IN IRELAND

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1919, Page 2

IN IRELAND

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.)

FURTHER PARTICULARS. LONDON, December 20. It yippears the firing began fifty yards from Ashtown station. The motors ran the gauntlet of a ‘ brisk fire for one hundred yards. A man plainly visible on a knoll in a field seemed to direct the assassins’ operations. Probably thirty participated in the attack. One man was concealed in a tree and main tained a steady fire with an automatic . pistol. He slid to the ground and took - to the fields, leaving the remnants of his clothes on the tree stem. Most of the assailants possessed bicycles, and they scattered among the by roads and lanes. Lord French’s only escort consisted df MqCoughlin who cycled ahead as a pilot to three or four armed policemen, but some thirty soldiers, who formed the guard of honour at the station heard the firing and doubled to the scene, but were too winded on arrival to take up the pursuit. They scarcely saw the fugitives and were forced to content themselves by firing in various directions where they believed the men had escaped.

HOME RULE BIEL. 'Received This Day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, December 22. Details of Home Rule Bill closely approximate the scheme the “Times” recently propounded. In the Commons, Sir E. Carson, said that he was still convinced that a United Parliament was best for Ireland the Kingdom and Empire. If the Sinn Fein party captured the Irish Parliament, it would annex Ulster and proclaim a Republic.