Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1920, Page 3

LONDON, July 27. Five disguised men entered a timber yard in Bantry, in County Cork, and set fire to a yard and adjoining four stores, which were completely destroyed. The damage is estimated at forty thousand. The deed is believed to he the crime of some opponents of Sinn Fein, in order to force payment of compensation by the district. \ Another anti-Sinn Fein fire occurred in drapery stores in Ballylanders. No jurors attended the Mulhern inquest at Bandon. The inquiry was . abandoned. Reprisals for this outrage are feared. 'There was an encounter between men and the police at Lixnaw, County Kerry resulting in four policemen being dangerously wounded. CATASTROPHE AVOIDED. ACTION AT BELFAST. A REMARKABLE STATEMENT.. (1? enter’s Telegiara.l (Received This Day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, July 20. In the House of Commons, in reply to a motion by Mr Dillon for the adjournment to call attention to events in Belfast, and the failure of the Government tp protect the Catholics, Sir Haniar Greenwood said the soldiers and police would deal with the mobs, whether Protestant of Catholic, exactly alike. There were five battalions of infantry in Belfast. Three others were available if required. Warships were nearby, also 1,156 police. The Government had done everything possible, and had prevented one of the greatest catastrophes that could have befallen Ireland in the shape of the massacre of thousands and a devastating civil war.

He emphatically refuted the suggestion that resprisals had been any part of the Government’s policy. The police and military had shown the sternest impartiality.