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is ardently desired and pursued. Loyalists and Nationalists-or, if you will, Protestants and Catholics, or AngloScots and Celts (they all mean the same things, since most unfortunately the political cleavage of the people follows the line of the cleavages in religion and race)-are more occupied just at present with the task of earning their daily bread than the fun of fighting out their political differences. The Nationalists are even more occupied in this way than the Loyalists: for the shipbuilding, ship-refitting, and engineering work, which is done almost entirely by Loyalists, is fairly abundant; while labour in flax manufacture, which is largely in Nationalists' hands, is nearly unwanted. The linen trade in Belfast is in much the same position as the cotton trade of Manchester: the merchants have immense stocks of cloth and thread in their warehouses which they cannot sell; and most of the factories are closed or on half-time, waiting till there arises a demand for their output. The long queues of decent hard-working men and women to be seen every day at the labour exchanges, waiting patiently for the unemployment dole or the chance of a job, is not the least miserable of the many miserable sights now to be witnessed in Ireland.

Not merely the vast bulk of the people of Belfast, but also the vast bulk of the people of those six counties which are to form the new Northern

Ireland, are anxious to maintain the peace. tain the peace. There are a few, however, among their population, and there are many more among the population of Southern Ireland, who are at least as anxious to disturb it. Their efforts take the forms of murder and sabotage. So far, in Belfast the murders have always been of policemen coming on leave or duty from the South. Just before the London students came to Belfast, three Black and Tans were slaughtered in a hotel near the headquarters of the police. It was carried out in the usual way. The Black and Tans, before going to bed, went into the hotel bar for a drink. There they met a number of men who chatted with them in a friendly way. The Black and Tans went to bed, the other men remained till closing time, refused to leave then, but instead, secure behind the closed doors, rushed upstairs and murdered the sleeping policemen in their beds. The second massacre was on the same lines. Three Black and Tans going home to Scotland via Belfast spent a day there. At night they wandered about the streets, and when they were chatting with two girls in a lonely square they were shot in the back; the two girls were wounded, and a passing civilian was killed, either because he intervened or by a stray shot. The next massacre was more audacious. Two Black and Tans on their way home to Scotland and England respectively were one evening shot in the back in a busy

street, some dozen men and women being wounded in the process or in the pursuit of the murderers. Finally, a district inspector was shot and badly wounded while leaving the house of a Catholic priest. He, too, had just come from the South, and was the only Irishman among the victims. So the peace of Belfast is very like a peace which is no peace.

Out of Belfast the outrages take other forms, usually sabotage the destruction of railway lines and waggons, corn-stacks, telegraph and telephone wires, churches, and such-like-in the six counties, and the murder of Protestant farmers outside the six counties. From the beginning of the Sinn Fein movement, Protestants have been killed, but they were killed because they were policemen and magistrates; now Protestants are being being killed merely because they are Protestants. And this practice has begun to show itself in the six counties themselves: the other day two Protestants were murdered in County Fermanagh.

All this may seem merely the outbreak of reckless hate. It is not. It is work done in pursuance of a calculated policy -a policy calculated with the wisdom as well as the wickedness of the serpent; and it is well that this policy should be known and remembered in Scotland and England, where outrages of the same kind, and carried out with the same object, are becoming common. It is the policy of exasperation. Its in

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ventors hope that, if it is carried on long enough, the provoked populace will at last in their fury vent their rage on Irish Catholics generally. With that absolute disregard for the lives of their friends as well as their foes, which is the most recent and most appalling development of their proceedings, these men would rejoice if their work resulted in a Sicilian Vespers of their co-religionists in Ulster or England. their reason is this. During the war they tried to succeed by aiding England's enemies, and they failed. Now they are trying to succeed by alienating her friends. They believe that an outbreak of fury against Irish Catholics, either in Ulster or Great Britain, would raise so much feeling in America, the Colonies, and the Allied States, States, that England would have to concede whatever they chose to demand. It is the duty of all who wish the welfare of the Empire to take care not to play the gunmen's game.

Of the danger of such an outbreak, at any rate in Ulster, I myself have seen evidence. I was in Belfast when the four men were murdered in Victoria Square. The morning after the murder-it was a Sunday-I went to the scene of the crime. There was a considerable crowd there examining some bulletmarks on the walls. I had seen a similar crowd doing the same in Dublin. The difference in demeanour struck me greatly. The Dubliners smiled and chatted cheerfully as they looked at the little pits in the walls of

old Trinity. The Belfast men looked at their marks in grim silence. Suddenly a woman cried loudly, "As sure as there is a God in heaven, we'll pay them out for this." As

the words were uttered, a look came into the men's faces which made me tremble for what might happen. Fortunately their leaders' long-given advice was strong enough upon them to check their feeling of revenge, and no trouble followed. Let us pray that this self-government may continue. The group which favours this reckless policy is very small, and consists only of the more murderous fanatics among even the gunmen. All the moderate Nationalists, and most of the advanced Sinn Feiners, regard these men's proceedings with great horror; but unfortunately they regard the men themselves with greater terror

terror which ties their tongues when, if they had only courage to speak, they might end the policy in a month's time. Even the valiant Eamon de Valera has become frightened of the evil spirit which he has raised, and fears that, when he wants to do so, he may find himself unable to lay it. That is the real cause of his recent approaches to the Ulster leader, Sir James Craig. He has begun to doubt whether Michael Collins is not mightier than himself. We will shortly see who is the stronger, and whether the Portuguese can stop the policy of murder and arson, useless for any purpose except exasperation.

Meanwhile the Ulstermen, having accepted a Home Rule Act which they never asked for, are determined to keep it. They stood by England as long as she stood by them; when she tired of their support, they resolved to rely on themselves. They were the less reluctant to do so since the vacillation and ineptitude of British statesmen had led many of them to the view expressed by an Irish peer to the aforesaid Thomas Creevey a hundred years ago: "The English Government never take any measures respecting Ireland except when pushed into it; and then they always take the wrong one." Henceforth they will take their own measures so far as Ulster is concerned; and they are, as their leader has already announced, determined to retain the right to do so against not merely Southern Ireland but, if need arises, against England herself. And he has defined the ideals which these rights will be used to advance: "Devotion to the Throne, close union with Great Britain, pride in the British Empire, and an earnest desire for peace throughout Ireland."

After the glorious victory of Trafalgar, William Pitt declared that England had saved herself by her exertions, and she would yet save Europe by her example. That is the Ulstermen's resolve. They will by their exertions win real peace and prosperity for Ulster ; they will, by their example, win the same yet for the rest of their native land.

ON HAZARDOUS SERVICE.

BY MERVYN LAMB.

CHAPTER XXIV.-ADRIENNE GIVES THE SIGNAL AND
RECEIVES AN ANSWER.

ADRIENNE, or "Sister Marie" would mean, "if you have as she was now called, lost no arrived put out the signal totime in explaining to "le Curé "morrow." the nature of the Allied plans, and the part which the patriots were expected to play in the next great offensive; for she had made the condition before starting, that the old priest should be told sufficient to enable him to carry on, should anything happen to herself.

The first thing to be done was to rig up the wireless receiving set, and she was able to explain that, with the improved form of valve which Jules had brought, it would be quite unnecessary to run the risk of erecting it in the Church Tower, but that the aerial could be concealed round the inside of an attic in the convent itself, which would very much simplify the whole affair. A new condenser had been manufactured by the local expert, and on the following evening they were in a position to receive the British communiqué.

They took it down, waiting anxiously for the final groups, which were to contain the key; and to Adrienne's satisfaction, instead of the usual "ends," it read "completion," which, as she had informed “le Curé,"

VOL. CCIX.-NO. MCCLXVIII.

"Le Curé" had, of course, full confidence in Adrienne's story, apart from the fact that British 'planes had been observed over Lille on the two preceding days; but it was a great satisfaction to the girl to receive confirmation, and they all went to rest in a state of pleasurable excitement.

As a matter of interest, it is now known that the enemy communicated with the Sinn Feiners prior to Casement's landing in Ireland by almost identical methods, which shows how similar difficulties inevitably lead to the adoption of similar solutions.

Early next morning the sisters might have been seen in the high-walled close behind the convent, busily engaged in carrying large armfuls of washing, with the ostensible object of putting it out to dry. Six sheets were first spread out in one line on the grass, which meant that Adrienne had arrived; then another row of sheets was laid roughly parallel to the first, which indicated that the "luggage was also safe; and, finally, a third row to show that the patriots in

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tended to carry out the instructions which Adrienne had brought.

Then the sisters in relays watched from an upper casement window for the coming of the aeroplane, and Adrienne sat beside each in turn until the shadows began to lengthen in the warm autumn evening; and then at last, when the sun was almost down, they heard a faint drone, and gradually the'r straining eyes picked up a tiny speck in the sky coming out of the setting sun. The two girls clasped hands, and in her excitement Adrienne's grip almost made the other scream with pain. Soon the 'plane was practically over their heads, but at what seemed to them to be a great height, and they watched it anxiously as it began to swing slowly round in great wide circles, coming ever lower. At the same time the girls seemed to hear other droning, of which, however, Adrienne took no particular notice, her attention being concentrated on the 'plane above them, which, as they could now see, was painted with rings, and therefore was not German. Lower it came, and suddenly a brilliant magnesium star floated down the pilot had seen the signal. And then a curious thing happened, for instead of turning straight home as she had expected, he commenced what seemed to her to be the most extraordinary manœuvres, but which actually were a series of two or three

loops. The people in the streets stopped in astonishment to look at the performance of this fou Anglais, stunting right over a stronghold of the enemy; more particularly as three German 'planes were approaching, which were hidden from Adrienne by the roof of the house, and which apparently the bold intruder had not yet seen.

Suddenly her face was wreathed in smiles. Surely it could not be !-but who else could it be? And her heart answered that it must be the one pilot in the world, trying to show her how delighted he was that she was safe. Oh! why didn't he get away quickly? For at this moment two other 'planes came into her line of vision, flying at a great pace westwards, and evidently trying to cut him off from home. Presumably the British pilot had also at last seen them, for he commenced to make a beeline towards the setting sun; but to the anxious watcher it was obvious that he was too late, for the two German machines were rapidly converging on him, whilst farther back and on the far side a third came into view. A few minutes, which seemed like years, elapsed, and then the two leading Germans appeared to be just above their quarry, and one suddenly dived down on it. As a pigeon flashes in the sunlight, so the setting sun lit up the wings of one of the 'planes as it seemed to turn over, and the girl's heart stood still; then a machine dropped

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