The New York herald., 1922-06-28
REGULARS BESIECE
dublin -FOUR COURTS
Attack by Irish Free State
Army Expected, Follow
ing Ultimatum.
,O'CONNOR TOLD TO QUIT
Instead. Men Take In Pro-
visions and Increase
Wire Defenses.
~
GEN. O'CONNELL HOSTAGE
Seize Him in Retaliation for
Arrest Of COmmandant
Henderson.
GEN. O'CONNELL HOSTAGE

LONDON, June % "wednesday CAS-
sociated Press) filed in
Dublin after midnight indicate that an
attack on the Four Courts building by
regular Republican Army troops is
imminent unless the O'Connorites
comply with the ultimatum the Gov
ernment is reported to have sent to
Rory O'Connor, their leader, demand
ing the evacuation OF the building
within few hours.
Meantime the men under O'Connor
have taken in fresh stores of proyi-
sions and increased their barbed wire
entanglements. At midnight they be-
gan tearing up granite paving blocks
and street car tracks to provide bar
ricades
Gen Rory O'Connor IS anxious to
have the strength of his forces at Four
Courts tested, according to the Daily
MdiPs Dublin correspondent. To the
suggestion that an attempt might be
made to evict him. O'Connor replied !:
Let them come. 1t is just what
would like"
The correspondent says that O'Con-
nor's desire to be attacked is due to
his belief that siege of -Four Courts
would make him appear as the cham
pion of liberty against the Provisional
Government acting under English or
ders.
DUBLIN, June 27 (Associated Press) -
The dissentient troops holding Four
Courts are strengthening their defenses
in the evident expectation that their
capture of Lieut.-Gen. O'Conhell. assist
ant chief OF staff OF the regular repub-
lican forces, will stir up the Provisional
Government. They seized Gen. O'Con-
nell, they announce, as protection
against their own leaders engaged in
executing their orders and In reprisal
against the arrest by the Provisional
Government authorities of Commandant
henderson, director of the boycott
against Belfast goods. He will not be
released, they say, until Henderson Is
set free.
O'Connell is next in command to Owen
O'Duffy. He took over the Curragh
camp from the British, and during the
European war served as n Major in the
American army He was returning to
Beggers' Bush late at night, afoot,
and In UNIFORM, out was not dfHleu,
when he was intercepted by an armed
party and carried away
The manifesto issued this evenii z ap
pears to mark the end OF the policy OF
treating with the dissentient army on
compromise lines.
What the members of the Dali termed
truce between the two armies was
effected and has been for the most part
observed. 1t was hoped that attacks OF
property also would cease, but such at
tacks have been common, though they
were generally attributed to unattached
ba ndits. But the Belfast boycott stood
en- a different footing. 1t was intensified
and made regular department of dis
sentsent activity and 1t included the
seizure of large quantities of Belfast
goods.
AS TO the motor raid on the garage
referred TO in the Governments mani
festo. formal interference by Govern
ment forces was expected. Heretofore
the Government had confined itself to n
display of force but this time IL arrested
.Commandant Henderson, who is head
OF the Belfast Boycott Department, and
transferred him to jail regardless of his
military rank. The Four Courts faction
then decided that reprisal was necessary.