CABLE NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 March 1922, Page 2

CABLE NEWS.

THE IRISH PROBLEM.

REUTER’S TELEGRAMS. SINN FEIN ORGAN. LONDON, March 18. Tiie official organ of Sinn Fein, the “Irish Bulletin,” warns Great Ajritain regarding'the Ulster question following terms: — “ If it is a fact that six battalions of British troops are going to be used in Ulster, under the command of Field Marshal Wilson date Chief of British General Staff) in hi s capacity as civil head of the Northern police, then Southern Ireland will lie quickly lost to tlw British Empire, and this for thS* 1 , simple reason that it will regard the Irish Treaty as having thereby been fundamentally broken.

MORE VIOLENCE IN BELFAST.

LONDON, March 17

•Two men were shot dead in Belfast while proceeding to work, and a.woman was killed by a bomb explosion .

ST PATRICK’S DAY. LONDON, March 17

The Republican Army celebrated St Patrick’s Day by holding military evolutions, including the trooping of the ,tri-colour Sinn Fein flag in Dublin. Religious services with sermons in Erse (Irish) w“ere held ill the churches at all demonstrations throughout the country.

Mr de Valera, who was accompanied by an armed guard in motor cifrs, speaking at Carrick to seven hundred members of the Republican A: my and two thousand others, said:— “ If the Treaty is not rejected, it will mean civil war. Irish soldiery may fight for independence over the dead bodies of thfe soldiers of the Government, set up by Treaty supporters.” ’

LONDON, March 18. A large crowd came in conflict with a Republican patrol of five men in Cork, and badly maided them.

The patrol were obliged to use fillsarms. A man narfied Mofgtiii wits kill= cd and another wounded. Onfe policeman was wounded. The erdwd eventual ly dispersed.

BISHOP LISTON SPEAKS*.

AUCKLAND, March IS.

A speech was delivered at the St. ’atrick’s Day concert on Friday evensg, by His Lordship Bishop Liston, lie Coadjutor Roman Catholic Bishop >f Auckland. Dr 'Liston said that his >wn parents were driven from the ■ountry in which they were born, and 11 which they would have been content A> live, because their foreign masters lid not want Irishmen aiid Irish women peopling their owii hinds; but had in--dead wished to use it as it cattle raitcli or the snobs of the Empire. Bishop Liston declared that he was ii native Of sew Zealand, and he loved his country, riiey could not say, however, that Ireami had got all she asked for, and all that her sons had died for; but she had tot the first instalment of her freedom —and she was determined to have the vhole of it. (Applause.)

“The omnipotent band of God,” he said, “ had made Ireland a nation, ftui, vbile grass gt'ew and water flowed, here would be' matiy to fight, and veu to die, in order that God's de-> fires might be realised. It Seemed to 1 ini providential that the man who had heed the difficulties and who had carried them so far, was thebe to see that lie rulers of Ireland were riot duped by Tigland. He referred to the men arid women who, in the glorious Easter of ’.916. w<ere proud to die for their eouniv, when murdered by foreign troops. They could not fo~<r't these men and women, but in order tiiat their dfearn •bout Ireland might come true,- they ould forgive;”

MAYOR GUNSON CRITICISES. AUCKLAND, March i'9

Criticising Bishop Liston’s St. Fatck’s Day speech, Mayor Gunson pubhes the following:—

“The sp.-ech of Bishop Liston calls or immediate action on my part as Mayor, on behalf of our citizenship. 1 wrote to the Bishop on Saturday morn"tig. asking him to advise me whether he had been correctly reported, though tny long experience of the £ress iii Auckland gives me no cause to doubt the accuracy of the report. The speech—as reported—is avowedly and openly disloyal to the King and the country, and is an affront to our citizenship. It is seditious, and designedly calculated to cause disintegration of all that Britishers hold deAr. It is a studied insult to the citizenship of the Empire to which New Zealand is proud to belong. Its repudiation of England; its! sneering reference to her as “ a foreign nation,” and its entire dissociation, with disdain, of the speaker and those foi whom he said lie spoke as “ a right, from all that pertains to Empire, challenges all loyal citizens to raise their voices in protest. Its reference to British soldiers as foreign nnjrdepers is especially effensive and unwarrantable. I take this first public opportunity of saying, with all emphasis possible, that the citizens of Auckland will not tolerate for one minute such a studied and deliberate act of disloyalty and of insult to our British manhood and womanhood, and, in making this intimation, I wish to say that such a seditious and ruinous speech will not be allowed in the Auckland Town Hall or iu any place which the city administration controls or licenses. The Bishop and others holding views such as were reported are not fit to longei enjoy the privileges and rights of our British comonwealth and the protection of our British flag. This speech will be brought under the notice of the At-tornev-General, and it will lie my duty to advise the City Council to take other appropriate action. In the meantime, on behalf of the citizens of Auckland, 1 enter an emphatic protest jn the foregoing terms.

A BOMB THROWN (Received Tiffs Day at 8 a.m.) LONDON, March TB. Another bomb was thrown in Belfast at a tram car. Ona man was killed and three injured.