POLICE OUTWITTED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 852, 28 August 1933, Page 1

POLICE OUTWITTED.

General O’Duffy by Clever Ruse Eludes Pursuers.

DELIVERS ADDRESS TO BLUE SHIRTS.

CUnited Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received August 28, 10.10 a.m.) LONDON, August 27. OUTWITTING the Government forces concentrated to enforce the prohibition of the memorial meeting at Beal na Blagh, where Michael Collins was ambushed, General O’Duffy succeeded in addressing 5000 Blue Shirts at Bandon. Five hundred police, a detachment of military and an armoured car were drawn in a cordon around the proscribed area, a wild desolate stretch of moorland and mountain.

General O’Duffy left Bandon at high speed in a car, accompanied by the Blue Shirt leader

in a second car. Two car-loads of detectives followed, but the Blue Shirts’ second car slowed up in a narrow mountain lane, preventing the detectives’ cars from passing, while General O’Duffy raced ahead, made a detour, eluded his pursuers and re-

turned to Bandon,“ Firmly in Saddle.” where he addressed his supporters unmolested. He said: Michael Collins’s murderers are now preventing the National Guard from paying a tribute to one of Ireland’s greatest statesman and gentlemen. The day passed quietly in Dublin.. Mr de Valera, speaking at Ennis, said that the Government was determined to prevent disturbances. Speaking at Limerick yesterday, Mr de Valera said: “We are firmly in the saddle and shall ride to the victory which is before the Irish people. I believe that our progress in industry and commerce will enable us at election time to show that everything we have attempted has been practically completed. Our opponents do not welcome an election because they will get a bigger beating than before.” The crowd attacked an interjector, whom Civic Guards rescued.

The fact that disorder has hitherto been averted is a tribute to the restraint of both the Government and the Blue Shirts, but fears of a clash are intensified at present by the determination of the West Cork Blue Shirts to perform tJie annual ceremony at the Collins memorial cross near the Quarry Mountains, where Collins was fatally ambushed. Some estimates state that 10,000 of the outlawed Blue Shirts, headed by General O’Duffy, intend to assemble. General O’Duffy states that he is prepared to disband his National Guard if the Government will disband the other forces in the country. GUN-RUNNING PLOT. Sensational Conspiracy Alleged. (Received August 28, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 27. “ Reynold’s News ” discloses a sensational gun-running conspiracy between Belgium and Ireland, and states that thousands of rifles have been landed at Mizenhead by a trawler from Antwerp in the past few days, and says that more are coming.