REIGN OF TERROR.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 May 1921, Page 5

REIGN OF TERROR.

IRISH MURDER CAMPAIGN.

OUTRAGES IN ENGLAND.

MANY DEATHS IN IRELAND.

PLANS FOR TERRORISING LONDON.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn - -Copyright. Received May 17, 7.30 p.m. London, May 15.

Week-end conflicts in Ireland resulted in thirty-three deaths, the highest recorded.

The outrages, which occurred in Ireland, Liverpool and London, included an attempt to murder Sir Hamar Greenwood (Chief Secretary for Ireland). Rebels fired a volley into his motor-car, but Sir Hamar Greenwood was not inside. The driver of the car had a

narrow escape. Sinn Feiners also started fires in big oil stores at Woolwich, but the prompt arrival of the brigade prevented the flames spreading.

Considerable damage was done by a similar fire at oil stores in Bethnal Green, where a number of small tenements were damaged. A tennis club pavilion at Trinity Rise, Herne Hill, was also burned.

The police made a number of raids this evening on Sinn Fein resorts in London, including the headquarters of the Irish Self-Determination League, where a number of documents were found shoeing a close connection between the league and the Irish Repulican Army. Several arrests were made, including a leader named Joseph O’Connor. The police also secured evidence that Sinn Fein planned a campaign of terrorism in London during the next few weeks, especially by arson. At St. Albans Sinn Feiners entered a boarding-house and shot and severely wounded a man named Ashby, an exmember of the Irish constabulary, and they also shot and wounded his wife. The raiders escaped.

CONFLICTS IN IRELAND.

Father O’Callaghan was fatally shot by armed men at his residence in Cork.

Ambushers fatally shot District Inspector Blake, Mrs. Blake, Captain Cornwallis, and Lieutenant McUreery, near Gort, Galway, as they were motoring homewards after a social visit.

Thirty armed men attacked six unarmed soldiers walking on the road near Bantry, and killed three and wounded a fourth. A policeman was ■ wounded after leaving mass at Bansha. A party of Sinn Feiners fired a volley at a motor ear in Limerick and killed District-Inspector Briggs, whose body was riddled with bullets. Miss Barrington, daughter of Sir Charles Barrington, Bart., who was with two other ladies and an officer in a car, was wounded. A big force of Republicans attacked barracks in Clonakilty, Bandon and Courtmasherry (Cork) simultaneously. The fighting at Bandon was particularly severe, police and soldiers s,weeping the streets with machine-gun fire.

Private Shepherd, who was a member of a party guarding police and soldiers playing football, was shot dead. Three Sinn Feiners murdered HeadConstable Bensen at Colee, firing into his body while he was prostrate. Intermittent firing occurred in Tralee throughout the night. A sharp fight took place in Dublin after a bomb was,flung into a military lorry. Another lorry came up, and soldiers alighted and fired into the party who flung the bomb, wounding several.

FIRES IN LIVERPOOL.

Motor bandits, believed to be Sinn Feiners, raided Liverpool during the night, setting fire to dwelling houses in various parts of the city, the contents of several being entirely destroyed. The men numbered fifty, and worked in gangs.

In one case an old man grappled with the raiders, and almost strangled one, when another bandit forced him to release his hold by threatening him with a revolver. In another fiouse a Zeebrugge hero flung a sewing machine at the bandits, who fled. No arrests have been made.

In connection with the Sinn Fein raids in London, in several cases they left bottles of petrol in a garden or about the house, and in some cases revolvers and life preservers, Most of the men spoke with an Irish accent. Generally the damage was not serious, and the fires were quickly extinguished. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

ATTACK ON GAOL FAILS.

ATTEMPT TO RELEASE GRIFFITH.

London, May 14 (Delayed)

Thirty Sinn Feiners, after a fight in which one soldier was wounded, seized a military armed car which was awaiting meat supplies at the abattoir, Dublin. Two Sinn Feiners, wearing the uniforms of British officers, were driven in the car to Mountjoy prison and presented to the Governor a forged document demanding that the prisoner Griffith, vicePresident of the Republic, be handed over.

The Governor refused, doubting the genuineness of the document. The intruders drew revolvers, overpowered, blindfolded and tied up the Governor and his assistant and locked them in the room. Other Sinn Feiners, who were waiting in the car, rushed the warders at the gate, intending to rescue Griffith, but an alarm was given and the intruders retreated under fire. They escaped in the car, which was subsequently found outside Dublin with the guns removed.