IRISH EMISSARIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18357, 24 March 1923, Page 9

IRISH EMISSARIES.

WAENING TO AUSTRALIA

MR. COSGRAVE'S MESSAGE.

REBEL WORDS AND DEEDS.

LIBERTY THAT IS "ANARCHY.

ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY.

By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Received 5.16 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON. March 22. The President of the Executive of the Irish Free State, Mr. W. T. Cosgrave, interviewed on behalf of the Australian and New Zealand Press Association, said the Republican propagandists had failed to obtain support in America, where the truth had been too strong, and knowledge of their deeds enabled the people to take the true measure of their fine words. The rebels were now turning to Australia, which was more distant and so afforded them an opportunity of keeping ahead of exposure. "Australians," said Mr. Cosgrave, "will hear from ex-Father O'Flanagban and O'Kelly, most eloquent speeches about liberty and nationality. Therefore it is well to tell them immediately in what form those ideas axe put in Ireland by those who sot them forth. While De Valera, the nominal leader, declares that if England's threat of war were removed he would not oppose the decision of the people, Mary MacSwiney openly denies the right of the people to make any decision displeasing to her, declaring that if they are so bold they will have to submit to duress. "That duress has been applied in the most ferocious manner possible. Trains have been wrecked regardless of danger to passengers, houses have been burned or blown up, villages blown up and wrecked, civilians, as in Ballyconnel, murdered, or, as in Athlone and You glial, had the water supply cut off; public buildings have been destroyed; an attempt was made to blow up a cinematograph theatre when full of people; cold-blobded (murders have, beep committed, of which the latest are those of & boy of 16 and an unarmed doctor, a Quaker. "What the irregulars mean by liberty! is anarchy; to quote their words, the "rule of the torch." What they mean by nationality is incomprehensible to any sane being. It should be borne in mind that the sufferers of these outrages are plain people, who see their homes destroyed, their lives daily imperilled, the prosperity of the country wrecked, and who eventually will have to pay for all damage. "Australians who have used freedom and democracy for generations, will know how to value the words of men who speak far perpetrators of these awful deeds, and they will sympathise with the Irish people, who, in the face of such deeds, stand firm and declare that their will must prevail."