with some 1 50 other prominent Sinn Feiners. He was imprisoned at Lincoln, in England, but on Feb. 3 1919 he, with two other Irish prisoners, escaped and, ultimately, made his way to the United States. Here, working with the same restless energy as in Ireland, he was successful for a time in enlisting a large amount of public sympathy for the Sinn Fein cause, especially in Irish and German-American circles. He was received as " President " by the civic authorities of New York (under Mayor Hylan's Tammany administration) and in other cities where the Irish vote predominated, presented with their " freedom," and otherwise honoured. His attempt, however, to persuade the party conventions, assembled to nominate candi- dates for the presidency, into making the independence of Ireland a plank in their programmes, completely failed, and the Irish question was not mentioned in the programme of either party. With the election of Mr. Harding to the presidency, it became clear that De Valera's efforts to involve the United States in a quarrel with Great Britain about Ireland had broken down, and in the spring of 1921 he returned to Ireland, wherein June and July negotiations were opened with him by the Government with a view to an Irish settlement (see IRELAND: History).
In 1910 De Valera was married to Miss Sinead Ni Fhlannagain, one of the most popular teachers and earnest workers of the Ard Craobh and Colimcille branches and of the Leinster College.
DEVENTER, SIR JACOB LOUIS VAN (1874- ), S. African general, was born in the Orange Free State in 1874. A colonel on the permanent staff of the S. African Defence Force, Van Deventer served in the German S.-W. Africa campaign, 1914-5, where he had a distinguished record in active service. His real gifts as a general, however, were not fully appreciated till he went to German E. Africa, to fight in Gen. Smuts's campaign against the Germans there. So well did he acquit himself in that field that when Gen. Hoskins, who had succeeded Gen. Smuts in the chief command, ceased to hold that post in 1917, Van Deven- ter was appointed commander-in-chief of the Empire Military Forces in E. Africa. He was then a major-general, and was given the temporary rank of lieutenant-general on becoming command- er-in-chief. Shortly afterwards he was created K.C.B., in rec- ognition of distinguished services in the field. As commander- in-chief he showed the same qualities which had secured for him this high promotion and it was under his auspices that the campaign was brought to a successful end. Van Deventer left E. Africa at the end of 1918, sending a message of thanks to the administrator of Southern Rhodesia, in which he expressed his sincere thanks for the " unfailing cooperation of the Rho- desian troops, British and African, in the campaign."
DE VILLIERS, JOHN HENRY DE VILLIERS, BARON (1842- 1914), first Chief Justice of the Union of South Africa, was born at Paarl, Cape Colony, in June 1842. Descended from the Huguenots who settled in that part of the Cape, he was educated at the South African College, Cape Town, and went to Utrecht and Berlin universities. In 1865 he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple, and in the same year returned to South Africa and began practice as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Cape Colony. His success was immediate. Entering Cape politics in 1866, he was elected a member of the House of Assembly, became attorney-general of the Colony in 1872, and two years later was appointed Chief Justice of the Cape. In that high office he speedily confounded critics of his appointment. The Roman- Dutch law of the Colony, admirable in its logic and symmetry, was ill-fitted to the complications of modern conditions, and it was the life-work of de Villiers to adapt it to these needs. This he did with a conspicuous success which has secured for his name a place high on the roll of those great judges who have done the work of British civilization in many parts of the world. De Villiers was knighted in 1880, was created a K.C.M.G. a year later, and in 1910 was raised to the peerage on his assumption of the post of Chief Justice of the newly formed Union of South Africa. He died Sept. 2 1914.
In the work of moulding the instrument of union he had borne a great if not a decisive part. Throughout his career he had taken a constant interest in the politics of Cape Colony and of South Africa an interest which had never degenerated into partisanship, which had throughout been inspired by a true and enlightened patriotism, which had never lacked the touch of courageous plain speech at the many moments of crisis through which his country had passed. Universal recognition of these outstanding qualities made the appointment of de Villiers as president of the National Convention inevitable, though it must be said that, as the work of the Convention drew towards completion, there were murmurs and not without justification that long years on the bench had done something to affect his natural aptitude for presiding over the deliberations of such a body. These criticisms, however well justified, should not detract from the greatness of his achievement, both as a judge and as a figure in the tortured public life of South Africa during the hazardous years of his career. As a judge he touched genius. Acute, unbiased, learned in the crabbed texts of Roman-Dutch law, he added to these gifts the art of keeping steadily in mind the practical needs of the life of his country as affected by his judgments. Equity rather than precedent was his mentor. With the bar his relations were those of a wise and revered adviser. During repeated visits to Great Britain he shared with known distinction in the work of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and the value of his assistance to that body was recognized more than once in public by his colleagues.
DEVONPORT, HUDSON EWBANKE KEARLEY, IST VISCT. (1856- ), English politician and man of business, was born at Uxbridge Sept. i 1856, and educated at Cranleigh school. He entered the firm of Kearley & Tonge, tea merchants and shippers, of London and Calcutta, subsequently becoming senior partner. In 1892 he entered Parliament as Liberal member for Devonport, and from 1905 to 1909 was parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1908 he was created a baronet, and in 1909 was elected chairman of the Port of London Authority, being prominent in this capacity during the strike of transport workers and lightermen at the London docks in 1912. In 1910 he was raised to the peerage. He was appointed first Food Controller in 1916, and in 1917 became secretary to the Sugar Commission, but had to retire owing to ill-health. The same year he was created a viscount.
DEWAR, SIR JAMES (1842- ), British chemist 'and physicist (see 8.137), published (with G. D. Liveing) Collected Papers on Spectroscopy (1915). In 1916 he received the Copley medal of the Royal Society, and the Franklin medal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia in 1919.
DEWEY, GEORGE (1837-1917), American naval officer (see 8.139), died in Washington Jan. 16 1917, and three days later was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. By special provision Admiral Dewey was never retired but continued in active service up to his death, for the last seven years being president of the General Board of the navy. To the last he continued to urge the building of large battleships, citing their superiority in the battle of Jutland in the World War. He published his Autobiography in 1913.
DIAZ, ARMANDO (1861- ), Italian general, was born in Naples Dec. 6 1861. He entered the artillery and served in that branch and in various staff appointments, until his promotion to major, when he transferred to the infantry. He served in the Italo-Turkish War in command of a regiment and was wounded at Zanzur in Sept. 1912. In 1914 he was promoted to major-general, and, after commanding the Sienna Brigade for a short time, was transferred to the general staff. On Italy's entry into the World War he was attached to the supreme command as chief of the operations department. He held this post till June 1916, when he was promoted lieutenant-general and took command of the 4gth Division, which in Nov. of that year distinguished itself by the capture of Volkovnjak, an important position on the northern rim of the Carso. He visited the French front in Jan. and Feb. 1917, and in June he was given special promotion and confirmed in command of the XXIII. Corps, which he had held temporarily from its formation two months previously. Under his direction in the following Aug. this corps won a considerable success between Korite and Selo, on the Carso.
