RAIDS-IN ERIE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1940, Page 5

RAIDS-IN ERIE

MANY I.R.A. MEMBERS ROUNDED UP GOVERNMENT BITTERLY CRITICISED. COUNTRY THREATENED WITH ANARCHY. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. DUBLIN, January 5. Even before Parliament granted powers for internment without trial, a big round-up of members of the I.R.A. began with 20 arrests in Cork. Thomas Mac Curtain was remanded at a special sitting of the Cork Court on a charge of murder. Mac Curtain’s father was shot dead in his home in 1920. He was Lord Mayor of Cork. Police and soldiers carried out raids throughout the country, seeking prominent Republicans, who need not be released before the new measure becomes operative. Simultaneously the Government imposed serious restrictions on the import or export of documents and pictures. Mr de Valera told the Senate: "We can handle the situation by force if necessary. The people's will must be carried out.” The Constitution would be altered if the Act were unconstitutional. The Dail passed the second antiTerrorist Bill and the Senate passed both. Ulster posted 5000 special constables, each with a rifle and a revolver along the frontier after Wednesday’s Dail statement that Republicans planned to invade Ulster. IVlucn of the ammunition which was stolen in the Phoenix Park raid is believed to have been smuggled to Ulster. There was further bitter criticism of the Government when both Houses met to deal with measures for the suppression of terrorism. An Opposition speaker in the Dail said the Opposition would give the Government all the powers it wanted to deal with the situation, but could not give the Government the resolution and courage necessary to defend the liberties of the Irish people. The country faced the alternatives of the rule of law and order or of anarchy. The Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, Mr Frank Aiken, admitted that the Government had been too tender-hearted. The Minister of Justice. Mr Boland, in the Senate, said that whatever damage the army fort raid had done to the prestige of the Government it would open the people’s eyes to the danger confronting the State. General Richard Mulcahy urged Anglo-Eire co-operation to ensure that citizens of Eire were not allowed to damage property and endanger lives in Britain. TAKING NO CHANCES MINISTER’S DECLARATION. ANTICIPATIONS OF EARLY VIOLENCE. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) DUBLIN, January 5. Th& Senate passed the second Anti-Terrorist Bill, after Mr Boland had declared that: “We are not standing any more of this nonsense. The terrorists are nothing less than criminals. I don’t care whether .they are former colleagues of mine. Violence will be ended. We are afraid these men mean to do something very soon—hence the urgency. We can’t find the guns, but will do our utmost to hold the men who might lead the movement. We are taking no chances.” The police detained twenty-four people in Cork and charged one person under the new laws. In the course of the debate on the Emergency Powers Bill in the Eire Parliament, a radio message reports, the Minister of Justice declared that the I.R.A. was not very strong numerically. but was very highly organised and in possession of large sums of money, arms, and explosives. He said that one man was found to have nearly 8000 American dollars.