IRISH TURMOIL.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 25 May 1922, Page 5

IRISH TURMOIL.

HIGH COUNCIL MEETS. AGREEMENT CONFIRMED. [Per Press Association—Copyright). LONDON, May 23. At a meeting of the Ardfheis High Council Mr de Valera presided and moved the adoption of the agreement with Mr Collins. The latter seconded the motion, saying that the position in the north was one of the causes which brought about the agreement. Their first duty was the restoration of order in the country. Some declared it would endanger the Treaty, but if the restoration of order did endanger the Treaty it would enable them to face any new situation. The motion was carried, there being four dissentients. SINN FEINERS ARRESTED. POLICE AND MILITARY RAIDS. /• LONDON, May 23. The police and military carried out night raids in Belfast in six Ulster counties, and arrested 1500 Sinn Fein officers.

Those arrested in Ulster include all the persons known to have executive authority. HOT CONFLICTS REPORTED. LONDON, May 23. During the round-up of Sinn Feiners near Downpatrick, the Irish Republican Army and the military had a hot conflict. One man was killed, and a quantity of bombs, revolvers and. gelignite captured. I.R.A. ILLEGAL ASSEMBLY. Sir James Craig announced in the Northern Parliament that the Irish Republican Army had been proclaimed as an illegal assembly. WHERE ARRESTS WERE MADE. The arrested Sinn Feiners included 300 in County Tyrone, 60 in Fermanagh, 50 apprehended in Belfast, where the numbers would have been larger but the Sinn Feiners fled.

STR JAMES CRAIG’S SPEECH.

WHOLE SITUATION CHANGED.

London, May 23.

Sir James Craig, in the Northern Parliament, said that the whole of the Irish situation was changed by the Collins —De Valera pact. Ulster was now prepared to meet what had been arranged behind the scenes. The immediate result of the pact was that Ulster would not have any boundary commission under any circumstances whatever. “What we have we hold and will hold, despite * all combinations and oposition. As for the future Ulster would require the military if there was an invasion. Th e most satisfactory arrangements had been completed with the British Government, and they had only to ask for more regiments andwould get them. Although I am prepared to treat with the Southern representatives who are within the ambit of th e Empire, I am not prepared to treat with a composite Government, where one-half is practically Republican, while the other half is represented by men whose view is that the treaty is a step towards a republic.” SEIN FEIN ARREST. The figures of the Sinn Fein arrests were exagerated. In a round-up to-day, between three and four hundred were taken into custody. ULSTER’S CHIEF CONSTABLE. Major- General Solly Flood has been appointed to command the" entire Ulster Constabulary.

A CRISIS. London, May 23. The Collins-De Valera pact, coupled with the Northern Government’s energetic action against the campaign of murder, resulted in a crisis of which the consequences defy analysis. ARRESTS CONTINUE. Arrests of Sinn Feinners continue, but a number of wanted men are now fleeing to th e Free State. The Ulster Constabulary laid their plans so carefully that not a hint of the coup reached those who were wanted. The big encircling movement commenced throughout the six counties at four in the morning. Houses were rapidly and efficiently visited, and practically every Sinn Feinn officer on the list was arrested. The proclaimed organisations are

the Republican Army, the Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers, Fianna (which is a women’s and youth’s society), and the Cumannamban. Persons who remain members are liable to prosecution.

GARRON TOWERS.'

Garron Towers, Cushendale, which has been burnt, belonged to Mr Winston Churchill, who inherited it a year ogo.

BOMB IN THEATRE

LITTLE DAMAGE DONE.

London, May 23

An aeroplane bomb, thrown in from the street, exploded in the Gaiety Theatre, Belfast, but little damage was done.

GRAVE SITUATION. IMPORTANT CONFERENCE. London, May 23. Cabinet Ministers take thegravest view of- the new political situation in Ireland. Mr Lloyd George, Mr Chamberlain, Lord Birkenhead, Mr Churchill, Sir Worthington Evans, and Sir Hamar Greenwood held a hurriedly arranged conference, frequently calling in Sir Neville Macßeady and other administrators during the proceedings, the character of which, though obviously most important, did not transpire.