GUN-RUNNING INCIDENT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 28 April 1914, Page 5

GUN-RUNNING INCIDENT.

HIGHWAYS HELD UP.

|BY CABLE-PEESS ASSOCIATION-COPYEIGHT. ' . . LONDON, April 27. Ine principal highways were held up by armed and unarmed men, who stopped the traffic and refused to allow anyone to pass except those furnishing the countersign. A thousand of the volunteers commandeered the Midland railway station, and remained till four o'clock on Saturday morning in order to intercept soldiers and police. The Mount Joy's consignment comprised 35,000 Mausers and 3} million rounds of ammunition. The vessel was not fh-e Fanny, but one which transhipped the Fanny's cargo at sea. The gun-runner bore the temporary name of Mount Joy, recalling the vessel which broke the Foyle boom and raised the siege of Derry. The transhipment was dangerous work, being done in the dark in a choppy sea. Six hundred motor cars were employed in conveying the smuggled arms.

A collier's suspicious movements in approaching Belfast had the effect of concentrating the Customs officers' attention, who learned too late that the vessel was merely a decoy. It transpires that*the Fanny, while awaiting her opportunity, lay in a sheltered cove at Lundy Island/ where the appearance of the vessel was transformed. She afterwards sailed westward, and met the Mount Joy near Tuskar.

A consignment of rifles and ammunition from Germany, intended for Ulster, was landed at Hull on Wednesday, and placed in a warehouse. The police are watching the warehouse, but no attempt has yet been made to remove the stuff.