The Cordova daily times., 1921-01-28
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2S, 1921
THE CORK TRAGEDY

allow an independent investigation of
 the destruction of Cork, on the plea
 that the city is under martial law,
 has failed to obscure the truth about
 the origin of the fire It is now moral
 ly certain that the conflagration was
 the deliberate work of British off
 cials. A lorry filled with these peo-
 pie rode into the city, shooting right
 and left in a reckless fashion; short
 ly after a band of Irishmen threw a
 @omb or bombs, killing one soldier
 and injuring others and forthwith
 the British auxiliary police aided
 apparently by Black and Tans, started
 the fire which, from set purpose or
 otherwise, was fed by petrol. The
 British labor commission wired from
 Cork to the London Daily Herald:
 we have abundant evidence that the
 fires were started by the forces of
 the crown" And the special cores
 pendent of the Manchester Guardian
 writes from Cork that "the destruc-
 tion was deliberately caused" The
 writer is careful to describe in detail
 how the incendiaries first footed
 shops and then bombed them, choos- ing the largest and best establish
 ments for destruction. Humorously
 enough, in regard to one point he
 spoke by way of prophecy, saying:
 Tn the house of commons we may
 hear it (the fire) was Sim Fein
 outrage, as if even determined rebels
 would fire their own city for fun or
 by accident" Shortly after this was
 written, the commons actually heard
 Greenwood denying that the destruc-
 tion of Cork was the work of the Brit
 ish. Not satisfied with this. demon iacal act, the British soldiers added
 crimes of assault and murder to the
 courage. They brutally maltreated
 two priests of Cork, robbing one be-
 sides, after he had refused to write: gro hell with the pope" And on De.
 cember 16, they murdered the vener- able Canon Wagner, an aged and saint ly man. The canon, who was in his seventieth year, was walking with an
 inoffensive youth of twenty-four. A cadet leaped from lorry and without provocation shot both men dead and then threatened death to a magistrate who witnessed the fiendish deed Dub- lin Castle, knowing that there was a witness to the murder, admitted the crime but immediately pronounced the cadet mad, repetition of the eX- cuse for the murder of Sheehy Skeff- ! ington. The slayer of the latter was confined in a sanatorium for a very short time and then dismissed as cured. The castle wired sympathy to the bishop of Cork and asked him to convey sympathy to the canon's rela- | lives. The prelate replied that he could not consider sending the sym pathy, expressed only in words, of an official whose men were murdering his fellows and burning the city, to the relatives of one of their victims. l The bishop also condemned vigorous ly attacks on British officials and threatened communication to those who took part in them. The murder of Canon Wagner Is the continuation of many outrages on priests by British officials. Father Griffin of Galway was murdered in November. In October Father O'Reilly of Claire was beaten with the stock of a rifle and his house was partially wrecked by rifle fire and bombs. On November 7 Father Fallon of Clontuskert was dragged from bed and beaten with the butt ends of revolvers. On November 10 Father Kennedy of Killanena was taken twelve miles from his home and made to walk back in scanty at- tire after being subjected to many in. aignities. Recently the Jesuit college at Limerick was raided by night and
 last week a Carmelite and Capuchin monastery were raided. Father Dom- mic, the chaplain of Lord Mayor Mac Swiney. was arrested without charge. Meantime there is acute distress in certain parts of Ireland. The lord