French’s
Intelligence Committee
Introduction
from Chronology
French had set up a committee with the objective of placing political
detective and intelligence work in “Dublin and the country on a proper footing”. They report on this day.
More Detail
The committee consisted of John Taylor (nominally Assistant Under
Secretary but actually in charge of the Dublin Castle administration – See
Dec-11-19/1); T.J. Smith (Acting Inspector General of the RIC); Walter
Edgeworth Johnstone (Chief Commissioner of the DMP) and Alan Bell (who was a
resident magistrate with experience of dealing with political crime and
attached to Basil Thomson’s Directorate of Intelligence at Scotland Yard in
London).
On this date, they produce a report in which they recommend better
training in detective work; more active collection of intelligence by the RIC;
the use of “loyal citizens as special constables”; the use of secret agents and
the establishment of a secret corps of RIC men who would shadow DMP detectives
to kill would-be assassins. (With regard
to the latter, the report says that “We are inclined to think that the shooting
of a few [assassins] …would have an excellent effect”.) The report states that
Dublin was the “storm centre” and recommends that “all the resources of the
Government should be used in the Metropolis to break down and destroy” the IRA.
O’Sullivan Greene says that “The recommendations in the report constituted a
secret battle plan”.
After this report, “a very capable officer” Detective Inspector Redmond
was brought down from Belfast to “take care of political crime” – See
Dec-20-19/1. As for Bell, see
Mar-01-20/2.
In the volume of the official BA record of the Rebellion dealing with
intelligence, the authors state that “the police service of information had
practically broken down by December 1919, owing to the murder of the best and
most active members of the R.I.C. and D.M.P.”
See Jan-03-20/4.