IRISH TURMOIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18509, 21 March 1922, Page 5

IRISH TURMOIL

A DARING RAID. POLICE CAUGHT NAPPING. TYRONE BARRACKS ROBBED. PreM Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, March 19. Armed men obtained entrance to the Tyrone barracks by a ruse, and, creeping up the stairs in their stockinged feet, tied up the entire police force. They placed the revolvers, ammunition, bedding, clothing, and bicycles of the police on waiting motors, and got safely away, though large forces of troops from othertowns are scouring the country,—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE IRRECONCILABLES. MR DE VALERA’S CAMPAIGN PLEADS FOR CIVIL WAR. LONDON, March 19. Mr de Valera continues his endeavour to widen the breach between the Treaty supporters and the Republicans. Speaking at Killarney, he forecasted and pleaded for civil war. “Those who want complete freedom, such as the armed men before me, must meet not merely foreign soldiers, but the forces of their own countrymen who support the Free State Government. If the Treaty is ratified, you who are desirous of achieving freedom must march over the dead bodies of your own brothers. You must wade through Irish blood.” —A. and N.Z. Cable. BELFAST DISORDERS. A SANGUINARY WEEK-END. SIX PERSONS KILLED. LONDON, March 19. (Received March 20, at 5.5 p.m.) There was a sanguinary week-end in Belfast, with many outrages, resulting in six being killed and a score wounded. The miscreant who bombed a tramcar on Saturday was helped to escape by colleagues, who put up a revolver barrage. The most wicked atrocity was the flinging of a bomb at a bedroom window of an aged Catholic lady who was wounded, and her niece was killed. The explosion attracted hundreds of members of rival factions, who sniped at each other for hours. The gunmen thereafter were apparently immune from interference, and shot indiscriminately, wounding many with rifles and bombs. The police raided St. Mary’s Hall, the Sinn Fein headquarters, and seized voluminous documents.—A. and N.Z. Cable. CHAOS AND MURDER. CONDITIONS IN SOUTH AND WEST. STB HENRY WILSON’S VIEWS. PRIME MINISTER’S POLICY CONDEMNED. LONDON, March 19. (Received March 20, at 6.5 p.m.) Field-Marshal Sir H. Wilson, on the eve of assuming control in Belfast to assist in restoring order, writes to Sir James Craig as follows : “Owing to the action of Mr Lloyd George, the South and West of Ireland have been reduced to a state of chaos and murder which it is difficult to believe and impossible to describe. A further consequence of Mr Lloyd George’s policy is seen m the unrest, suspicion, and lawlessness which have spread to the frontier of Ulster. It is impossible to find under Mr Lloyd George’s Government a man who can crush the campaign of murder and anarchy and re-establish law and order. It is frankly and laughably impossible because the men who are only capable of losing the Empire are obviously incapable of regaining it.” Sir Henry Wilson advises him to get Great Britain on Ulster’s side and to tell Britons the real truth in regard to the condition in Ulster. “With Britain on your side,” he says, “there is nothing which cannot be done.” He also advises the reorganisation of the police and an amendment of the Arms Act.—A. and N.Z. Cable. [A cable message published a few days ago stated that Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson had agreed to proceed to Belfast to assist in restoring order.]