IRELAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18544, 3 May 1922, Page 5

IRELAND

STEP TOWARDS UNITY. APPEAL BY ARMY LEADER. NEW PROPOSAL BY MR DE VALERA. Press Association—By Telegraph—OopyxightLONDON, May 1. (Received May 2, at 5.5 p.m.) _ An interesting document has been issued signed by representatives of the Regulars, including Mr Collins, and the irregular section of the Irish Army, appealing for the closing of the ranks to avoid a conflict. The unification of the forces is suggested on the basis of the acknowledgment of the majority Irish to accept the-treaty. Mr de Valera has simultaneously issued a statement that Mr Griffith’s proposal for a peace conference involved the acceptance of partition. Mr de Valera’s proposal was that the treaty should be referred to the people at the expiration of six months, during which the army would be unified ; and that. the Bail Eireann should be kept in session and adult suffrage passed. There were certain rights which the minority were justified in defending by force of arms.—A. and N.Z. Cable. BANK ROBBERIES. LARGE SUMS SECURED. REFUGEES REACH BELFAST. LONDON, May 2. (Received May 2, at 7.20. p.m.) Armed irregulars, with a motor lorry, drew up in front of the Bank of Ireland at Mitchelstown and demanded all 'the moneys. The officials handed over £IO,OOO. The leader gave a receipt and drove off. Armed men also raided’banks at Ennis, Westport, Sligo, Ballinrobe, and Claremont, and held up the staffs and carried off in motor-cars sums aggregating over £20,000. The railway between Carrick,on Suir (Waterford) was tom up and the roads in the same district trenched and blocked by trees. Protestant refugees . from County Cork are arriving in Belfast.—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE BANK THEFTS. MORE THAN £60,000 STOLEN. LONDON, May 2. (Received May 2, at 9.20 p.m.) Except for the assassinations, the bank robberies have been the most sensational incidents since the inception of the rebellion. More than £60,000 had been carried off, including £14,000 from Sligo, £IO,OOO from Wexford, £IOOO ftom Ballinrobe, and £3500 from Limerick. The sums stolen at Ennis, Waterford, Tralee, and,Mallow are all considerable, but • the amount is not stated. Only one case of violence occurred, when Gamer, a bank agent at Westport, resisted the robbers. Mutineers have seized the offices of the Dublin Port Dock Board, which commands the O’Connell bridge.—A. and N.Z. Cable. ~ • AN UNKNOWN OBJECTIVE. . / INTENSE PREPARATIONS IN TRAIN. LONDON, May 2. (Received May 2, at 8.10 p.m.) The latest reports from Dublin indicate "that intense preparations are being made for some unknown objective. Railway and road communication in some places is cut off. ' Trains from Tipperary and Thurles were held up amidst scenes of the greatest excitement. , < Roads in the vicinity of Ballybrophy, Templemore, and Clonmel were blocked. Two mansions at Castlebar and Eoxborough were seized and the owners evicted. —A. and N.Z. Cable.