IRISH STATES.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15157, 17 February 1922, Page 5

IRISH STATES.

SHOOTING IN BELFAST. MORE LOSS OF LIFE. (A. and N. Z. Cable.) LONDON, Feb. 10. Fierce shooting occurred in several districts of Belfast during the . afterhoon. Concealed snipers in Stanhope Street fired hundreds of shots, and the troops replied, and also made a bayonet charge. Six men entered the office of a mill, and shot William Duffin, the son of a leading linen merchant, whose only son was killed in .the ■war. Sinn Feiners shot dead a special constable in New Lodge Road. ! The police shot and killed a man who wag crawling on the roof of a public house in York Street.

I.R.A. OFFICERS. ’ / ■ .arrested in ulster. (A. and N.Z. Cable). LONDON, Feb. 16. The Daily News’ Dublin correspondent states that Ulster special constables arrested and detained at Newry barracks Commandant Monaghan, and two brothers named Murney, all I.R.A. officers. The incident may bo fraught with grave consequences. UNIONIST VIEWS. SPEECH BY MR. BONAR LAW i (A. and N.Z. CableA J LONDON, Feb. 15. < Mr. Bonar Law, speaking in Glasgow, said that parts of Ireland were not far removed from anarchy. Ulster was like a powder mine, where an explosion might occur at any moment. He thought the Government 'had made a great mistake in interfering with the boundaries of .Ulster, which it had promised without Ulster’s consent. Amid cheers and some interruptions Mr. Bonar Law said he thought'they could send the following message to Ulster: “We dor t intend to support you in anything that’s wrong, but you can rely: upon the tvhole-hearted support of the people of this country in continuing to you the rights Parliament has given you.”

FREE STATE BILL. AN URGENT MEASURE. (A. and N.Z. Cable.) (Received 9.20 a.in.) ' LONDON, Feb. 16. In the House of Commons Mr. Winston Churchill moved the second reading of the Freo State Bill He pressed the measure as one of urgency, because order could not be restored until the proper legal powers had been conferred on the provisional Government. Ho hoped an election would result in the return of a sensible Parliament. Mr. Churchill regretted that the position in Belfast had reached such a horrible stage, and hoped that some sort of parley would end the vendetta. It would be better to deal with the boundary question after tho elections. If it were found that Ulster would be maltreated or mutilated under the comnlission, they were bound to ensure that Ulster should not. ho ruined ■through loyalty to Britain. ,

REINFORCEMENTS. IN THE NORTH. (A. and N.Z. Cable). (Received 1.50 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 16. A battalion of Lincolnshires has gone to reinforce the troops in * ‘North Ireland entraining from Tipperary for Inniskillen. The I.R.A. took over the barracks. Mr. Collins has received a cable stating that 85 per cent, of membership of the American association for -the recognition of the Irish Republic wero behind him and Mr. Grif- " ,fiths.