IRISH WARFARE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1922, Page 5

IRISH WARFARE.

PEACE BY FORCE. PROGRESS OF TROOPS. MORE REBEL DEFEATS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received July 31, 5.5 p.m. London, July 30. News from Ireland’*? battlefront indicates that the Free Staters are surely if slowly completing the task of enforcing peace. The cost of success is, nevertheless, heavy, especially during the week-end, when they lost several useful officer®, including Commandants Maccurtain and Cllissen. who were ambushed near Maryborough while racing to the assistance of Free Staters who were attacked by an overwhelming force of rebels. Twenty-eight rebels captured possessed "dum-dums” and explosive ammunition. An official bulletin states the Free Staters have captured an important line along the Maigue River from Shannon to Charleville, making the rebel stronghold at Kilmallock untenable. The rebels are admittedly strongest in this : area and they mustered their best fightI ing material. The Limerick communij cations have again been cut off. Free Staters are attacking Cashel, i where fighting is heavy. The rebels have been ejected from Athlaca and i they hold only Kilrush, in County Clare. ■ Their headquarters are now in the bleak i Clare mountains. The majority of , their leaders are in Galway gaol. The i Free Statens have recovered all County i Galway, south of the railway from ; Ballinasloe to Galway.

PLUNDER AND MURDER. THREAT TO A TOWN. Received July 31, 5.5 p.m. London. July 30. Cardinal Logue has threatened to excommunicate the whole town of Dundalk unless the disgraceful plunder and murder campaign ceases immediately. WANTON DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. London, July 30. Fighting in the south-west of Ireland is developing slowly but surely. There are indications that the Irregulars are making a strong effort to arrest the march of the Nationals upon Cork. Numerous (bands of Irregulars were driven out of Buree, after a stiff resistance and 20 were taken prisoner. Fighting continues in mid-Tipperary. At Cashel thp Nationals took 26 prisoners and an armoured car.

It is persistently rumoured that de Valera has sailed for America to raise further funds. Latest advices, however, state that he is commanding the line Clonmel to Waterford. This position is menaced from several points. Substantial Irregular assistance is expected in the triangle formed by the three strong military centres, Buttevant, Mallow and Fermoy. The Nationalists are now attacking Kilmallock and Charleville. There has been an outbreak in West Clare. A Protestant church has been burned and a farmer murdered.

The wanton destruction of property has evoked a growing pubic demand for penalties on the wreckers. The Government has appealed to the population to help in the prevention of crime bv capturing the wreckers. The parish priest of Wexford, who marshalled his whole flock to clear- the roads showed the right way. As the result of ambushes and mine explosions at Maryborough ten Irish Nationalists troops, including two Colonel Commandants, were killed and ten wounded. Eighteen Irregulars were captured. Mr. Jeffries, writing in the Daily Mail utters a warning against the expectation that the fall of Cork will spell a settlement of the Irish question. Irish questions, like ill-health, only dissipate gradually and insensibly. The Republican aim is, by a policy of perpetual and ! continuous interference in the civil life ■ and business of the country, by minor iaids burnings and snipings, to fatigue the hostile majority of the Irish people into acceptance of the Republican programme for the sake of peace and to rrtisom the country from ruin, also to fatigue the English people into washing ! their hands of the problem. ! This plan has very little to do with ! war proper. Troops can do something i aaginst it, the police more, but only the people at large can bring it to naught. Only when the people themselves turn round and expel the rebels will the Free State take shape as an edifice. Troops may lay the foundation, but only the public can build.