A PEACE MOVE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1922, Page 5

A PEACE MOVE.

DEMAND FOR SURRENDER. REBELS MUST BE CRUSHED. FIGHTING IN OTHER PLACES. Received July 4, 7.50 p.m. London, July 3. De Valera to-day endeavored to secure a peace pact from the Provisional Government. The Lord Mayor of Dublin wrote as an intermediary, but the Government replied that it would accept only unconditional surrender, as it is determined that the extremists shall be crushed once and for all. The Lord Mayor risked his life every time he went to the rebel stronghold, but his desire was to save the beautiful city from destruction. The Republican leaders were willing to evacuate their positions and go to their homes, but on terms to which the Government would not consent. The Provisional Government has stopped the importation of all English newspapers into Southern Ireland, and also the circulation of Irish newspapers which have not been submitted to the censors of the Free State Army. Dublin is still without postal facilities. There has been heavy fighting between Free State troops and rebels in East Donegal. The rebel garrison at Castlefinn has surrendered. Constant fighting is in progress in Drogheda, both sides occupying strong positions. Several hundred irregulars in South Tipperary are concentrated in large military barracks at Clonmel, which they fortified. They also mined all approaches. They possess large quantities of food and every motor-car in the district, as well as a hundred thousand gallons of petrol, which has been commandeered. The main line of railway between Cork and Dublin has been cut in several places. THE LATEST NEWS. MOVEMENT NEARING COMPLETION. RISING WILL DISCREDIT REBELS. LEADERS LOSE PRESTIGE. Received July 4, 8.30 pan. London, July 4 (7.20 a.m.). The latest National communique from Dublin reports: “The Dublin Guards’ enveloping movement is nearing completion. They have driven out the irregulars from Earl Street, and are surrounding the Gresham Hotel. They captured the Catholic Club opposite, taking 32 prisoners.” The Daily Chronicle’s Dublin correspondent, in an outspoken despatch, states: “Less than a thousand men, or rather boys, I have caused all the din and disturbance, j It is quite clear that the last stand in 1 O’Connell Street was made by less than i two hundred, of whom many were children. • and many mere roughs. All Dublin knows that this O’Connell Street affair is a mere demonstration, and that the heroes who . were to die fighting for the republic will ’ eventually surrender like their comrades I elsewhere.

“From first to last the insurrection has been a fiasco. All its leader.: have lost their prestige irretrievably. De Valera will never recover his lost position, and Rory (/Connor has become a jest, nicknamed ‘Rory of the Hills.’ The Free Staters* restraint is understood and approved. and their skill is manifest. The rebels have shown no reluctance to kill. They have not merely pursued an inhuman game of sniping and bombing in the streets, but they have used diabolical methods, leaving hidden mines to be exploded after they have surrendered under the white flag. This struggle might have brought Ireland into irremediable anarchy, but the Government’s wisdom has made it a foolish and wicked fiasco. It will always be remembered as a discredit to the rebel leaders.”