IN IRELAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1921, Page 2

IN IRELAND.

A Great Outrage.

SERIOUS DESTRUCTION

OF VALUABLE PROPERTY

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. LONDON, May 25. Flames ivure observed in the Dublin Customhouse simultaneously throughout the building. The clerical and other staffs tied. Bombs were flung at the military, who came in lorries. The soldiers replied with machine guns and rifles, and a revolver battle ensued.

There are several dead and wounded. The building destroyed cost £I,OOO, 000 aid was one of the finest in the city.

The circumstances indicate that the affair was elaborately organised. Armed rebels guarded all the approaches to the building, and they posted armed sentries at street corners to prevent attempts to save the structure. Among the rebel casualties were men seen running from the building. Shortly afterwards Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Irish Transport Workers was destroyed.

A BIG BLAZE. LONDON, May 25. A serious outbreak has occurred in Dublin. The Customhouse and Liberty Hall are aflame, the crowd attacking military with bombs and the latter replying with machine gun fire. LONDON, May 25. A serious outbreak has occurred at Dublin. The Customhouse and Liberty Hall were burned down. Fires were observed in the Customhouse simultaneously throughout the huildin s Bombs were flung at the military who came in lorries. Several people were killed in the ensuing battle. The destroyed Customs building cost a million. The affair was elaborately organised. The approaches to the' building were guarded, preventing attempts at saving the structure.

DETAILS OF OUTRAGE

LONDON, May 25. The Dublin correspondent of the London Times says: “The burning of the Custom House in Dublin is the largest and most daring operation of the Sinn Foisers which that city has witnessed. Hundreds of rebels participated. They commandeered a lorry, that was leaded with petrol. Then they penetrated by the main gate. The Sinn Fciners next distributed petrol throughout the building. The staff were rounded up and mustered in the cellars. The telephones were cut. The station had been previously held up at the revolver’s point. Troops and police then rushed to the scene. A pitched battle opened with the rebels in Custom House Square. The Sinn Feiners were firing from the windows. The troops had surrounded the blazing building. They shot down any rebels emerging, while the others, who were, wounded within the lmilding were burned to death.

Th staff had meantime made their way out to safety from the cellars. The rebels, however, continued their fire till the auxiliary forces tame up, and these stormed the building. They captured many people. The streets and Square resembled a shambles, being strewn wit.h dead and mangled bodies. An official statement puts the known casualties as follows: Four auxiliaries wounded; seven civilians killed and sei ■ en wounded; 111 rebels captured.

MANY SINN FEINHRS SHOT. A GREAT DAMAGE. (Received This Day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, May 25 At least two hundred Sinn Feiners wore engaged in the attack on Dublin Customhouse, of whom it is believed 130 were killed, wounded or captured. The first intimation of trouble was a rush of about fifty strange men in civilian attire, armed with automatic revolvers, who carried twenty-two eases ; also bales taining four tins, of petrol; also bales of cotton waste, which was quickly distributed all over the building.

The Customhouse was one of the finest buildings in Ireland, built in 1785. There was much wood ill its construction so the task of the Sinn Feiners was not difficult. The clerical and other staffs were quickly overpowered, but not before a telephone message was sent to troops and police. Four trollies with auxiliaries, guarded by an armoured car quickly reached the Customhouse at one o’clock, not knowing exactly wlmt was afoot. They were met by a fusilade of bombs from the railway bridge and. volleys from revolvers, and bullets from windows of the Customhouse. The cadets immediately dismounted and tried to surround the building, while the machine gun in the armoured car poured in fire into the windows whence the rebels replied vigorously. Desperate hand to hand fights followed when parties of six or seven Sinn Feiners who had finished their incendiarism tried to break the weak cordon of cadets. The first party to emerge consisted of three, of whom one was killed and two wounded. None of the auxiliaries knew from.which door the rebels wolud conic next, so some of the Sinn Feiners’ wild rushes for liberty were successful. They dashed out firing revolvers as they ran. The last sortie of rebels oonsisted of seven men and only one escaped, the rest being killed or wounded. , The fire now had a big hold on the building, smoke and flame pouring out of the windows as the last party of Sinn Feiners rushed out. Girls and male clerks, who had been held as prisoners flocked out, holding their hands above their heads and waving white handkerchiefs as an indication to the auxiliaries not to shoo.t. T'm'greatly assisted the escape of the Sinn Feiners. Some auxiliaries pluckily. stormed the blazing building where many rebels surrendered. Apparently they feared to rush the cordon, after the fate of the last party, and would certainly have been burned to death if the cadets had not rescued them. At the conclusion of the fight there were dead and wounded rebels at all the dnora of the Customhouse. 'When the fii'e engine arrived) tho fire had ®

good hold of the entire block. The de- . struction includes books of income tax, estates duty and company registration departments. The destruction of the books was a feature of the outrage. The first thing the raiders did when they had driven three hundred clerks and other officials at their revolver point into a large central hall, was to throw all the books and documents on the floors, saturate them with petrol and set them alight, thus assisting the general conflagration. A dramatic episode is mentioned. When the fire was at its worst, the Union Jack was seen flying above the doomed buildings. Despite the smoke and flames, a cadet officer climbed to the roof and hailed 'down the flag and brought it safely to the ground amidst the cheers of his comrades. For a time, Dublin Castle authorities feared a general rising and many precautions were taken, large- bodies of troops being called up and special guards were sent to the Bank of Ireland and other danger points.

AN IRISH OUTRAGE. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, May 25. The military surprised a party of civilians engaged in destroying Bally- < earthy bridge, near Tralee and killed one, wounded two, and captured nine.

PRESS REGRET. (Received this day at 8 a.in.) LONDON, May 26

Dublin newspapers strongly condemn the burning of the Customhouse. They consider it a blow to the prospects of peace.

CASUALTIES IN IRELAND. LONDON, May 25. Sir Hamar Greenwood (Irish Secretary) in the Hous e of Commons, replying to a question, gave figures of the casualties among the Crown’s forces in Ireland for the three months from January Ist to the of April. There were, he said, 109 police killed and 224 wounded, and 48 military were killed and 113 wounded. DR MANNIX’S EXCLUSION. LONDON. May 25. In Parliament, Mr Austen Chamberlain, replying to a question as to whether the Government had made any offer to allow Archbishop Mannix to visit Ireland, stated that no offer had been made.

ULSTER ELECTIONS. LONDON, May 25

Police and military in lorries and armoured cars guarded the conveyances, whereby Ulster ballot boxes were collected. The outstanding feature of the elections in Armagh was the large number of impersonations, particularly dead persons. The chief offenders were women changing their dress each time. One woman, detected, admitted she voted live times. ULSTER ELECTIONS, i Received This Day at 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 26 The first elected member to the Ulster Parliament is an Imperial Commoner Moles, for South Belfast, where he largely exceeded the proportional representation quota. The election of three other Unionist seems to be assured. The bulk of the other returns may he expected by the end of the week. An examination of polling returns reveals exceptionally heavy voting everywhere, over 95 per cent at one station, while the general average was 90. ;

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