IRISH BORDER.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1922, Page 5

IRISH BORDER.

SNIPING CONTINUES.. ‘ | QUESTION OF CONTROL. CORDON OF TROOPS NEEDED By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received March 23, 7.50 p.m. London; March 22. Considerable sniping is going on along the Irish frontier. The border commissioners, who are British officers, are powerless to stop sniping, which is done chiefly from houses against the Ulster outposts. Ulster men de not return the fire, which is accurate, as the Sinn Feiners are evidently in possession of up-to-date telescopic sights. Commandant Roderick O’Connor, attached to the headquarters of the Republican Army, interviewed, said that eighty per cent, of the army considered the Dail Eireann had no moral right to vote for the Treaty. Questioned if the army executive would refuse to consent to.a Government set up by the people and would set up a military dictatorship, O’Connor said: “Call it what you like.” Mr. Winston Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons, said he thought the, whole question of the measures necessary to control the border must be reviewed at an early date by the Government. Meanwhile, nothing was more important than that a meeting should take place between the heads of the Northern and Southern Governments. It was a question whether a cordon of troops should not be placed between the two countries.

DE VALERA BEATEN. PREVENTION OF FRONTIER WAR. WOULD SECURE TREATY ACCEPTANCE. Received March 23, 8.30 p.m. London, March 22. The Government was defeated by 42 to 40 in the House of Lords on* Lord Dufferin’s amendment providing that the British Government shall definitely guarantee compensation to civil servants in the Irish Free State. Viscount Peel said the officials had a Government guarantee, but it would be foolish to put it into a Bill, because it would be an invitation to the Free State Government to repudiate their liability. .Lord Birkenhead said that all information which the Government had, showed that De Valera was a beaten man, and if they could only prevent civil war on the frontier the treaty would be accepted by Ireland by a larger majority than it secured in the British Parliament. The committee stage of the Bill has concluded.