Perhaps our readers have forgotten the circumstances in which Dr.
Cohalan was appointed to his present position. We will therefore remind them. When the late Bishop of Cork died in the summer of 1916 Dr. Cohalan was the assistant Bishop. Count Bernstorff, then German Ambassador at Washington, telegraphed to the German Foreign Office that Dr. Cohalan was a cousin of Judge Cohalan in the United States, and was "strongly Nationalist and pro-German." Count Bernstorff went on to explain that Dr. Cohalan had intervened between the Cork volunteers and the British military authorities, and had "pub- licly exposed the gross breach of faith which the English had committed against the surrendered men." Hence an effort had been made through the British Envoy at the Vatican to defeat the proposed appointment 4 Dr. Cohalan to the bishopric of Cork. "if Germany," telegraphed Count Bernstorff, "can exert any influence to bring about this result [the appointment of Dr. Cohalan as Bishop of Cork], it would defeat the English ntrigue aimed against her interests." We do not know what influence, if any, Germany exerted at Rome, but at all events Dr. Cohalan became Bishop of Cork, and is now in a position to write the letter from which we have quoted.
