IRISH PEACE FEELERS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17657, 9 January 1923, Page 7

IRISH PEACE FEELERS.

REPUBLICANS' TERMS. DE VALERA 'S CONDITIONAL OFFER. (BY CABLE—PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) ' (AUSTRALIAN AKD N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, January 6. A writer in the "Freman's Journal," who claims to have been in communication with de Valera-'s supporters, says immediate peace is possible if Mr W. T. Cosgrave will accept the following terms:— De Valera to select three buildings and gather there all Republicans' arms and ammunition under a guard of fifty Republicans and ten Free State soldiers. A guarantee will be given to deliver up arms to a president to be selected after a general election which shall take place not later than May. Hostilities to pease immediately, and all prisoners to b6 released immediateAfter three weeks any person found with arms or ammunition to be executed within 24 hours. The Press censorship to be abolished, and de Valera and his followers to bo allowed to move about without molestation. The Republicans to assist in making a new register. Any Republican willing to abide by the result of the general election to be eligible for employment, or office under the Free State Government, and under the Government to be elected in May. [Mr W. T. Cosgrave in a letter to General MoKeon, replying to the Longford County Council's resolution asking for peace, said, "These peace resolutions are all moonshine. Those who have made the war can have peace to-morrow on the only terms safe for the people. If they will not accept those terms they must make war at their cost. It is easy foi them to try to win peace now they have lost tho war." The letter repeats the Government's determination "to show we are a nation which will not allow bandits, gunmen or rebellion to be tolerated. The Government has shown patience, forebearance and generosity. If the Irregulars have had enough of the war let them be the soonest to say so, and we will welcome them like brothers."] GUNMEN'S CAMPAIGN. FIGHTING IN COUNTY CORK. , LONDTjN. January 7. Fighting at Cork broke out again during the week-end, and lasted for seven hours, the rebels finally retreating leaving seven killed and nineteen wounded. Millstrcet was the principal scene of the fighting. Here the rebels captured an outpost by a trick. A woman shot two sentries and then signalled to the. rebels, who rushed the post. Fifty Irregulars, usinj thirteen machine-guns, attacked the main body of the Free State troops }n the Carnegie Library, but were repulsed. Liam Lynch, the rebel chief of staff, led the attack dressed as a priest. Armed men entered Inneskeen railway station and placed a tin of explosives in the office with a lighted fuse and a detonator. Tho staf lonmaster, Mr Graham, and his wife and children were on the premises. Mr Graham seized and flung out the tin. The detonator exploded, severely injuring him. The mine did' not explode. The "Daily Telegraph" gives further details of the Millstreet fighting., The 'Free State force consisted oft fiftvimcn. The majority were stationed in the Carnegie Library and a few in the old police barracks. Two irregulars, one disguised as a priest and believed to be Liam Lynch, and another dressed in girl's clothes, approached a sentry-box and killed the sentries. The main body attacked under an intense mnchine-gun fire and compelled the garrison to surrender. Then the whole of the Irregulars,f,comprising 150 men, attacked the library, concentrating thirteen machineguns, incendiary bombs, and rifle-fire on the building. Several attempts to rush the building were repulsed by tho garrison of three officers and twentynine men, who withstood the attack all night. During the night several publichouses were looted, and a considerable sum of money was stolen from the Post Office.

IRISH LAND ACT. THE AMENDING BILL. (touted sebticb.) LONDON, January 7. The Dublin correspondent of the "Daily Mail,'' says one clause in the Irish Land Bill, provides for the compulsory sale of land, the purchase price to be spread over seventy years, calculated on the basis of annual payments, which will be less than the present rent. [A previous message said the Govment is preparing a Bill to remedy the defects in the Land Act, which will do much to remove "landlordism," the bugbear of the Irish peasant, and to enable the peasant small farmer to become the tenant-owner.]