IRISH AFFAIRS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14706, 5 June 1920, Page 6

IRISH AFFAIRS.

Hy Electric telegkaph—Oipyiuhht.' (Per Press Association.) Received June 5, at 0.10 a.m. LONDON, June 2. In the House of Commons, on the Home Rule Bill, Captain Coote moved the omission of tho provision reserving to Imperial control tho armed forces of the Crown. He suggested: "If we •rive the Irish parliaments control of the armed forces, things will come to such a. pass that the Irishmen will be compelled to unite." Mr Long said the fact that additional troops were still being despatched to Ireland proved the determination of the Government to do everything to restore order. Ex-service men in Ireland were being hounded out of the country by the Sinn Feiners, vet it was proposed in an amendment to transfer to the Sinn Feiners the control of the armed forces. There was no comparison between Ireland and the. Dominions on this point and any attempt to band over the military forces to the Irish parliaments ought to be resisted to tho uttermost. Sir Edward Carson opposed the amendment and appealed to the Government to modify the Bill with a view of delegating certain specific powers to the Irish parliaments, which ought to he enlarged in future, whiles the real strength and power was left to the Imperial Parliament. He believed, moreover, that the Bill would lead to separation and he said that the people of Ulster were complaining that the Government was kicking them out. The state of things in the south and west was hideous and disgraceful to the British Government. The amendment was negatived without discussion. Received June 5, at 0.55 a.m. . LONDON, June 3. The Sinn Feiners attacked and destroyed five more coastguard stations. A Government troopship is landing sol-« dicrs with full equipment at Bantry Bay. Other contingents, equipped with ■camping material, are disembarking at other places. Two thousand marines are going to Queenstown to be distributed among the various coast stations owing to recent Sinn Fein seizures of fog signals and rockets, which put signalling stations out of action. Received June 5. at 9 a.m. WASHINGTON, June 3. The State Department has ordered an inquiry into the burning of the British flag in the streets of Washington at the instance, of a number of women friends of tho Irish freedom movement. No steps were taken by tho British Embassy even to make a protest. '