CRIME IN FREE STATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21007, 19 October 1931, Page 7

CRIME IN FREE STATE.

NlftV BILL BECOMES LAW. WARNING TO PEOPLE. DRASTIC ACTION PLANNED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received October 18, 8.-15 p.m.) LONDON. Oct. 17. The Dail passed the Constitution Amendment Bill by 83 votes to 65 and it. was sent to til© Senate sr-d passed by 41 votes to 15, and is now law. A proclamation will be issued to-day and the military tribunal constituted next week. "I want solemnly to warn the parents, sisters and wives of any young men connected with unlawful organisations to persuade them to withdraw, as they will be severely treated if they continue," said the President, Mr. W. T. C'osgrave, in his final speech before the voting on the bill in tho Senate.

There was much vigorous criticism of tho bill in the Senate. Mr. J. G. Douglas declared that the Irish could not be coerced.

Colonel Maurice Moore, who served with the Connaught Rangers in the South African War in 1900, contended that a death sentence by a military tribunal would be as deliberate a perversion of justice as anything the Irish Republican Army had done. He refused whilo he was in South Africa to preside over a similar court-martial.

Dr. Marcus O'Sullivan, Minister of Education, said the stock-in-trade of those with whom the bill dealt was coercion and terrorism. If the situation got out of hand tho country might be broken up and ruled by local coinmittoes of gunmen. Mr. O'Doherty interjected: You and your associates first broke up tho country. The Governor-General, Mr. James McNeill, immediately signed the bill, wheroupon Cabinet made it operative forthwith.

Mr. Cosgrave later stated: "It is our sincere hope that the Irish commonsense and innato sanity will reduce to a minimum the use of strong powers and drastic punishments." The President again appealed to parents and others who have special responsibility toward young men and women who have been induced to join illegal associations, not realising the extent of their dastardly programme, which was condemned by every Christian-minded man. The State, he said, must protect people from everything involving the decay or downfall of the Irish nation. Misguided persons need not fear punishment, if they seized this opportunity and recognised that the laws wcro for the good of the State, and were tho only sure means of achieving happiness and prosperity. A special edition of .An Poblacht, which appeared immediately after the passage of the bill, urged the Republicans to stand fast and to adopt a policy of passive endurances.