AUTONOMY FOR IRELAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 248, 16 October 1920, Page 7

AUTONOMY FOR IRELAND.

MR. ASQUITH'S ADVOCACY. REPRISALS CONDEMNED. SIR E. CARSON'S CRITICISM. (By Cable.—Press Association.— Copyright.) LONDON, October 15. Mr. H. H. Aequith, addressing the Scottish Liberal Federation at Ayr, said that it waa the meanest calumny to say that those like himself who denounced the present Administration in Ireland were responsible for the existing anarchy. The Administration in Ireland was unequalled in any civilised society. Notwithstanding his flippancies and brutalities, Mr. Lloyd GeoVge could not divert attention from this outstanding fnct that the increased record of crime and reprisals amounted to anarchy, and ■was a disgrace not only to the Government and the head of the GovI eminent, but to the country as a whole. The Government's policy was a policy !of deapuir. Mr. Asquith denied emphatically that the military and police reprisals were for outrages committed on "them. Parliament should demand a thorough and 1 impartial inquiry. They were not in any sense acts of self-defeneo, but were nets of blind and indiscriminate venfteanre. Thero was no parallel for such a state of affairs except, perhaps, the work of the Germans in Beljrium. In a speech in the evening , , Mr Asquith advocated Dominion Home Rule for Ireland with complete administrative and legislative independence in local affairs, and absolute financial autonomy. H(* saw nothing to prevent giving autonomy to Irishmen. They wouldn't quit the Empire, because that would reduce Ireland to national insignificance. Sir Edward Carson, in a speech at the Constitutional Club, said that there would be only two parties in the future, those who desired to maintain existing constitution and those who desired to subvert It. Mr. Asquith, at Ireland's most critical moment, was attempting to minimise efforts toward a solution. It was no use mincing words, a man who did that for party purposes was a traitor to the country.—(A. and N.Z.) ULSTER ORGANISATION. TO COMBAT STNN FEIN. A MAGISTRATE KIDNAPPED. (Received 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, October 15. Organisation of the Ulster Civic Guard in nearly complete. It comprises two paid classes —permanent occasional police!-unlimited in number, and unpaid volunteers. Practically all the Guard are ex-eervice men. Ex-membere of the Dieter Volunteer Secret Service staff are also organising to combat secret activities of the Sinn Fein. They will mainly enrol ex-officers. Mr. Moore, Resident Magistrate of Mullingar, and Mr. Hyde, a Justice of the Peace, when motoring to attend the eeuions, were kidnapped by masked men. Their whereabouts are unknown. —(A. and N.Z. Cable.) SKIRMISH EN DUBIXN. TROOPS FIRE ON CROWD. LONDON, October 15. An armoured car stopped in Phileboro Street in Dublin while an officer entered a bank. Three men attacked the crew of the car with a revolver, wounding a soldier. His comradee killed one assailant and the others escaped. While troops were seeking the fugitives a crowd gathered. The troops were obliged to fire, killing three civilians and wounding thirty. There have been nine deaths as a result of the explosion at the secret bomb factory at New Ross. — (A. and N.Z. Cable.) SINN FEIN LOAN. (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 15. The Sinn Fein leaders state that at the end of September the Sinn Fein loan reached £371,800.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)