IRELAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1918, Page 5

IRELAND.

SINN FEINERS' NEW POLICY. NATIONAL SABOTAGE. Received Sept. 24, 7.35 p.m. London, Sept. 23. The Times' Irish correspondent writes: Although arrests, searches, and boycotts continue, the condition of Ireland has immeasurably improved under Lord French's measures. The Sinn Fein are dropping the policy of organised lawlessness and are organising for the next general election. Their campaign is supported by ample funds, including the anti-conscription fund of a quarter of a million. It is intended to contest every Nationalist seat. The Nationalist party's prospects are most gloomy; their organisation has gone to pieces and they have no election funds. American subscriptions have entirely ceased. The majority in Ireland, fearing conscription, will vote Sinn Fein, which party is likely to gain fifty seats. The Nationalists are unlikely to return more than twentyfive, and some predict only eleven. After the election the Sinn Feiners propose to hold out till after the peace conference, meanwhile adopting a policy of national sabotage. The members elected are not going to Westminster, but will attempt to form an Irish Parliament, shrinking from violent conflict with the forces of the Crown, hut dislocating the machinery of the law in every possible way. Overtures with Labor suggest they are meditating the weapon of a general strike, and wili take every means to make Ireland ungovernable by the British Parliament, which will be glad to get rid of the Irish difficulty at any price.—Times Service.