IRISH SITUATION.

Wairarapa Age, 30 March 1920, Page 5

IRISH SITUATION.

Sinn Feiners Active.

POLICE BARRACKS DESTROYED.

(By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian-N.Z. uabie Association.) Received Last Niglit, 8.35 o'clock. ' LONDON, (March 28.

Sinn Feiners blew up the police barracks at Tournafulla, in County Limerick.

The premises were temporarily vacant.

ATROCITIES CONTINUE.

HOME RULE DEBATE.

Received Last Night, 11.30 o'clock. LONDON, March 29. The centre of interest in Irish affairs is moving to Westminster in view of to-day's debate on the Home Rule Bill. . Mr Clynes's motion for its rejection enables a straight vote to be taken on Home Rule. It iB expected that Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd George will speak on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the atrocities in Ireland are exciting intense feeling in Britain. Warnings of cortung assassination continue to be received. A Nationalist member of i the House of Commons received a. letter stating that his life was wanted "In the .cause of a free Ireland." Several prominent Sinn Feiners in Killygordon, County Donegal, had similar warnings with drawings of a coffin on the notices. Mr James McCarthy also received a threatening letter, though, he 'Was not a member of any political party, and some consider that his death was due to a private vendetta. When the knock came to, his door, he hesitated to open the door* directly. He gave his 'name to the knockers, and sho.ts were fired. He • fell, and his" sister cried out, "Poor Jimmie's 'murdered." As she rah out for a priest, a shot was aimed at her, but missed* Inside the house the dying man collapsed in tis brother's arms. The brother raised his liead saying, "Say to God you are sorry for your sins, and I will ask Him to let you into Heaven. I will say an act c\f contrition,' and let you think words." James was just cbriscious enough to* nod, and smil& feebly, and then died.

WORKERS' ARMY DEFEATED.

j A COMPLETE' ROUT. • ■ Received Last Night, 11.30, o/clock. • LONDON, March 29. The Daily ChronicleV correspondent in the Eastern Rhine zone givejs a iramatic description of the collapse Of the Workers' Army directly it c&me into conflict .with the disciplined, officered, and wetf-cquippcd Government forces. ' ■> < . ,"I joined the Red:' Army," he says, 'and a few hours lafer the left wing was broken, and the army was in pani'c-stricKen flight to Dinslalien, fourteen .miles northwest of Essen. I saw streets littered with* the , jetsam of ciyil war. A strange figure in the square was a Red Guard handing orders in envelopes to hia men. These formed a pitiful group, in ragged clothes, with boys of fiteen and old men, in its ranks. ■ "As the unit moved forward horsemen galloped in, pulled up in the centre of the roadway, and chifid- out! •'Turn back! Tell them that the Government is attacking and sending reinforcements.' The \\nit retreated until a cyclist rode up. kia eyes were wild and his face pale, 1 ' and - he> shrieked: 'Noske has broken through. Wo >are lost. We have no food or ammunition, and we are betrayed by our leaders!' . "The retreat ,wtts now. general. * ! A few grown men made a stand, but the majority fled, some youths slinking, away into the lanes.'' ' ; Other messages state that 4,000,000'. people in the Ruhr district are threatened with famine, as the Red Army consumed the last of the supplies, leaving the rest of the population nothing. The i supplies from Holland failed. ; . Fighting was verjj unfavourable for the Reds, whose battalions were only (kept together, by terrorism. Anyone suspected of having an idea of deserting was shot'immediately.