IRISH CRISIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21577, 23 August 1933, Page 9

IRISH CRISIS

FURTHER FRICTION ban on blue shirts 'ARMY MEN NOT TO JOIN DRASTIC STEPS LIKELY 'ANTI-BRITISH INCIDENT By Teleprnnh— Pivss Association—Copyright (Receiveil August 22. 9.5 p.m.) THTBLfX. Auk. 9" The Minister of Defence, Mr. Frank Aiken, has issued an order prohibiting officers and men of tho Irish Free State army reserve from joining the Blup Shirts. It is stated that many of General O'Dnffy's prominent supporters, including Commandant Cronin, secretary of the National Guard, belong . to the reserve of officers. It is expected that tho Executive Council to-day will proclaim tho Blue Shirts an illegal organisation. If so. unless General O'Duffy and his colleagues immediately resign they will bo liable to be arraigned before a military tribunal with power to inflict any sentence, including death. General O'Duffy now is making plans to address branches of the National Guard in all parts of the country. Eight men, armed- with revolvers, raided a bill poster's premises in the centre of the city yesterday and ordered the staff to put their hands up. They seized a lorry on which they piled posters advertising English beer and flour and drove off. Later the men dumped the posters in the River Liffey, while their confederates continued to hold up the staff at the revolver point. The lorry subsequently was found abandoned. 1 It is recalled that members of tho Republican Army recently visited Dublin hotels and warned the proprietors to cease stocking English ales. REPUBLIC WANTED MR. DE VALERA'S AIM SEVERANCE FROM ENGLAND DUBLIN', Ang. 15 In an interview with a representative of the Sun news service Mr. de Yalera gaid:—"My policy, most definitely, is shaped toward making Ireland a republic. The people have declared emphatically for severance from England, nnd*we have to build a republic adapted to our circumstances. " There are tricky obstacles and dangerous stones in tho way, and we must go forward cautiously, though courageously, step by step. One false move would endanger the entire policy. " We must be self-contained before fc-e can get far," said Mr. de Valera. " Ireland will gradually find piarkets v -for her primary products, and already our stimulated home industries are keeping £5,000,000 which previously tvent to England in our own land."