IRELAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1916, Page 5

IRELAND.

REBELS GIVE IN. AN UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. HOPELESSLY OUTNUMBERED. ' London, May 1. Official: All the rebel commandoes at Dublin have surrendered.

The provisional Republican Government has issued a proclamation, signed Bearse, Commandant-General of the Forces, as follows: —

'ln order to prevent the further slaughter of unarmed men, and to save the lives of their followers now surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered, the members of the Provisional Government Headquarters have agreed to unconditional surrender. The commanders of all Republican units will order their followers to lay down their arms."

INCIDENTS IN THE REBELLION, THE ATTACK ON THE CASTLE.

FIGHT FOR NEWSPAPER OFFICES. UNREST IN GALWAY AND; WEXFORD.

London, May 1. There were very few church services in Dublin yesterday. The Larne-Stranraer mail route has been re-opened. Dublin has received the first newspapers since Easter Monday. At the request of correspondents General Maxwell has opened a press bureau. Jacob's ;actory was completely gutted and the occupants surrendered on Sunday night.

Most spectacular fighting occurred outside Dublin Castle. After killing a policeman the rebels seized the offices of the Dublin Express adjoining, and mounted machine-guns dominating the Castle yard. The sentries were shot down and the lower yard occupied. The executive were kept prisoners until evening, when the first of the Curragh troops arrived, and fighting for the Dublin Express building commenced with sniping and the exchange of macliine-gun fire. Finally the military organised a bayonet charge against the front door, and were met with a volley of rifles from the lobby floor above. Eight of the leading soldiers fell. A similar charge against the back door failed. Finally access was gained by a ruse, and a furious struggle ensued. The soldiers fought their way from floor to floor with bayonets, and twenty minutes later the I Union Jack displaced the green flag. Many women were among the rebels, ,some wearing a green uniform and smart green slouch hats. One was seen to kil] an officer, striking his head with the butt end of a rifle. An armed male Sinn Feiner in uniform confronted a wounded officer and said: "You are not werth a cartridge. I'll settle vou with a butt." Thereupon lie clubbed the officer upon the head.

Galway and Wexford remain the most seriouE centres of unrest. Galway town was the scene of fighting, out the'troops have the upper hand. The police at Athesry occupied the town, but the rebels hold thq ruined castle.

A REBEL 'PROCLAMATION. London, May 1. A rebel proclamation states:— "In the name of God and the dead generations whence Ireland received her traditions »f nationhood we summon Ireland's children to strike for freedom. Haying waited for the right moment, trained our manhood through the secret revolutionary organisation, threugh the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army Ireland strike? with full confidence of victory, supported by her exiled children in America and her gallant allies in Europe."

The proclamation claims the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, the unfettered control of Irish destinies "to 'be sovereign and indefeasible.

A DRAMATIC SURRENDER,

THE WHITE FLAG APPEARS.

Received May 2, 10.40 p.m. London, May I. The rebels first offer to surrender came dramatically. At 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, as the cordon slowly closed on the rebels' main strongholds in the Sackville Street area, suddenly a white flag appeared above the smoke at the Post Office, and Pearce and Connolly, who is badly wounded, emerged and signed an unconditional surrender. SACKVILLE STREET IN ASHES. Half of Sackville Street is in ashes, the handsome shops and business houses being in ruins. Almost the only things untouched are the monuments. HUNDREDS OF DEATHS. The deaths number hundreds. The roofs of Four Courts are littered with bodies. GERMAN REPORTS. ' Among the insurgents the first step was the circulation of reports that Verdun had fallen, that Holland had declared war on Britain, and that the British fleet had been defeated in the North Sea, losing eighteen ships to Germany's eight. These fabrications were issued in a broadsheet, which also asserted that the troops in Ireland had been everywhere repulsed, and that the populace were siding with the republicans.

THE END OF THE TROUBLE. The military declare that the Sinn Fein sharpshooters were remarkably accurate in tlie early stag-es of the conflict.

The rebels ate the best meals obtainable at the hotels.

The lrpt rebel fortress, Jacob's biscuit factory, was captured on Sunday, being finally subdued by the artillery,