IRISH RAIDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 9

IRISH RAIDS.

VIGOROUS PROTEST. De Valera's Swoop on Opposition Party. THE PUBLIC ASTOUNDED. (United j?.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) DUBLIN, December 1.

Extensive raids were carried out in West Cork by the Irish Free State police, the places raided including General O'Duffv's headquarters and the homes of the commanders of the Blue Shirts (National Guard).

Although Mr. de Valera's new swoop on Iris opponents was not accompanied by any arrests it astounded the people of the Free State. The raiders in each ease consisted of a superintendent, an inspector .and 10 detectives armed with warrants authorising them to search for arms and ammunition, and for seditious documents.

A sergeant told Commandant Cronin, of the National Guard, that he had discovered four boxes of ammunition in the United Ireland party's offices. Commandant Cronin denied that any ammunition had been there an hour earlier. Later he said: "A police official asked me if I accused them of planting tho ammunition. I replied that I not only accused them of planting it, but was prepared to swear either that they or their agents planted it."

In the course of a discussion in the Dail Dr. O'Higgins denounced Mr. de Valera's conduct of the economic war with Britain, and condemned the raids in which, he said, the homes of the Government's . opponents had been entered and their wives treated as no woman should be treated by Free State ofiiccrs. Brutal Assaults Alleged. If the Government could not provoke the members of the United Ireland party* by what it did to them it would provoke them by what it did to their wives. Dr. O'Higgins said he possessed proofs of 100 brutal assaults on members of the United Ireland party and Young Ireland organisations. Young and old men had been taken from their beds and beaten.

Mr. Ruttledge, Minister of Justice, read documents, some of which, he said, had been seized in the raids. He alleged that these proved conclusively that the aims of the Young Ireland party were revolutionary. Arms and ammunition also had been discovered.

The raids had been carried out in daylight, said the Minister, thus guaranteeing that arrested persons, if any, would have reached prison alive. That was more than could be said for the methods of the previous Government.

Professor O'Sullivan, amid uproar, protested against the Minister's irrelevant statements. He asserted that the Government was goading young men into committing illegalities. He appealed to young men not to play Mr. de Valera's game. The professor was still speaking when the Dail rose until January 31.