ALLEGED SEDITIOUS SPEECH

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 March 1922, Page 5

ALLEGED SEDITIOUS SPEECH

BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP ATTORNEY-GENEXAI. TO BE INVOKED (Per I’ress Association.)

AUCKLAND, March 18. A speech was delivered at the St. Patrick’s Day concert on Friday evening, by His Lordship Bisho]) Liston, the Coadjutor Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland. Dr. Liston said that, his own parents were driven from the country in which they were born, ami in which they would have been content to live, because their foreign masters did not want Irishmen ami Irish women peopling their own lands ; but had instead wished to use it as a cattle ranch for the snobs of th.- Empire. Bislmp Liston declared hat he was a native of New Zealand, ami lie loved his country. lhey could not say, however, that Ireland had got all she asked for, ami all that, her sons had died for; but she had got the first, instalment ol her freedom—ami she was determined to have tile whole of it. (Applause.) The omnipotent hand ol God, lie said, had made Ireland a nation, ami while grass grew and water flowed, there would be many to fight ami even to die, in-order that God’s desires might he realised. It seemed io him providential that the man who had faced the difficulties and who had carried them so far, was there to see that the rulers of Ireland were not dnp I'd by England. lie referred to the lien and women who, in the glorious l?ndnv /'if IGI Tx ITV <1 1 I()P

,f Laster 01 191 b, were, proud to uio hh n their country, whim murdered by )_ foreign troops. They could not fors get thes > men and women, but in order le that their dream about Ireland might K . come true: they could forgive. p AUCKLAND, March .19. Criticising Bishop Liston's St. I’al- . rick’s Day speech, Mayor Gunson pub- ._ lishes tho following: n Tim speech, of Bishop Liston calls j. for immediate action on my part as I .Mayor, on behalf of our citizenship. I wrote to tile Bishop on Saturday morning, asking him to .advise me n whether he hml been correct ly reportH cd. though my long experience of the v Dress in Auckland gives me no cause u to doubt the accuracy of the report. t The speech—as reported—is avowedly y and openly disloyal to the King .and tho country, and is an affront io our citizenship. It is seditious, and designedly calculated to cans' disintegration of all that Britishers hold dear. It is a st tidied insult to the citizenship of the Empire to which New Zealand is proud to belong. Its repudiation of England; Tfs sneering reference to her as c ‘a foreign nation,-' and its entire dissociation, with disdain, of the speaker and those for whom, ho said he spoke .as “a right,” t from all that pertains to Empire, . challenges all loyal citizens to raise 1 their voices in protest. Its reference to British soldiers as foreign murderers is especially offensive and unwar- ,, rantable. I take this First public opportunity of saying, with all emps basis possible, that the. citizens of s Auckland will not, tolerate lor one , minute such a studied and deliberate 1 act of disloyalty and. of insult to our j British, manhood and womanhood, and, in making this intimation, I wish to say that such a seditious and ruinous speech will not be allowed in the Auckland 'Town Hall or in any place which the city administration controls ]or licenses. The Bishop and others holding views such as were reported i are not fit to longer enjoy the privi- ] Lges and rights of our British commonwealth and the protection of our British Flag. 'This speech, will be brought; under the notice of the At--1 torney-General, and it will bl? my duly 1 • /< j _.i_ ,

to advise the City Council to take b other appropriate action. In the 1 meantime, on behalf of the citizens of 1 Auckland, I enter an emphatic protest in the foregoing terms. ST. PATRICK’S DAY. REP U BLICA N CELEBR AT.ION S. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) ' LONDON, Marell 17. The Republican Army celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by holding military L evolutions, including the trooping of the tri-colour Sinn Fein flag in Dublin. Religious services with sermons in Erse (Irish) were held in the churches i, all demonstrations throughout the country. ;r. de Valera, who was accompanied by an armed guard in motor cars, ' speaking at Carrick to seven hundred members of the Republican Army and two thousand others, said: If tho Treaty is not rejected, it will mean civil war. Irish soldiery may fight for independence over the dead bodies of the soldiers of the Government, set up by Treaty supporters. LONDON, March 18. A large crowd came in conflict with a Republican patrol of five men in Cork, and badly mauled them. The patrol were obliged to use firearms. A man named Morgan was killed and another wounded. Ono policeman was wounded. The crowd eventually dispersedt NEW YORK PARADE. NEW YORK, March 17. Thirty thousand processionists par- ■ ticipated in the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York. A PROHIBITED PROCESSION. i t SYDNEY, This Day. '* Despite the City Council resolution /*

prohibiting a procession on Saint Patrick’s Day, the committee conducted an immense procession through the city streets. The police took the names of several loaders with a view to possible prosecution. A DANGEROUS SITUATION. ON ULSTER FRONTIER. Recd 11.5 LONDON, -March 17. A dangerous situation is arising on the Ulster .front ici’. Three bridges on the Fermanagh side of the border have been blown up and the road from Clones to Cavan has been cut. Irish Republican troops are gathering in st lunger force on the bmde.rs of Monaghan ami Tyrone. Many houses ami halls .have been commandeered. The I' - rec State Government, commandeered Castle Blayney, which has been a Republican barracks. The Republicans retaliated and commandeered an hotel whore they are quartered. The town is now divided into two armd camps. LONDON, -March 18. ’.rim official organ of Sinn Fein, the “Irish Bulletin,” warns Britain regarding the Ulster question in the following terms : — If it is a fact that six battalions of British troops arc going io be used in Ulster under the command of

. Field-Marshal Wilson (late" Chief of British General Staff) in Lis capacity . as civil head of the Northern police, then Sent hern' Ireland will be cpiickly lost to the British Empire, and this for the simple reason that it will regard the Irish Treaty as having thereby been fundamentally broken. . BELFAST OUTRAGES. LONDON, March 17. Two men were shot dead in Bel last . while pt'oceeditig to work, and a woman was killed by a bomb ixplosion. Reed 11.5 LONDON, Alarch 17. Another bomb was thrown in Belfast at a tram-car. One man was killed and three injured. ’J'YRONF. BARRACKS RAIDED. Reed. 12.55 p.in. LONDON, .March 19. Armed men obtained an entrance to the Tyrone Barracks by a ruse and, creeping upstairs in their stockinged ieet, tied up the entire police lorce. Lhey then placed the revolvers, ammunition, bedding, clothing and bicycles of the police on waiting motors and got safely away, though large forces of troops from other towns are scouring the country.