WHERE THINGS ARE NEVER DULL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14702, 1 June 1920, Page 2

WHERE THINGS ARE NEVER DULL.

I (By H. J. Greemvall.) . 1

Of course you can pronounce Sinn Fein as you please. These two little words are quite elastic, but they mean ever so much. You can call the Sinn ; Feiners a Black Hand gang, a political | association, or a band of criminals. I Personally, I do not pretend to [translate the meaning of these two I words. All I know is that out of the ■ many countries which I have visited during the past six years Ireland pleas'ed me most, and I kissed it "good-bye." It is indeed a delightful country to be out of. One never knows whether an Irishman is going to buy you a drink or stick a revolver behind your ear- and send you w?st. . During my journalistic experience I have enjoyed several revolutions and re-, bellions, but in every case whenever I arrived in a city which was supposed to be upside down I said to myself, "Is this all?" These things never come up to one's expectations. When I arrived in Dublin I found a perfectly peaceful city, with pretty girls wearing motley colored jumpers parading the main thoroughfares.. I thought to myself, "Is this all?" But I had not long to wait. I had occasion to visit Dublin Castle to converse with Sir John Taylor.. On my way back I pajused for a few moments in College Green. There was "a crowd watching an armoured car which had backed into some iron railings. Two tall young men started a conversation with me, and one said, "Just com© from the Castle, haven't you?" "Yes," I replied. "Well," lie said, "I should not go there too often if I were you." On Tuesday morning last three men got into conversation with me, and asked me how I liked Ireland. I said tliat I did not know the country, but one of them said: "You have been | here some days, haven't you? You had better go. This is an unhealthy place for you." . ?no words of mine can picture the marvellous intelligence service of the Sinn Feiners. Every hotel, every restaurant, every post office has their wonderful spies working underground. Before one has been very long in Duplin one senses a feeling of discomfort; one knows he is being followed; one knows that every movement is being watched. It is quite uncanny. But you realise that you _ are -in a foreign .country, facing a bitter foe. Sinn Feiners expect no mercy, and are hardened against giving any. Where is this going to- end? . Great Britain has an enormous army of occupation in Ireland. We have tanks, armored-cars, and all the paraphernalia for making war. But Sinn Feiners are not yet ready to make war in the open. They have adopted a method of guerilla" warfare, and they find it most successful. Of course, many things they do are said to be silly, but nevertheless they are very unpleasant. Theft political snipers are always on the look-out, and their men of war. are desperadoes. Police barracks and Income-tax ' ifficeS are to be burned. Justice is to be set at naught. A reign of terror is t<*'be established in Ireland. The motto of the Sinn Feiners is : "Tliofwho are not with us are against us." If an Irish Republic were to be established to-morrow the country would be ruined, but, on the other hand, the whole "of Ireland is in a state of revolt against British rule. During; my'stay in Dublin I never found anybody, man or woman, outside. Dublin Castle who was not a rebel of sorts. They all look on Great Britain as a nation which wants to dominate Ireland by force. What the,end can Le.no man can foretell;