IRISH CONSCRIPTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 May 1918, Page 3

IRISH CONSCRIPTION.

FEELING IN BELFAST. FIGHTING IN THE STREETS. ■London, April' 2.3. Belfast shipyard workers and discharged soldiers broke up an Irish Labor party's anti-conscription meeting outside, the City Hall. The chairman was struck on the head with a board. The leaders were compelled to take refuge in shops, the interrupters cheering 'and singing "Rule Britannia 7 ' and waving Union Jacks. Subsequently, street disturbances took place. There was a lot of stone-throwing and revolver firing. The police quickly quelled the outbreak. The Anti-Conscription Conference in Dublin showed a unanimity of feeling. The first significant decision was the immediate dispatch of a deputation, including the Lord Mayor, Mr Dillon (Nationalist leader), Mr de Valora. (Sinn Fein leader), Mr Healy and Mr O'Brien (Independents), to consult a concurrent conference of the hierarchy at Maynootli, after which the Dublin Conference will reassemble and discuss a fighting campaign. Correspondents report that the agitation all over the country is intensifying daily. The correspondent of the Westminster Gazette states that Ulster men no longer pretend to support enlistment. There was a unique spectacle at Bally Castle, where Orangemen, Hibernians and Sinn Feiners, wearing their insignia, were in the same procession, held in connection with a protest against conscription. Bands alternately played '"Boyne AA'ater" and Nationalist airs. ■< Protestant archbishops appealed {o the clergy cheerfully to accept conscription. The Times correspondent at Dublin states that the Nationalist leaders endorsed the Dublin Corporation's approval of the stoppage of work, which was ■lntended to be impressive proof of solii darity, and, presumably, a warning of Ireland's capacity to make trouble. A Dublin message states that the stoppage was complete. This was in complete contrast to Belfast. where the workers did not respond to the trade council's declaration of a holiday. All the shipyards, munition factories, businesses, trains and tramways were carrying on. Theatres, picture halls and hotels were open.