Boyle O'Reilly organised the escape of six Fenians from Fremantle Prison in Western Australia aboard the Catalpa. In 1879, Devoy returned to Ireland to inspect Fenian centres and met Charles Kickham, John O'Leary and Michael Davitt en route in Paris; he convinced Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell to co-operate in the "New Departure" during the growing Land War. Secret War Devoy's fundraising efforts and work to sway Irish-Americans to support violent nationalism during World War I included attempts to assist the Easter Rising in 1916. In 1914, Patrick Pearse visited the elderly Devoy in America, and later the same year, Roger Casement worked with Devoy in raising money for guns to arm the Irish Volunteers. Pearse, who was very impressed by Devoy's long and selfless dedication to the cause of Irish independence, referred to Devoy as "the greatest Fenian of them all". At the declaration of war between Britain and Germany on 14 August 1914, Casement and Devoy arranged a meeting in New York between the Western Hemisphere's top-ranking German diplomat, Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, and a delegation of Clan-na-Gael men. The Clan delegates proposed a mutually beneficial plan: if Germany would sell guns to the Irish rebels and provide military leaders, the rebels would revolt against Britain, diverting troops and attention from the war with Germany. Bernstorff listened with evident sympathy and promised to relay the proposal to Berlin. Devoy decided to communicate directly with Berlin. At the time, Britain held control of the seas; within days of the start of the war it had cut the transatlantic cable. It would be necessary to send an envoy to deliver the message personally. John Kenny, president of the New York Clan na Gael, was sent. After meeting the German ambassador in Rome and presenting Devoy's plan, Kenny met in Germany with Count von Bülow. He then travelled to Dublin where he told Tom Clarke and other members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood of the arrangement, and carried back to Devoy the IRB's wishlist for guns, money, and military leaders. The details of Kenny's mission were later published in The Gaelic American. Though he was sceptical of the endeavour, Devoy financed and supported Casement's expedition to Germany to enlist German aid in the struggle to free Ireland from British rule, including Casement's Irish Brigade. Nervous of Casement's companion Adler Christensen, whom he discovered was a fraudster, and of Casement's decision