SINN FEIN ACTIVITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 November 1917, Page 3

SINN FEIN ACTIVITIES.

jMILITARV KEEPING A FIRM HAND. NO DRILLING ALLOWED. The Sinn Fein party in Ireland it; extending its activities, and is forming local clubs everywhere throughout the country (says a recent despatch from Dublin to the New York Evening post). It remains, however, rather a pervading sentiment than a definite organisation. It is impossible to say which individuals are the authorised exponents of its purposes, and there is a good deal of divergence both of tone and substance between the various pronouncments made from its 'platforms. Some speakers continue to preach revolution by armed force, while others appear to aim at a programme much nearer the limits of practical politics. The Associated Press correspondent has talked with some who ar o verv influential in the movement, to whom a free Ireland under the Crown is a welcome idea, provided that it does not mean subjection to a British Cabinet. This is not so very far from the home rule that Canada enjoys. The great bulk of Ihe support given at the elections to Sinn Fein candidates comes rather from men dissatisfied with the conduct of current politics and the necessary restrictions of the war, than from those who adhere, either in principle or practice to methods of violence. ' HOPE IN OUTCOME OP CONVENTION. There is a continuously hopeful feeling that the Irish convention may hammer out a good, workable scheme of selfgovernment, and the conviction is growing that if it does produce an acceptable plan the irreconcilables will be left without followers. Meanwhile the military authorities are treating the situation on the assumption'ij that the extremists mean what they say They are, in fact, calling the bluff. So". long as there is the threat of another rebellion they take the threat seriously ■and seem determined to make very clear from the outset the hopelessness of repeating the wild experience of Easter, week, 1010. * The policy of tho authorities, as evinced by their acts, is now diametrically opposed to that pursued in the early months of 1910. The armed volunteers were allowed to drill and assemble where they pleased, to march uninterruptedly in military order through the streets, and even to carry out evolutions and' manoeuvres directed against the Castle and other public buildings. There was then no display of troops and nothing to show tli* revolutionaries that they would have to face any formidable opposition. On the Easter Monday there were hardly any soldiers in Dublin barracks, the general in command wa? away on a holiday, and the officers went ofl' to the races. The present policy has swung to the opposite pole. Drilling is absolutely prohibited, and those who engage in it are conrt-martialled and sent to gaol. Arms have been seized everywhere, and ,even the hurley sticks are not allowed ,to be curried, as was becoming frequent in processions. MEETINGS ARE FORBfDDEN. Where a meeting seems to the military likely to lead to trouble it is proclaimed, a familiar thing in Ireland. Hundreds of meetings were proclaimed during the .land agitation, but they were always held just the same. Now, the military not. only proclaim, meetings, but show that they are able and determined .to enforce their proclamation. In an account of the proclaimed meeting at Mitchelstown, published in Dublin, it is stated that a large force of military was taken into the town, with armored cars, machine guns, and a, motor ambulance. Naturally, the proclamation so backed was quite effective, and Laurence Ginnell, who was to have addressed the meeting, moved his platform to another town eight miles away. These proceedings are viewed variously hy different sections of Irish opinion. On the one hand they arc regarded as unnecessarily provocative. On the other, it is urged that in face of repeatad threats of a fresh rebellion it is the duty of the Government to run no risks, and by a display of force in time to obviate tho need for employing it subsequently. The military of Ireland are now under the command of a distinguished Irish soldier, General Sir Bryan Mahon. He is a man of popular sympathies, and regarded as personally quite incapable of desiring to make trouble.