MURDERED BY FOREIGN TROOPS.

NZ Truth, Issue 854, 1 April 1922, Page 5

MURDERED BY FOREIGN TROOPS.

: They could , not forget these men and women, but m order that their dream about Ireland might come true they could forgive." This was. the first act m the piece, the spark which kindled the train; and the. train was laid by Jimmy Gunson, Mayor of Auckland. The Queen City's Chief Magistrate decided off his own little bat that the Bish.'s remarks called for immediate action on his part. The following; morning he wrote to his reverence asking if he had been correctly reported. If so, the speech, said Jimmy. . was openly and avowedly disloyal to Bang and country, and an affront to our citizenship. "It is seditious and designedly calculated to cause disintegration 'of all that Britishers hold d-ear. It' Is a studied insult to the citizenship of the Empire to which New Zealand is proud to belong. Repudiation of England, a sneering reference to her as 'a foreign nation,' and the entire dissociation, with disdain, of the speaker and those for whom he said he spoke as 'a right* from all that pertains to the Empire.f challenges all loyal citizens i TO RAISE THEIR VOICES m protest. The reference to British soldiers as foreign murderers is especially offensive and unwarrantable." There was more m the same strain, and then the writer adds : "The Bishop and others holding views such as those reported are not fit longer to enjoy the pi'ivileges and rights of our British Commonwealth arid the protection of the British flag. This speech will' be brought under the notice of the 'Attorney- General, and it will,. be my (duty to advise the City Council to take other appropriate action. In the meantime, on behalf of the citizens of Auckland, I enter an emphatic protest m the foregoing terms." < As may be imagined, m these conti'oversial and troublous times, it did not take the train long to explode the whole bally barrel of powder. For the past week the papers have* been full Of ' BLASTS AND COUNTERBLASTS for and aginst the Bishop and the Mayor. Meetings, of protest, and meetings of commendation, have b.eon held from one end of the Dominion to the other, the while the Crown' Lav/ Office has been giving the legal onceover to the alleged' utterance. In 'the meantime, Bishop Listoh has seen fit to preserve an almost complete silence, broken only by a short letter to Mayor Gunson. m which the writer said : , "I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of Saturday. I notice your Worship issued your 'protest' before I could possibly have received your letter. Seeing that your Worship had not the courtesy {not to say the sense of fair play) to await my veply to your question beforo handing your condemnation of me to ti-e Press of New Zealand, It seems to *oe quite unnecessary that you should .have -written-to-me at all. and it is co^atniy unnecessary that I should ar.swrtv your question." ; The Bishop, .In s postscript, says : "As your Worship ha* 1 >iv. v af) fcV.s matter public I am liao.»;p.# ' this setter to the Press." Then the Crown lj&w O)£«o<? i*?9A'€> Jts considered opinion. This was itw.i the alleged utterancos of Bishop Immcuii WERE IN FACT SEDITIOUS. The matter then went beforo Cabinet, and the man m the street and h'n