. They have engaged the same guide he had then to accompany them.

During this stay in this city he will visit William Gillette, the actor who made "Sherlock Holmes" famous on the stage.

One of the first questions Sir Arthur asked the reporters was whether there had been any uprising. In Ireland, and when told that everything was peaceful, he said: "I am glad to hear that, but the question is, how long will it last? Ulster will certainly fight, but I do not expect any trouble there until they try to enforce the act. I do not believe there will be any small outbreaks, but if anything does happen, it will be serious. I tell you those men are not 'bluffing' as you term it. They mean business up there in the North of Ireland.

"In my opinion, it will be so serious as to amount practically to civil war, or it will be nothing at all. The men of Ulster will never give in to the idea of an Irish Parliament.

"I'm a Home Ruler myself." he ceded, "but I am certain there will be violence if there is any attempt to enforce the Home Rule law."

When asked about woman suffrage Sir Arthur replied that he thought the patience of the English public had been tried to the straining point by the actions of the militant suffragettes, and he would not be surprised at any time to hear that some of them had fallen victims to mob law. The police have had great difficulty protecting these women from the mobs on several occasions, he said.

"Thus far," Sir Arthur went on, "public opinion, which usually guides the Government in England, has not demanded the entire suppression of the militant suffragette. It has almost come to that stage now, however, and something drastic will happen, and happen soon. There will be a wholesale lynching bee. I fancy, for the English mob, when thoroughly aroused, is not a respecter of sex. If anything happens the militants will only have themselves to blame."

Asked what he thought of Col. Roosevelt and his discoveries in South America. Sir Arthur replied: "The Colonel is a superman, if there was ever one, and I believe he has accomplished all he claims to have done. If he says he has discovered a river. he discovered it you may rely on that."

The novelist was in excellent humor, and agreed at once when asked by Detective William Burns, who met him at Quarantine, to pose for the moving pictures. The camera got him standing with a notebook in his hand.

Sir Arthur told reporters that he was anxious to hear from Detective Burns about the Frank case in Atlanta. "I am much interested in its history," he said, "because I have been agitating a similar case in my country — that of Oscar Slater, an innocent man, whom I am trying to have released."

He said he had not completed his plans for his stay in Canada, except that he would remain on this side for seven weeks or so. He said he had come here for a rest, and was not going to do any hunting or anything else that was fatiguing to brain or body. As to writing a book on his trip, he said that if he saw any good material he certainly would make note of it for use later on.

The Pilgrims will give a luncheon this afternoon to Sir Arthur at the Whitehall Club. Joseph H. Choate will preside.