LIFE OF PANIC.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1920, Page 5

LIFE OF PANIC.

IRISH NATION'S FEARS. COUNTRY OF MUCH TRAGEDY. By Telegraph.—Press Asan.—Copyright. London, Nov. 20. A Times • special correspondent, travelling in Ireland, telegraphs a gloomy picture of existing conditions. Everybody is leading a life of panic; it has become a nation of whispers; no man trusts his neighbor and dares not discuss the daily horrors publicly for fear of being overheard. Men go to bed at nights fearing that the dreadful summons may thunder at the door during the hours of darkness. Hardly an evening passes without the sound ol shooting. Grim warning letters ana other alarming threats are merely commonplace.

Everywhere one may find people cruelly knocked about, thrown in rivers, or their houses burned about their ears. Every night thousands. sleep in the fields, hedges and haystacks, fearing to return home, or else lie cowering abed expecting death. This is in a Christian country in the 20th century. All sections are sick of the unbearable suffering and nightmare of terror. The mass of the people no longer trusts the Government and looks wistfully to the sister Me and the ;ry, "If only people in England knew," is heard everywhere. The correspondent believes that if the House of Commons passed a liberal Home Rule Bill with special Ulster provisions and submitted it to a secret Irish ballot, ensuring freedom from Sinn Fein terrorism, it would command a 75 per cent majority. A Dublin correspondent states that intense national despondency lias been caused by the Liverpool incendiarism. All parlies, including the Roman Catholic hierarchy, desire a truce of God, but such appears unlikely to he forthcoming unless the bishops make a move, which is not probable. The railway situation is unchanged, only one main line train leaving Dublin daily. The authorities are enrolling 3000 special constables in Belfast and quadrupling the police strength.—Times.

PATROL AMBUSHED. A FIGHT TO TH.E END. London, Nov. 29. Seventy to a hundred Sinn Feincrs were engaged in the Kilmichael ambush. They caught the "black and taii3" in a hilly district and also broke up a portion of the road, making it impossible for the lorries to escape, with the result that the vehicles were brought to a standstill, while an intense fire was opened upon the occupants from all sides. The patrol was completely outnumbered and in the darkness it was impossible to locate the attackers. The patrol fought to the end. but it was a murderous affair. Finally all were killed and the lorries burnt. The ''black and tans" left Macroom in two lorries. Immediately the first lorry came within range it was subjected to a rain of bullets. The second lorry, opened fire, but had little effcrt upon the volleys of the attackers. The occupants tried to take cover. All the "black and tans" in the first lorry were soon dead. The others brav»ly defended themselves, but the Sinn Fein markmanship was too true. When the Sinn Feiners found the "black and tans" were not replying they crept up to the lorries and found only one uninjured man, also one desperately wounded who died soon afterwards. The rest were dead. A search party was sent out from Macroom and found 16 dead on the road.

Macroom is now isolated, business is at a standstill and all the, shops closed. People are leaving the locality fearing reprisals. A number of the smaller shops in the district have already been burnt down. Large parties of auxiliary troops are parading the town as a precaution against further reprisals. Received Dec. 1, 9.40 p.m. London, Dec. 1.

The bodies of the Macroom dead are nearly al) mutilated, apparently with a hatchet, and are unrecognisable,

SINN FEINERS SHOT. Received Dae. 1. 7.20 p.m. London, Nov. 30. Three Sinn Fe'mers were allot dead at Ardee.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. "'AN INFURIATED NATION." Received Dec. 1, 0.40 p.m. London, Dec. 1. I Archbishop Mannix, speaking at a I gathering of Cathloic clergy at New- [ castle, said the British Cabinet was not fighting a gang of murderers, hut an infuriated nation. If some Irishmen in England and Ireland went over the border of God's law he hoped God would forgive, remembering their suffering was exhausted.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. FIRES TN NEWSPAPER OFFICES. London, Nov. 20. An outbreak of incendiary occurred in newspaper offices in Dublin. Masked and armed men entered the offices of Freeman's Journal, holding up the staff with revolvers while fires were started. Considerable damage was done. A similar outbreak occurred in the premises of the Irish Times and the Sinn Fein Bank, which was burned