The Washington herald., 1914-04-26
ULSTER in gun
RUNNINGEXPLOIT
During Stiffness Of the Night,
Orangemen Perfect Dra-
matte Feat of Daring.
MASTER In SMUGGLING
Foil Watchful Foes. Secretly Obtaining
10000 Rifles and Mass Of
Ammunition.

London. April 25.-While Premier AS
quith and his government are being held
up to ridicule by the UnioRists who al
lege that they endeavored to force Ulster
to accept home rule by planning a mill
tary invasion OF the province. Ulster
Ioyalists today defied every law in the
constitution by an amazing gun-running
exploit.
No more sensational coup was ever at
tempted in the history of England; in
fact, the exploit eclipses the strangest
romance ever conceived by the most fer
tile novelist As a result of this dra-
matte action the Ulster defense force is
today richer by 7O,OOO rifles and 5.OOoOOj
rounds Of ammunition. Here is a broad
outline Of the bold and deliberate
scheme:
The Norwegian steamer Fanny. which
a month ago left Hamburg, had secretly
transferred to her a week later a full
cargo OF arms from a German lighter
OF the Danish Island LangeIand. Last
night the Fanny, after narrowly escaping
capture by British warships. arrived at a
rendezvous of the County Down coast
where she unlOaded her cargo Of arms
and ammunition to two smaller steamers.
and the other TO Bangor and Donaghadee
Work at BreaLnecE speed.
At these points numbers of Ulster vol
unteers were awaiting to act as steve
dores. When the vessel arrived they
hurriedIy unIOaded hundreds Of cases,
working at breakneck speed. More than
600 automobiles and motor lorries were
waiting at various points. and they were
soon loaded and dispatched at short in
tervals to secret destinations, where the
For this staggering coup every men,
ber of the Ulster volunteers modified
around Bangor. Larne. Ionaghadee. and
Belfast Lines OF piCkets were posted
and only those accredited lOyalists who
had the pass word and COuntersign were
allowed to arrive or depart All tele-
graphic or telephone communication was
cut of from the four towns. and only
the commanders OF the volunteers could
signal each other by means Of lighted
lanterns.
The police and customs officers in each
place were powerless The entire prov
ince was in the hands of the Ioyalists
all Of last night. BY morning all traces
OF the raid had disappeared. the wires
were restored. the volunteers demobil-
lied and the gained arms were safely
distributed in hundreds of different
caches.
Authorities Are FOIled.
At Belfast the authorities were COM
pletely deceived by a dccoy gun-running
vessel Hundreds of Ulster volunteers
were at the docks awaiting its arrival
with a large number of transport way
Ons as a blind. After the police had
kept an all-night vigil. the vessel WAS
found to contain nothing more dangerous
than coal. Only then did the police and
customs men realize that something else
was afloat. Then il was too late.
Now the police and the customs au-
thorities have been officially instructed
to locate the destination of the different
but they might as well try
to find a needle in several hay stacks.
This remarkable chapter in the story
of listers resistance had the effect of
bringing Premier Asquith hack to town
post haste from his country seat. The
premier had a long conference with
Irish Secretary BirreIl and various gen.
erals.
The developments will undoubtedly
stiffen Asquith's back, since he was as
sailed again on Monday in the Commons
with no less than las questions regard
ing the cabinets intention TO use the
army and navy to force Ulster to ac-
ccpt home rule.