OUTRAGE IN TRALEE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1939, Page 5

OUTRAGE IN TRALEE

ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP HOTEL PRIME MINISTER’S SON A GUEST. TERRIFIC EXPLOSION. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. (Received This Day, 9 a.m.) LONDON, January 19. A severe explosion occurred at 3 a.m. in a private hotel at Tralee, in Ireland, in which Mr Frank Chamberlain, the Prime Minister’s son, is spending a holiday. Mr Chamberlain was not injured. A woman guest at the hotel was blown out of bed by the concussion and the streets were littered with broken glass. The explosive apparently was secreted in a cul-de-sac, despite the vigilance of Mr Chamberlain’s escorting detectives and other members of the police force in nearby streets.

A most intensive police search has been started in County Kerry and the neighbouring districts, in which there is widespread public indignation at the latest outrage.

Mr Frank Chamberlain is aged 24. After leaving Cambridge University he joined Kynoch’s ammunition factory in Birmingham. He is also a noncommissioned officer in a Territorial anti-aircraft battery. He arrived at Tralee on Monday for a shooting holiday and had been continually guarded by three detectives, who also followed him, in a motor-car, when he went out on his expeditions. Mr Chamberlain was not perturbed and departed on a shooting excursion at 6 a.m.

The authorities are working on the assumption that the outrage is the work of the Irish Republican Army. A Civil Guard says he found the remains of a crude, home-made time bomb, similar to those recently discovered in England and it is believed the attempt was seriously intended. A resident described the report as, terrific. It rocked all the houses in the neighbourhood and dislodged ceilings, throwing sleepers out of their beds. OFFICIAL STATEMENT REPORT BY IRISH CIVIL GUARDS. “EXPLOSION SCARCELY HEARD IN HOTEL.” (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, January 19. According to an official statement issued in Dublin following an inquiry by the Civic Guards, a small quantity of explosive material inserted in a pound tobacco tin, was placed in a hole in a wall about twelve yards from the hotel. The explosion was scarcely heard in the hotel itself. The damage caused was limited, amounting to the dislodgment of a small portion of the wall and the breaking of windows in the immediate vicinity. The hotel itself was not damaged.