PARADES HELD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 196, 21 August 1933, Page 7

PARADES HELD.

SCUFFLE AT CORK.

IRISH BLUE SHIRTS.

Government Threats Fail to

Restrain.

ALL PRECAUTIONS TAKEN.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 1 p.m.) DUBLIN", August 20.

Despite the. Government's threats, the National Guard (Blue Shirts) paraded throughout the country. They declined to disclose the details of the various assemblies held. Dublin was uneasy all day long and everything possible was done to frustrate General O'Duffy's plans. Civic Guards were stationed at all street corners, and the police guarded the approaches to the city, the military police, guarding the Government building, were reinforced by Mr. de Valera's new army. Crowds gathered at the Blue Shirts' headquarters, where the police, were especially strong. Two Blue Shirt parades wero arranged to be held in Dublin and actually assembled, one three miles south of the city and the other a little to the north. The commanding officers read a special message exhorting all to pay tribute to the dead (Messrs. Griffith, Collins and Higgins) toy continuing their work. "Xo good for Ireland will ever come from frantic squabbles and warring parties," it was stated. "If politics jnean such squabbles the time has come to abolish politics. We are the vanguard of a new era in Ireland and nothing is going to" bait our march until ■we have attained a united, prosperous, free and peaceful State." The police arrived after the parades had dispersed and met several Blue Shirts, but did not attempt to stop them as the Government had instructed them to give the fullest protection, and to escort the Blue Shirts to their homes even if the parades were held. Fight for a Flag. A minor scuffle occurred at Cork where, following a parade outside the Blue Shirt headquarters, where a ideational Guard flag hung at half-mast, young men, wearing I.R.A. badges, seized it. Blue Shirts intervened and the flag was torn during the contest. Republicans burnt the portion they captured. It' is understood that no parades were held in Northern Ireland. General O'Duffy, interviewed, said: "If, despite the legal and constitutional character of the National Guard, the Government declares it unlawful, it will be guilty of a positive act of tyranny. Its declaration will lie devoid of moral force. Consequently the Guard will neither be dissolved nor allow itself to be driven underground." ; Mr. Frank Aiken, Minister of Defence, speaking at Tullam,ore, said: "The Government has the forces to control any disorderly force arising in Ireland." Mr. Patrick "Ruttledge, Minister of Justice, addressing a police festival in the Phoenix Park, said: "We only ask the police to serve a Government elected by the people. We do not want to establish either the police or the army as a partisan force. Ido not refer to anything like an attempted coup d'etat, or fools who think they can copy the methods of other countries and use them in Ireland."