OMINOUS SIGNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21132, 15 March 1932, Page 9

OMINOUS SIGNS.

CHANGE IN IRELAND. THE REPUBLICAN ARMY. BATTALIONS ON PARADE. MILITARY EVOLUTIONS. WOMEN ALSO MARCH. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received March 14. 8.35 p.m.) LONDON, March 14. The Dublin correspondent of the Daily Mail reports that four battalions of the Irish Republican Army, headed by pipers and carrying standards which had been hidden for months, marched to College Green to-day. They received greater cheers, accompanied by shouts of r " Up with the Irish Republican Army," than the political prisoners who were released last week. Amazing scenes were witnessed as the rnert of the battalions performed military evolutions. These delighted the crowds of frenzied onlookers.

The men had undergone many hours of secret drilling. The police, whoso duly until last week would havo been to arrest tho marchers, had been ordered to assist the demonstration by controlling tho crowds and regulating the traffic. Another proscribed society which reappeared to-day was the Cumann na Ban, or Women's Republican Organisation. This consists of several girls in neat uniforms. The police gallantly helped them to make their way through the crowds.

OATH OP ALLEGIANCE.

RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN. LONDON PAPER'S WARNING. LONDON. March 13. The Observer states that if the new President of the Irish Free State, Mr. de Valera, breaks a solemn pact by abolishing the oath of allegiance, Britain will Ire in no way alarmed either by the abolition or its propagandist repercussion in India or South Africa, but she will not pretend to ignore it. Britain undoubtedly will intimate, says the paper, that in the economic organisation of tlio Empire just beginning, allegiance and preference go together. If Ireland can dispense with honour, England can better dispense with Irish produce, and if the issue is forced upon her England will do so without compunction.