§ Mr. T. P. O'CONNOR(by Private Notice) asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether incendiary fires are still continuing in the city of Cork; whether his attention has been called to the report just published of Captain Hudson, superintendent of the Cork fire brigade, in which that gentleman describes how he and his men were fired upon several times when they were going to quench these fires; whether the Government will see that this constant and wholesale destruction of property in the city of Cork will be immediately brought to an end?
I have had a letter, received from Cork, since I gave notice of this question, saying that
last night being Saturday night was the worst we have had in Cork. It was a veritable hell. Innumerable bombs and shots.—[HON. MEMBERS: "Order!"]—I think it is part of the question—Five houses were burned and others broken into. The Black and Tans remained out, but the military went in at three o'clock.
§ Mr. HENRYI only received notice of this question at 20 minutes past one. I am quite unable to give the hon. Member the information for which he asks in the first part of the question. In reference to the second part of the question, I have not seen the report of Captain Hudson, superintendent of the Cork fire brigade, but, as was stated to the hon. Member yesterday, it was reported to the police that in one instance the fire brigade alleged that they were fired upon and sought for 1424 special police protection which was at once given them in the discharge of their duties. With reference to the last part of the question, the police report that they are unable to ascertain who is responsible for setting these premises on fire, but they have done everything in their power to assist to put out the fires.
§ Mr. O'CONNORIs it not a fact that these fires in spite of the scantiness of the reports of the Government are still going on and that some houses were burned yesterday, and is it the policy to allow the whole of the City of Cork, one of the three important cities of Ireland, to be burned to the ground?
§ Mr. HENRYI have already told my hon. Friend that it is impossible in the time which he allows us to give an answer to these questions at the present time with reference to places so far distant as the city of Cork.
§ Mr. O'CONNORHave not these incendiary fires been going on day by day and night after night for nearly a fort night, and does not the Government think that such a continuation of the gradual destruction by fire of the city of Cork—
§ Mr. O'CONNOR—requires prompt action on the part of the Government? With regard to the interruption in reference to Liverpool, I am just as much opposed to arson by any person in any part of the world as I am in Cork.