§ Mr. T. P. O'CONNOR(by Private Notice) asked the Chief Secretary whether he has seen the statement that on Monday and Tuesday last a large force of Auxiliaries held up the main streets of Cork, searching every passer-by and relieving some of them of money; whether it is true that the Auxiliaries rushed into three shops on Monday night, looted them, smashed their contents and the furniture in the houses attached; whether one of the shopkeepers who went to protest to the Labour Commission was arrested by an officer of the Auxiliaries; whether a party of Auxiliaries in Washington Street rushed into the shop of Mr. J. Cudmorc, rifled the till, smashed up the place generally, breaking plate-glass windows and glass shelves; whether they afterwards went up to the living rooms, destroying mirrors, chairs, and pictures, and throwing loose articles of furniture about; whether in the tobacco and sweet shop of Mr. Kenny, an invalid man, the Auxiliaries ransacked the till and took tobacco, and then went upstairs and ransacked the living rooms; whether on Monday afternoon, in Lower Glanmire Road, John Fleming, who was returning from work with two brothers and a friend, was shot in the abdomen by police in lorries; whether the Chief Secretary can say when the incendiary fires and the other forms of terrorism in Cork will be brought to an end?
§ Mr. HENRYI have communicated with the Police Authorities who informed me that the Auxiliaries conducted a general search of people in the streets of Cork on Monday and Tuesday, but that the allegation of theft of money, or any other property, is entirely untrue. The three shops which were raided on Monday night were raided because the police had 2085 been fired upon in the vicinity, and were endeavouring to find and arrest their assailants. The allegations of looting and of wanton destruction of property in this case, and in the other cases referred to, are absolutely unfounded. The shopkeeper who was arrested while on his way to complain to the Labour Commission was arrested on account of his using insulting and inflammatory language to the Auxiliary officers in question. Mr. Fleming was not shot by the police, who have been unable up to the present to ascertain by whom he was shot. Three police lorries passed at the time, but the sergeants in charge deny that any one of their men fired, and the ammunition was carefully checked on their return to barracks and found to be correct. The locality is a very bad one, and it is not unlikely that the shot was intended for the police and hit Fleming by mistake. As regards the last part of the question, the district inspector states that there have been no incendiary fires in Cork City this week.
§ Mr. O'CONNORMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether the statements I have set forth in my question have not appeared in responsible and respectable English journals, and whether, if these statements be, as the right hon. and learned Gentleman asserts, entirely unfounded, they are not calculated to produce very evil results in Ireland, and whether under these circumstances the Attorney-General will not feel it his duty to take the same criminal proceedings before a court-martial in Ireland against these English journals as he has been taken against the "Freeman's Journal" in Dublin?
§ Mr. HENRYThe reason was explained last night to my hon. Friend as to what makes the difference between England and Ireland. I have been asked to give the information, which I have already given, and if the hon. Member has any further questions, and will submit the names of the journals I will consider them.
§ Mr. O'CONNORIf I give the right hon. and learned Gentleman the name of the journal now, which I do—the "Manchester Guardian"—having that information now in his possession, will he immediately initiate the proceedings, which ought to be as necessary in the case of an 2086 English paper with a large circulation as in the case of an Irish paper with a large circulation?
Mr. THORNEIs there any difference between the law of sedition in England and the law of sedition in Ireland? [HON. MEMBERS: "Yes, all the difference.']
§ Mr. HENRYNot that I am aware of, but naturally there is the Restoration of Order Act in Ireland and not in England.
§ Mr. O'CONNORIs the real reason why the right hon. Gentleman does not prosecute the "Manchester Guardian" that in England he would have to bring the paper before a jury, and in Ireland he would have to bring it before a court-martial?