FULL OF PERIL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 73, 27 March 1922, Page 5

FULL OF PERIL.

I MENACE IN IRELAND. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. A_ONG ULSTER FRONTIER. PROMPT ACTION NEEDED. ip.j Cable.-Tress Association.—Copyright.) (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON. March 20. Irish events have thrust the political ': crisis into the background. The NorthI tnicalbinet has been summoned to dis•_s the invitation to go to London on 7 Monday, meanwhile >ir -.lames Craig I JeleTaphcd to Mr. Winston Churchill assurances of earnest consideration. I High hopes arc expressed in Downing I street for a successful outcome of the I n_* conference, ibased on the GoveruI aient's firm determination to avert the I terrible shadow of civil war, together I with the Premier's opportune recovery I and return. Some well informed quarI tefs are hinting that he is hastening 'J back to London because he is keenly I I desirous of attempting the role of mcdi- j 1 ator between the north and south. L'nfortuuately these optimistic as- j I sumptions must lead to tne conjecture | that the Irish situation is precarious, ! I »—re events sceni hastening from bad j I to worse, correspondents describing the j position as full of peril which only prompt action can avert. The "Observer's" correspondent tour- j lag the danger zones, telegraphs that ] animosities were never so keen. Unless something is dune a sanguinary outbreak is inevitable. Active military | preparations are going on along the j northern frontier, 'bridges have been j blown up and roads 'blo_;ed, and I troops are drilling through the 'belief (which the correspondent thinks not I justified) that the southern Irish Re- ' publican army is secretly massing troops I tome distance from the -border for i another extensive raid. The same paper's Belfast correspon- j dent thinks that the Northern Cabinet is certain to accept the London invitation, bein;r sincerely anxious to re-tore peace.-(United Service.) I.RA. CONVENTION. IN DEFIANCE OF THE DAIL. j MORE MURDERS IN BELFAST. iRe.-eived 11.3H a.vi.) LONDON, March _1. The Irish Republican Army Convention assembled at the Mansion House, Dublin, in defiance of tho Dail Cabinet's prohibition. Two hundred delegates from commands in revolt attended. The utmost secrecy was maintained concern-: ing the proceedings. Forty men. identified as workmen ex- '■ pelled'from Belfast, seized the Orange j headquarters, a large building in Parnell Square, Dublin, and ejected the j occupants. ' Further shooting occurred at Belfast this morning. Margaret Savage being killed by a bullet which entered the window of her residence, while an exsoldier was found murdered in the street. — lA. and N.Z. Cable.) The "Times" says editorially: "We are appalled at the awful murder of a Roman Catholic family in Belfast. The civilised wnrld recoils horror-stricken before the lengthening tale of barbarous outrages which have disgraced Ireland. North and South alike, during the last three years."—("Times.") TO BOYCOTT BELFAST. DECISION OF CONVENTION. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, March 2(1. The I.R.A. Convention confirmed its allegiance to the Republic, and decided to boycott Belfast as drastically as possible.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) A NEW CONFERENCE. COLLINS AND CRAIG. SUMMONED TO LONDON. LONDON, March 26. It i„ officially stated that owing to the gravity of recent events in Ireland the British Government has telegraphed a request to Mr. Michael Collins and Sir Ja». Craig to come to London with any colleagues they Avish in order that the Government examine with them every aspect of the situation. William Campbell, a City Corporation inspector of Belfast, was shot dead in the street at Funchal. Tension between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Ulster is increasing hourly. It is understood that Mr. Collins is coming to London immediately, but there arc indications that Sir James Craig may be unwilling to confer with Mr. Collins again, in view of the results of the last interview. Events are drifting toward military occupation of the affected areas, which are not confined to border districts, t'encral Sir Nevil Macready, General Officer commanding in Ireland, regards the situation as most serious. ThTee Roman Catholics were murdered in Trilliek, In South-western Tyrone, near the border of Fermanagh, on Friday, presumably in reprisal for the murder of Protestant Ulstermen. Terrorism in Trilliek is so great that neither Protestants nor Romnn Catholics go to bed at night. Families sit by the fireside throughout the If they bear footsteps outside they dash from their homes. All their clothing is packed in boxes and hidden in the fields, and money is secreted in hollow trees, where the police occasionally discover it. An armed gnnp attacked the Constabulary barracks at Strabane. in the north-west of County Tyrone, near the border of Donegal. Fierce gunfire continued for 20 minutes. When Verey lights, fired by the police, brought soldiers of the Rille Brigade to the scene, the attackers fled. A police patrol of 50 was attacked from ambush near I'orneroy in Eastern Tyrone. Fighting lasted for six hours. Several of the patrol were wounded and one captured. Twelve armed men stopped a train from Belfast, raided the mail van. and stole registered let.ers. This is the third robbery on the same train in a fortnight. -At Omagh, in Tyrone, constabulary searching Lcugh Mail—ry found in a trench 52 hand-made bombs and a box of stolen police bombs.

Since Monday armed republicans have seized -.0 motor-cars and lorries from Lister. Many belonged to commercial travellers and were laden with samples. Scotland Yard is investigating a mvsterilous raid on the intelligence branch of the Irish Offlce at Westminster. All documents and tiles were searched and important confidential dncuments remnved recently from another department. 'Che bill for Sit m Fein outrages just presented to the British taxpayer amounts to £1,097,500, which represents compensation paid to victims. This is apart from £750,000 paid to the Northern Irish Government for compensation fnr loss of life and damage to property in I Ister and £1.000,0(10 payable to the Northern Ooveriiment as a contribution j towards its abnormal expenses in the present exceptional circumstances. A Presbyterian schoolhouse in Raphael Street. Belfast, was blown up. while a large produce merchant's premises were destroyed by fire. Two bridges at Carrickmore were blown up. Scott, a loyalist, while feeding cattle on the Caledon-Aughuaeloy sector of the frontier, was killed by snipers.— lA. and N.Z. Cable.) MacMAHON MURDERS. COLD-BLOODED BRUTALITY. REPRISAL FOR SHOOTING OF SPECIALS. LONDON", .March 20. Details of the murder of Mr. Owen MacMahon, a well known Belfast saloonkeeper, three of bis sons, and a barman in the early hours of Thursday morning j reveal an appalling crime. Not since tbe I murder of Hi British Army ollicers in j Dublin on "Black Sunday" in November. 15I&I, has such a thrill of horror been felt in Ireland. Protestants and Roman Catholics alike enndemn the | murder, which was clearly a reprisal for the assassination of two special con-1 I stables in Belfast the previous day. Mr. I MacMahon was a Nationalist in politics. ■He was a keen sportsman and very | popular with all classes. I Tlie murderers gained admission to his I house by smashing a glass pane in the ■ ball door and lifting the latch. An inner I door which barred their way was driven lin with a sledge hammer. The bouse i was iv darkness. Mrs. MacMahon, hear j j ing the noise, said: "It is a bomb." The wife and husband got up and , , were going downstairs when they met I ' masked men on the stairway. The rnur-1 I derer> then collected al! the women in the house. Mrs. MacMahon, her niece i and daughter, aged 14 years, and maid-1 j servants, and put them in a backroom on the lirst floor. | The murderers next went upstairs and j i awakened five sons of Mr. MacMahon.] and at the point of the revolver com-' pelled them to come downstairs in their' nightshirts and join their father. A bar-; man was also awakened and compelled to join the victims. Tlie masked men carried candles which they had brought ; with them. When all were gathered in I the parlour there was a pause. The ; I leader of the assassins told the terror- j ! stricken victims to use the few moments j Ito pray for their souls. They were then I lined up against a wall. On one side of | | the fireplace was MacMahon. then one of his sons, and the barman. On the j I other side were two other sons, and on | a chair near the door a fourth son. All I were shot one by one. Jeremiah, who j was only 15, died immediately, but the | others lingered on. The musk—l men I missed MacMahon's fifth son, a boy of I j 11, who. shrieking with fright.ran round' I the table. Two more shots at the boy ricocliettod nff the surface of the table' I into the walls. The boy was found later under the sofa petrified with terror. . All was over in six minutes. The unit- | derers climbed the paling of the garden I and disappeared into the darkness as the police, hearing Mrs. MacMahon's screams from a window, entered the front door. On a chair in the hall was found a young man in bis nightshirt ] gasping out his life. The scene in the j parlour was even more horrible. Mr. MacMahon was writhing in agony on I the floor with three of his sons dead or dying. '■ Before they left the murderers unl locked the door of the room in which | the women vvctc imprisoned upstairs. Mrs. MacMahon came down, and when she saw the horrifying spectacle collapsed. She is still unconscious. One boy is expected to recover. The Northern Irish Government is offering a. reward of £1000 for informaj tion leading to the arrest of the mur- | derers. Mr. S. MacGuffin. Minister of Home I Affairs in the Northern Irish Govern ment. states that every step will be taken to bring the murderers to justice. |no matter to what class or creed they belong. Bombing and shooting in the east end of Belfast nre continuous. Five persons were wounded nn Friday, including a child three years old.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) GRANTS TO ULSTER. BIG VOTES ON ESTIMATES. j I Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, March 26. The Estimates for unclassified services in 1022-23 show a decrease of £58.000,000 compared with the previous year, but an increase of J-3,441,000 regarding Ireland, including a grant of a million to the Northern Irish Exchequer towards the | abnormal expenses of the Northern Irish : Government arising out of the present exceptional circumstances: also £75.000 to the Northern Irish Government, being half the amount to be paid in settlement of ail Northern Irish claims on the Imperial Government for compensation in respect of loss of life and property owing to disturbances in Ireland. The amount also includes nearly two millions compensation for criminal injuries to Crown employees and supporters. — (Reuter.) i I mi.