LORD FRENCH’S RULE IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 25 March 1920, Page 28

LORD FRENCH’S RULE IN IRELAND.

Lord French, in a message to the Town Council of Wallasly, Cheshire, recently, said that “he will not be deterred from the work of restoring law and order” in Ireland. Lord French was appointed Viceroy of Ireland in 1918. During that year there were 2624 acts of aggression on the part of the English Government in Ireland. During the > ear 1919, there were 15,390 acts of aggression, including raids on private homes, armed assaults on civilians, courts-martial, suppression of newspapers, etc. In tho six weeks ending December 20, 1919, the forces of Lord French raided 2829 private houses, arrested 162 men and women charged with political offences, sentenced 126 of these men and women, dispersed at tho point of the bayonet 27 peaceful meetings, issued 39 proclamations and suppressions and deported four Irishmen without trial or charge, making a total of 3192 acts of provocation for six weeks, as compared with a total of 719 such acts for tho whole year 1917. Tho sentences passed on “political offenders” in these six weeks totalled 49 years and three months.