If any reader unacquainted with events in Ireland at that time thinks it incredible that a police force like the R.I.C. should have been so shameless as to allow criminals a free hand I hope I shall convince him by two simple facts. The first is that in cases where our men were found to have arrested men for robbery or other forms of crime, the practice of the British was to have the criminal released and protected and to have the I.R.A. men sent to jail. The newspaper files with accounts of courts-martial on our men on such charges bear out my statement. The second fact, though never revealed in the newspapers, did not come under my personal notice, but I have it from I.R.A. men concerned. In County Meath a most cold-blooded murder was committed by an ex-British soldier. The R.I.C. had clear evidence that he was guilty. They arrested him, but did they try him? No! They released him and advised him to leave the country before he fell into the hands of the I.R.A. But he was arrested by the I.R.A. men within five minutes of his release, and later paid the penalty of his crime. At this time too the Black and Tans appeared on the scene. A great many are still in doubt as to how they got this name, so it is as well to explain. The force was recruited by Sir Hamar Greenwood’s instructions early in 1920 to swell the ranks of the R.I.C. and to replace the Irishmen who had resigned from that force in disgust. Greenwood wanted thousands of recruits for carrying out the policy of terrorism which had been decided upon. He could not get them in Ireland. Even in England he found it hard to get any decent men to come on such work. Hence his force was recruited mainly from the lower classes of English ex-soldiers, many of them being known criminals or ex-convicts. They arrived in Ireland in such numbers that the R.I.C. could not possibly equip half of them in the recognised dark blue uniform. There were some black tunics to be had and some black trousers, also some black caps. The military came to their assistance with a supply of khaki. Every man was given some portion of the black uniform to show he was nominally a policeman, but the main portion of the outfit was khaki. When these irregular forces first took up duty in the South you can imagine their grotesque appearance—one man being all in khaki except for a black cap, another all in khaki except for black trousers, and so on, none of them being either completely in black or completely in khaki.