BRITISH TERRORISM IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, 30 December 1920, Page 33

BRITISH TERRORISM IN IRELAND.

The object of .Terence .Mac Sweeney's protest was to call the attention of. the civilised world to the •.British regime i in Ireland; under which these :bloody deeds "are possible (writes the Irish ; correspondent of ! the New '''Witness). It has succeeded in that object; but it will not have suceeded fully unless it is understood that the policy of assassinating the leaders of ..Republican opinion and terrorising the mass of that opinion remain in operation.. Of the method of mass terror it is scarcely necessary to speak further.; The evidence of it is plain. _, It.is supplied from day to day by every reputable correspondent in Ireland of the English press. The-question-is merely whether one believes their testimony or that of Sir Ham a r Greenwood —and that is a question which carries its own answer. But the assasina" tion of Republican leaders is a matter less easily susceptible of proof. Nevertheless, certain facts, and a general drift of things which permits only one interpretation to be put upon these facts, may. be noted. Sir Nevil Macready, .in his notorious interview with the Associated Press correspondent, referred quite frankly to the necessity for the "definite clearance of certain men." For many months a sumptuous propaganda, has been carried on by Dublin Castle, having «for its apparent object the. preparation of public opinion outside Ireland for the assassination of Republican leaders. . Visiting journalists were told in conversation that there were opposing parties within the Sinn Fein movement. The "moderates" were afraid of the •■extremists," the latter having threatened them with assassination if they accepted less than independence. On the other hand the "extremists" were themselves •in danger of assasination by what were called '-their own dunes. : Many press representatives, in London as well as in Dublin, were treated to the story of the opposing parties within Sinn Fein,- and the likelihood of one party assassinating the other. " " n - i^! ,t V while this propaganda to prove an alibi for (lie British Government was being circulated "confidentially" certain documents came into flu- possession of the Republican authorities providing a. certain amount of evidence as to the progress of the assassination campaign and illustrating the complicity in it of high officials of the'British Government in Ireland. The documents were published in £ lime* and referred to in these notes earlv in September. On September 17 the British Government in Ireland issued an official statement to the press assert!,,..- that the charges contained in the documents were absolutely fake and promising + the immediate issue of » detailed refutation' Such a refutation has never been issued; the Government preferred to trust to the shortness of public memo, v B clearly & new excuse was (W to explain awav cert, of the assassinations. Until the second week in September the public outside Ireland was not aware that tin nil police forces were permitted to shoot "suspects" entirely at then- own discretion. This became genera know dur-ing-the last three weeks of September* owi" « tote i,' b hcity s given to murders attending the sack of several rn towns. It was then discovered that Sis] „„ir opinion would apparently tolerate these murders If it w e Sr&SttaSS?? h *. the B " t l ish Governmen tl menihprs r,f Tt„;i Ti'- "oiiaereis. .Now severa and the same members, acSrlVol?' '' *™ g I information, are already rU / i f ° r assassination- % their "dupes." ... ""r**' "lie tlirea<ls of evidence omivov,™ w are. getting nearer to the truth'. It will out ye!