POSITION GROWS WORSE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11251, 1 July 1922, Page 5

POSITION GROWS WORSE

FREE STATE TROOPS LOSE PRESTIGE. LACK OP HEAVY GUNS. {Received Juno 30, 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 30. Telegraphing on Thursday evening, the “Daily ohronide’s” Dublin correspondent* stated: —The ntuation is growing Large bodies of Republican youths have been mobilised and have seized pointa of yautage from which to carry on indiscriminate sniping. The Free Spate troops are niaking little impression. One feels that they are losing prestige, wad a report says, their araour also. News from the country at large in dicates re&tiveness. Women are singularly absent from the streets, though young hussies, or dare-devils, or Curnann ua mßan (League of Women) are prominent, many acting os dispatch riders for the Republicana, -heir sex giving them immunity. Tho walls of tho Four Courts are of great thickness, having been laid down in the eighteenth century, when massive masonry wa* common. The south aide of the Raver Liffey acts as a moat, while typical Dublin alum® on all other sides assist the defenders. Militarily speaking, high explosive shells should ho employed, but the Free Staters have no howitzers, and are not trained in tho use of them. A SOLID BUILDING. Othor telegrams from Dublin state that tho continued bombardment has

of the Four Courts, but the mass of tho building is not seriously shaken, and the defenders are safe in tho granite basement from everything except heavy shell fire. It is understood that the defenders have dug tunnels from the cellars whereby they' hope to escape if forced to evacuate. The besiegers do not intend to storm tho Four Courts, but to starve out the defenders. REIGN OF TERROR. The worst of the Free Staters is that they are being sniped from tho rear, and the irregulars are creating a reign of terror in other parts ot Dublin. It is not too much to say that Dublin bristles with rebel forts while barricades are set np in many places by both Free State and Republican troops. FIRING INTENSIFIED. At midnight of Thursday tho ma* chine-gun and rifle fire was gravely intensified, the heavy detonations of mortars interspersing the rattle of small arms. The bombardment by the artillery has also increased, giving evidence that the Freo Staters had secur. ed heavier cannon. The defenders re* plied more vigorously as the attack was intensified. They apparently have an abundance of rifle and machine, gun ammunition. GRAVE CHARACTER OF TKOUBLB REALISED. The Dublin people, who at first were inclined to regard the operations as m side-show, now realise the grave character of the trouble. Many hundreds are fleeing to England. A woman told a pressman to-night that the people are afraid to go to church, and are praying in their homes for hours for the success of the Free Stato troops. Many c*f ns Irish are ambitious for a Republic and absolute freedom, but the price may be too heavy. That’s what De Valsra’s and Rory O’Connor’s price is. People say that the Dublin fighting is mere camouflage to satisfy - the Engfaah clamour. Only those who do not know the bitter factional hatreds in Dublin would repeat such an absurdity. “NOT A SHAM FIGHT.” On thi s point Mr "Winston Churchill, in the House of Commons, angrily deprecated the suggestion that a sham fight was going on in Dublin. He pointed out that people do not get killed in a sham fight. The Ink Provisional Government troops were loyally carrying out the Treaty, and they were suffering. It was true that there was little organisation on either side, but this wee not a time to mock at those who were striking a blow foe freedom and order.