NEW SENSATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 May 1922, Page 5

NEW SENSATION.

RAIDS ON BANKS. ROBBERY BY ARMED MEN. THOUSANDS STOLEN. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received May 2, 5.5 p.m. London, May 1. Armed irregulars with a motor lorry drew up in front of the Bank of Ireland at Mitchelstown and demanded all the moneys. The officials handed over £lO,OOO, and the leader gave a receipt and drove off. Armed men also raided banks at Ennis, Westport, Sligo, Ballinrobe, and Claremonts. They held up the staffs and carried off in motor cars sums aggregating over £20.000. The railway between Carrick-on-Suir and Waterford has been torn up, while the roads in the same district have been trenched and blocked by trees. Protestant refugees from County Cork are arriving in Belfast. Except assassinations, the bank robberies have been the most sensational incidents since the inception of the rebellion. More than £60,000 has been carried off. including Sligo £14,000, Wesford £lO,OOO, Ballina £lO,OOO, and Limerick £3,500. The sums stolen at Ennis, Waterford, Tralee and Mallow are considerable, but the amount is not stated. Oh?y one case of violence occurred, when Gardiner, a bank agent at Westport, resisted the robbers. Mutineers seized the offices of the Dublin Port Dock Board, which commands O’Connell Bridge. TO AVOID CONFLICT. PLAN TO UNITE ARMIES. AN APPEAL ISSUED. Received May 2, 5.5 p.m. -London, May 1. An interesting document has been issued, signed by representatives of the regulars, including Mr. Michael Collins, and the irregular sections of the Irish army, appealing for the closing of ranks to avoid a conflict, and suggesting the unification of forces on a basis of an acknowledgment of the majority of the Irish to accept the treaty. Mr. de Valera simultaneously issued a statement that Mr. Arthur Griffith’s proposals for a peace conference involved acceptance of / partition. Mr. de Valera’s proposal was that the treaty should be referred to the people at the expiration of six? months, during which the army would be unified, the Dail Eireann to be kept in session and adult suffrage passed. There were certain flights, he added, which the minority were justified in defending by force c-f arms.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. A DISGUISED OBJECTIVE. BLOCKING COMMUNICATIONS. Received May 2, 8.10 p.m. London, May 2. Latest reports from Dublin indicate that intense preparations are being made for some unknown objective*. Railway and road communication in some places has been cut off. Trains from Tipperary and Thurles were held up amidst scenes of the greatest excitement. Roads in the vicinities of Ballybrophy. Limerick, Templemore and Clonmel are blocked. Two mansions at Castlebar and Roxborough were seized and the owners evicted. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.