IRELAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18511, 23 March 1922, Page 5

IRELAND

BELFAST DISTURBANCES. CARTERS ON STRIKE. PROTEST AGAINST INSECURITY. Press Aesociation—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, March 21. The Belfast carters have struck work as a protest against their insecurity owing to frequent shootings. Twenty-eeven carters have been shot and 147 injured during the i disorders.—A, and N.Z. Cable. ' THE STRIKE ABANDONED. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 8.55 p.m.) 1 The Belfast carters have abandoned their strike, further protection being as--1 sured.—A. and N.Z. Cable. RAIDS IN TYRONE. I.R.A. ATTACK LOYALISTS. LONDON, March 2i. A large force of the I.R.A. attacked loyalists’ houses in Tyrone, near the frontier. Two houses, were burnt down. The raiders attacked Glendean Lodge, in Trillick. The occupier organised a defence and beat off the raiders, but his servant, who was a special policeman, was riddled with bullets.—A. and N.Z. Cable. WIDESPREAD INCENDIARISM. LOYALISTS’ HOMES DESTROYED. AGED MAN MURDERED. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22. at. 9.55 p.m.) The destruction of loyalists’ homes in Tyrone is widespread. The sky is lurid with the glare of burning homesteads. Some of the largest farms in the Country have been fired. An aged man was shot while defending his home against incendiaries, who later burned the farm.—A. and N.Z. Cable. ULSTERMEN’S PLIGHT. ( - NO HELP FROjM BRITAIN. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 10.45 p.m.) The Daily Telegraph’s Belfast correspondent states that the new campaign of flying columns of the Republican Armv against loyalists in Tyrone has aroused intense excitement in the north, and terrible consequences may follow. The people are asking whether Great Britain has forgotten that. Ulstermen are still subjects of the King. The farmers in Tyrone are men of substance. Their well-kept farms are now a melancholy spectacle of ruin and desolation. The incendiarism is so widespread that the constabulary are ouite incapable of copiqg with the situation. It is pointed out that the British Government thus far has lent no aid or protection to the border, which has been left entirely to Ulster specials. Protestant families in the danger zone are vacating their homes, seeking shelter further north, or are only visiting their homes in the daytime to tend their stock.—A. and N.Z. Cable. IRISH REPUBLICANS. ALLEGATION OF TREACHERY. TRUCE UTILISED TO ORGANISE ARMY. LONDON, March 21. In moving the second reading of the Special Powers Bill in the Northern Parliament at. Belfast, Mr Megaw, Minister of Home Affairs, said that the Irish Republican army was inactive in Ulster until the truce, after which, according to captured documents, whole battalions were raised and equipped in a single district. Between September and December the truce was utilised to organise an army with a view to overthrowing the Northern Government.—A. and N.Z. Cable. SUPPRESSION OF CRIME. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 8.55 p.m.) The Northern Parliament passed the second reading of the Bill for the suppression of crime. Mr Megaw, in moving the second reading, said that captured documents proved that the Republican army was inactive in Ulster until it was possible to operate in security. Under tne protection of the truce, one battalion was raised and equipped in one district between September and December. The truce was used as an instrument to organise a hostile army and a conspiracy to overthrow the Northern Government. If the other side would not accept peace, let there be war, but Ulster would never be terrorised or driven by a Sinn Fein Parliament.—A. and N.Z. Cable. ULSTER BOUNDARY QUESTION. SERIOUS TENSION. STATEMEiNT IN THE COMMONS. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 8.20 p.m.) Mr Churchill, replying Tb a question in the House of Commons, said that the general condition of the Ulster boundary was one of most serious tension. The liaison officers on both sides were not functioning as they should. Overwhelming forces would be made available to the Northern) Government if wanted for defence or the maintenance of law and order. The conditions in Belfast were most lamentable. He had telegraphed to the Free State that there was no danger of a raid from Ulster. —A. and N.Z.' Cable. REPUBLICAN COMMUNIQUE. ULSTER CONSTABULARY DEFEATED LONDON. March 21. (Received March 22, at 8.55 p.m.) A Republican communique states: We inflicted 20 casualties on the Ulster Constabulary who attempted to blow up Burns Bridge. They were forced to retreat, the Republicans capturing a ma-chine-gun and other weapons. The communique adds that the situation on the border is very menacing.—A. and N.Z. Cable. FREE STATE BILL. DEBATE IN THE LORDS. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22. at fi.55 p.m.) In the House of Lords, on a motion to consider the Free State Bill in committee, Lord Salisbury appealed to the Government to allow amendments removing ambiguities and improving the Bill within the principles of the Treatv. Viscount Peel pointed out that if modifications to the Treaty wore introduced the other party to the Pact could claim the same right. If members desired to wreck the Government it was open to them to do so. He .would not accept any amendment affecting the Treaty. Lord Carson said he could have given notice of thousands of amendments, for he never read a more muddled and unreadable Bill. Nevertheless, they proposed to confine themselves to an amendment improving the Bill, not altering tho Treaty.—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE BOUNDARY COMMISSION. LONDON, March 21. (Received March 22, at 9.55 p.m.) In tho House of Lords, Lord Carson mtved to give Ulster the right of appeal to the Privy Council if dissatisfied with the decision of the Boundary Commission, I