IRISH FREE STATE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 232, 13 September 1922, Page 5

IRISH FREE STATE.

PRESIDENT COSGRAVE’S POLICY. PEACE MUST BE CONSTITUTIONAL ✓ London, Sept. 12. Mr Cosgrave, president of the Free State, referring to the question of peace in the course of a statement of the Government’s policy in the Free State Parliament, declared that it must be a constitutional peace. Peace with England must be maintained on the basis of the treaty. He charged the Irregulars with attacking British troops for the purpose of bringing the British into the quarrel. He also charged the Irregulars with violating the truce, which had never been revoked. The British Colonial Office denies that there is any justification for the suggestion that the Irish Provisional (Govern-. ment’s determination to carry out the treaty and restore law and order is the result of bargaining with the British Government, whereby Britain will pay for the damage done in Ireland during | the civil war. The Provisional Government made no such request, nor would the British Government agree if it were made. POST AND TELEGRAPH STRIKE. SERVICES MAINTAINED. TROOPS FIRE ON PICKETS. The Free State Government is maintaining restricted postal and telephonic services w’ith Dublin. Troops posted in the Post Office telephone exchange fired over the heads of the pickets, who immediately withdrew. , r, x Ulster is not affected.—(A. and N.Z.) SUPERVISING STAFFS. < ‘ MUST DO AS TOLD. ’ ’ (Received 13, 9 a.m.) i London, Sept. 12. Irish supervising staffs asked by the Postmaster-General to act as sorters

strongly objected, stating that when under the control of the British Post Office they were prevented from performing work regarded as ‘’black legging.” The Minister said: In any event you will have to do what you are told. One hundred and fifty men, comprising supervisors, assistant inspectors, and acting head postmen, were subsequently supended.—(A. and N.Z.) STRIKE HEADQUARTERS. OCCUPIED BY TROOPS. (Received 13, 9 a.m.) London, Sept. 12. Thirty sorters resumed work in Dublin. Shots were fired in the Amiens street Post Office. One man was wounded. The strike committee’s headquarters were searched and occupied by troops who dispersed the pickets.—(A. and N.Z.) RAILWAYS TORN UP. BRIDGES DESTROYED. London, Sept. 11. Rebels blew up four bridges north of Dundalk, isolating the entire northern half of the country. Fifty armed men held up a railway ganger at Falcarragh, seized his tools and tore up the rails for several hundred feqt. The ganger ran along the track and flagged a crowded excursion train, which was stopped before reaching the damaged permanent way.