IRISH CONTEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 221, 19 September 1927, Page 7

IRISH CONTEST.

GOVERNMENT LEADS.

Majority Of Nine So Far Over

Opposition.

A NECK AND NECK RACE.

(By Cable—Press Association.—Copyrli

(Received 2 p.m.)

LONDON, September 18.

The latest returns from the Irish Free State elections show that 60 supporters of the Government have been returned, and 51 supporters of the Opposition. The position at an earlier stage, -when 102 seats had been decided, was as follows:—Government Supporters. Government 39 Independents H Farmers 3 Total 53 Opposition Supporters. De Valeraites 37 Labourites 9 National League 2 Independent Labour l Total 49 Mr. Lynch (Minister of Fisheries) was returned for Kerry. INCIDENTS OF THE FRAY. ARRESTS ON SERIOUS CHARGES. LONDON, Sept. 17. Seventy per cent of the electors voted at the elections. Early reports from the countryside indicate that the Government candidates are doing well. Many voters spoiled their papers by writing their views thereon. A North Dublinite erased the candidates' names and enclosed a photograph of the Prince of Wales, inscribed "God bless him." Another wrote in the form of a pun, "God keep us from the Devil era." Many demanded a return to British Government. Eamon Horgan, an ex-brigadier-general in the National Army, was arrested on a charge of inciting to murder in a speech at a De Valeraite meeting. John Curran, who was wounded in the Strabane fight, died. Michael McGeehan, an ex-army chaplain, and John McElhinny, a Free State lieutenant, have been arrested.