The Daily News. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16. THE TROUBLE IN IRELAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 16 August 1907, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16. THE TROUBLE IN IRELAND.

Ireland seems to be seliloni cut of the toils. If it is not one thing, it is another. The tables of the last day or two contain very alarming news ot ' iifl culmination of the laiest trouble, the strike of the dock "workers in Belfast. The mobs took clurgc of alVairs ; wrecking police barracks and attacking -he police and military, who, after the Itiot Act was lead, made repeated charges and fired oh the mobs. Two hours' desperate fighting ensuiul. Three or four of the rioters were killed and many wounded, whilst twenty policemen, tin' cabled state, wore seriously injured. The whole affair makes painful reading The rioters, or, more properly, their leaders, seem to have lost their reason for the time being and worked themselves into a frenzy, and the troops, once they got to work, would appear to have behived little belter. There had been considerable disaflVetion amongst the Belfast workers for some time previous to the collision. First of all the police struck in order In a*T their grievances and oblnin redtvss thrrefor. The Oovmnnont prompMv dismissed the ringleiders and the malcontents with, men from another County, together with military draUs form Knglish and Scottish regiments stationed in Inland. About the same time the Helfast workers And carters struck for higher w'ges. Nonunionists were retained from Liverpool and took the places of the strikers, who, resenting the appearance of J he ''blacklegs." began to bitimid-it* and Inrrass them to such-nn extent th:it the puoter-tion of the police and military had to he invoked. Matter* evidently got from bad to worse. They renewed a head ,on Sunday. We cannot believe that the disturbance, with its unfortunate results, had any connection with the Nationalist movement. Men like John Redmond, Mr "Devlin, and other leaders of the ITome Hole Party know full well that the employment of forcible in the securing of selfi out of th p question >n ; rlieso enlightened days, They would 1 ,;1 the lirst. ve should imagine, to leI nomine the iv«e of phvsicai force in I siifh a connection. Mr Devlin, a? a j matter of fact, appears to Vive acted the part of a pacifier during the late | conflict, inducing, according to the [rabies, nmiv of the rioters to return f."- , their homes. These leaders would not imperil their great cause by countenancing unlawfulness or the propaganda! 'if the Sinn Vein party. They recogn'sej ih it the realisation of their hope liesj in appealing to the reason of the electors of the other branches of the present Union, in educating the said cl* n - ■ to a of wha':. U r ight and wronjr in rreprd to the tivaiinent • e- : corded Ireland, and in removing '.II0 1 great prejudice that exists amongst a; big section of the English regarding the | ability of the Irish to successfully i govern themselves and also to renninl loyal to the Empire. Colonials, who] enjoy the measure of self-goverrnn rtj iliut Irishmen are asking for, and asking lor justly in our opinion, can and do sympathise with the efforts made and b' ing made to secure Hume liule, but they want to see it conic, if it does come, and tliere are not wanting signs that it wiil some day, through constitutional channels, and would strongly disapprove of the employment of any meanj savoring of lawlessness. The thought that there is any connection between tliie Belfast strikes and the Nationalist movement may be dismissed as having little foundation in fact. The men seem to have been disaffected in the s.me way as workmen constantly have been and are in other part*. Th.;y wanted bigger money, and instead of

i heir demands being satisfied their places were filled by outsiders. They evidently got right out of hind and provoked the encounter with the troops, who were less to blame than they for the lamentable results attending the unfortunate disorders, which, thanks to the good offices of Alr Devlin and other leaders and the priests, are now pll over. The strikers appeal to have reached a reasonable frame of mood, hiving intimated their willingness to arbitrate over the trouble. The Hoard of Trade, the cables tell us, hive placed two representatives at the disposal of tin; two parlies- the men and llieir employers—and it is to be hoped that an aniicaible settlement of the dispute will shortly"be arrived at.