IRISH PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1921, Page 5

IRISH PROBLEM.

DELICATE SITUATION. SECRECY OBSERVED. TEST IN THE COMMONS. By Telegraph—Press Association. London. Oct. 30. Lord Robert Cecil has given notice of an amendment to the Diehards’ motion declaring that: “While it deplores the Government’s lack of policy in Ireland during the last three years the House is of opinion that the breaking off of negotiations at the present stage is likely to increase the dangers and difficulties of tne situation.”

It is possible the Speaker will not accept the amendment in order to insure the motion being dealt with. The British political situation continues most obscure. The Irish Conference, though in existence, is believed to hang by a thread. Such secrecy is being maintained that even Sinn Feiners in Dublin are complaining that they are unable to speak, act or think, owing to their ignorance of events in London.

The Irish delegation, regarding the situation as precarious, have forwarded an important statement to Mr. De Valera in Dublin, where the Sinn Fein secret convention terminated yesterday. Nobody fears that the Diehards jvill succeed in their censure motion, but it is asserted in some well-informed quarters that if the motion were less sweeping it wouid win the support of a majority of the Conservative members of the House, wno dislike Mr. Lloyd George and hate his policy. The Sunday Express declares that the Premier has two alternatives. ULSTER UNDER ARMS. VOLUNTEERS IN BELFAST. Received Oct. 31, 9 p.m. London, Oct. 31. The Ulster volunteers have reappeared in Belfast, marching through the city unarmed and accompanied by an armoured car. This Is the first intimation that the Ulsterites have resumed drilling and training.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. NEGOTIATIONS OPPOSED. REBELS’ CRIMES RECALLED. Received Oct. 31, 9 p.m. London, Oct. 31. The Morning Post is the only newspaper to bitterly oppose the negotiations with Sinn Fein, and devoted more than two pages on Monday to reciting the various outrages during the past three years. This, on the morning of the House of Commons debate, is a most significant attempt to array for public consumption all the facts upon ■which the opponents of Mr. Lloyd George’s policy rely. The newspaper deals at length with the Dublin rebellion of 1916, the details of the attempt to assassinate Lord, French in Phoenix Park in December, 1919, and bitterly denounces the subsequent silence of the Press. Referring to the Irish delegates to the London conference, it says that the men who were doing all these devillish things are now the honored guests of the Coalition Government. The paper describes Mr. Griffiths as a moderate, whose chief weapon is his pen.

PRISON FORCE SUPPLEMENTED. Received Oct. 31, 7.35 p.m. London, Oct. 29. The correspondent of the Morning Post alleges that the permanent staff at Mountjoy prison has been supplemented by a small force of auxiliaries, whose officer reports that the prison is in grave danger, owing to the relaxation of discipline since the truce. Visitors are searched in such a cursory manner that it is an easy task to smuggle arms. The prisoners, who are a formidable lot of men, are commanded by one of themselves in each ward, and daily drilled and trained in physical exercises. They show their contempt by refusing to obey the regulations. Large rebel camps, at such points as Raheny, Clontarf and Houtb, are continually reinforced by conscripted youths, who are regularly trained and drilled with machine-guns and other

arms. Colonel Crisp, director of the Arsenal dub, reminds the public that, under the act of James I. their presence at football matches involves a liability to fine and imprisonment.