The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-11-13
FEAR TROUBLE IN
 ARMING ULSTER
|, By D. O'CONNELL.

DQDlin, NOV. Iz - Ine great anu probably the only. argument against t giving Ireland self-government is Britain's fear of civil war in Ireland. English statesmen say in the event of the British army being withdrawn | Ulster would immediately refuse to recognize the National Parliament ir Dublin and immediately a reign of terror and civil war would commence if not in the whole of the country at least in the province of Ulster.
 But civil war is being openly or ganized here already. Carson's fol- lowers in the whole of Ulster are be- ing organized into special constables by the government, arms are to be distributed and everyone enrolled will be equipped with a rifle, bayonet,
 revolver and truncheon. Further, the
 government has guaranteed every one
 of them ten shillings a day, or two
 dollars, according to the present rate
 of exchange. While this one section
 is being armed in the North by Dublin
 Castle the authorities are imprisOning,
 shooting and deporting the Southern
 political section for doing exactly the same.
 A Northern Nationalist told me that the outcome of this alarming state of events is that the Catholics who live in the northeast corner about Belfast are clearing out of house and home. As soon as the new police force is on
 firm footing Nationalists life won't be worth an hour s purchase. Orangemen Immune.
 Already in the towns where sections of specials have been raised the Orangemen have become immune from punishment. In Lisburn the
 Magistrate sentenced a score of hooli- gans to three months imprisonment with hard labor for smashing, burn ing and footing Nationalist homes. The specials in a body refused to serve the warrants, and the guilty allowed to go unpunished. Furthermore, trials had to be withdrawn against other Carsonites on similar charges. In the borders of Cavan and around Cottehill the Carsonite policemen, l
 am told, are raising trouble for their
 Nationalist neighbors whose houses
 are fired into and their crops burned. l. I have the very best authority for saying that the prominent officials at Dublin Castle tried to persuade the British Premier from adopting thls | course. In 8 very clearly Worded | telegram dispatched to him at Swltz- ] erland the Castlec hiefs told MT. | Lloyd George that should the Union ! ists in Ulster be armed hundreds, il i not thousands, of inoffens1ve Nation alists in the province who had no con- ! nection with any revolutionary or | sanitation would love theier lives. The | Premier immediately cabled his 1 acknowledgment and said there was | no truth in the suggested formation. Protest Against Idea.
 l The Ulster leaders following these 1 exchanges of messages dropped the 1 project for a week or two and soor l after MT. Lloyd Georges return tc | London accepted the idea
 | The more thoughtru1 and farseeine of Ulster Unionists have advised | against thes tep, and all well-wishers i of English rule in this country, sucn | as the followers of Lord Middleton 1 have equally well-voiced their pro ] tests. The consequences may be as i bad if not worse than my Ulster Ma | tionalist informant says, but there arc | people here who thinkk tkhat Tn or | raninzinp such a force the govern 1 nent has cut stickk llto beat itSelt The order allowing the Carsonites tc | arm in 1913 is an instance of this oc' | curing before.