IRELAND

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1921, Page 5

IRELAND

MARTIAL LAW EXTENDED. TO FOUR MORE COUNTIES, STEP TOWARDS PEACE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Jan. 5, 7.30 p.m. London, Jan. 4. Lord French has issued a proclamation from Dublin Castle which adds Counties Clare, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny to the four counties proclaimed under martial law on December 10. Archbishop thine has not sailed from London, he understanding that the authorities regarded it as essential that he should remain to assist in seeking an Irish settlement. It is reported to-day that Archbishop Clune’s activities led to preparations for calling the Dail Eireann, which is a definite step in the direction of peace.—Aus. and N.Z. Cable A-ssn. —7 REPRISALS CRITICISED. London, .Tan. 3. General Strickland’s order is described as a formal act of war, and is generally accepted as necessary, if unpleasant. While the Daily News denounces the “savage outrage on human decency,” the Westminster Gazette learns with dismay that “the mantle of military authority is to spread over reprisals.” It is noteworthy that .the radical Manchester Guardian describes the burnings as an entirely new and much more creditable procedure. It is admittedly rough and ready, but at least is not indiscriminate and is carried out openly by authority. The Guardian adds: “It shows what can be done by a man of character, who means to be obeyed; and, if the same method is persisted in and punishment inflicted only where it is ordered and believed to be deserved, the word reprisals will acquire a new meaning and the horrible scandals attaching to it will end.”—Reuter. [General Strickland ordered the destruction of seven houses at Middleton, near Queenstown, as a reprisal for an ambush of police, in %vhich Constable Mullins was killed and six others were wounded.] A TOWN FINED. London, Jan 4. The military have introduced a new method of punishing-disloyalty in Ireland. They fined the town of Fermey £lOO as a punishment for tearing down a proclamation.—Reuter. TIRED OF VIOLENCE. THE PENDULUM SWINGS. In Ireland there is a tendency to forget everything but old injuries and present woes, writes the Diblin correspondent of a London paper, under date November 4. What the Irish forget is the chance of making peace, and the fact that peace is always there if they care to seek it. The great bulk of the people want peace, and not politics on a murderbasis, but the bright green irreconcilables will not let their people rest. Yet there is hope dawning. If one reviews the last month one can see the beginning of the end. The outrages have not ceased, and will not cease for some time, but spontaneous local lawlessness is decreasing. The police forces are augmented at the rate of some 400 odd a week, and t above all, information is coming in at a steadily increasing rate. During the last month some notorious gunmen of the I.R.A. have been shot, more are in prison awaiting courtmartial, and more than a few have disappeared, either to far distant America or to some secret grave in the black peat bogs. Mr. Michael Collins, the Minister for Finance for the Republic and Adjutant-General of the 1.R.A., has had his multitudinous bank accounts seized, and a good many thousands of pounds of perfectly good .Republican money have passed into official hands.

VIOLENCE BEGETTING FORCE. Beyond this, the whispering voice of the Catholic Church is being raised against lawlessness. An ecclesiastic of eminence who has long been identified with the extremists of Sinn Fein has declared in open speech against outrage, and this is no mean sign and portent of the times. Violence has begotten force, and the game is irretrievably lost. The difficulty is the murder gangs “Let us all swing together'’ is their motto and their dominant policy. But the rank and file, whose hands are not yet stained with blood, are not too’ anxious to risk their necks. There are signs that the moderates are getting tired of the rule, of the murder gangs. Quite a number of prominent Sinn Feiners in different parts of the country have been * shot dead by groups of armed men who certainly did not belong to either the army or the R.I.C. WHAT WILL HAPPEN? At one town, where there had been a reprisal for a particularly callous murder of police, some of the murders who had escaped' returned when things quieted down. No fewer than 20 local people independently notified the authorities of the return of these young assassins, and begged to have them arrested before they could start more trouble. The Sinn Fein courts, about which so much was heard a month or two ago, are now practically a dead letter, and normal courts, which were deserted by the terrorised people, are now beginning to do a little business. These things are small things, but they show that a proportion of the people are beginning to see that Republicanism is a lost cause. There have been very few Irish recruits to the R.I.C. during the last three months, but last week recruiting suddenly took an upward hound, and more than a score of Irish recruits came in. In addition, ex-constables who resigned earlier in the year when the force was being slowly killed off by the murder gang, have applied for re-enlistment now that it has been reorganised as an efficient fighting force, and they see that the Government mean to stand no nonsense. The “war” will still go on, though, and, quite apart from the political settlement—whatever it may be—the business of hunting down the murderers of police and soldiers will continue. Al ready some of the worst men are awaiting trial. Slowly but surely the gunjam will meet their fata