KIDNAPPED MEN FREED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18019, 18 February 1922, Page 9

KIDNAPPED MEN FREED.

THE SURRENDER OF ARMS,

ULSTER'S PERIOD OF GRACE.

Australian and N.Z Cable Association. (Reed. 11.6 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 17.

Twenty-six of the men recently kidnapped have been released owing to the exertions of the Free State Government.

A battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment has gone to reinforce the troops in North Ireland, entraining from Tipperary for Inniskfllen. The Omagh (Tyrone) branch of the Irish republican army took over the barracks. A battalion of the Warwickshire Regiment has r<#'nforced the garrison at Belfast.

Mr. Collins has received a cablegram stating that 85 per cent, of the membership of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish • Republic were behind him and Mr. Griffith.

The Ulster Government has issued a notice fixing the period of grace till Saturday in Belfast and Tuesday in the country for the surrender of arms and ammunition, after which all persons found in the unauthorised possession of weapons will be prosecuted under tho Firearms Act

In the House of Commons Mr. Win- ! ston Churchill said the Northern and the Provisional Southern Government desired an impartial inqniry into the Clones outbreak The British Government therefore offered a suitable judicial officer to conduct a public inquiry.