NEWS OF THE WEEK
• THE situation in Ireland is once more extremely serious. The Sinn Fein gunmen have raided Ulster, and about a hundred Unionists, chiefly in Fermanagh and Tyrone, have been kidnapped. Policemen have been ambushed and killed, civilians have been wounded, houses have been pillaged, and bridges have been destroyed. The raids were in effect a carefully planned invasion. They remind us of Balkan warfare—of that kind of warfare in which " bands " or " cominittees " of fanatical nationalists cross their neighbour's frontier to kill and steal without any declaration of war. When we go to press on Thursday the precise motive of the raids is said to be doubtful. Mr. Michael Collins has explained that the real reason of this Sinn Fein violation of the truce—a violation which he professes to deplore and which he says he is doing his best to remedy— was popular emotion among the Sinn Feinere at the prospect of the execution of the three convicted Sinn Fein murderers at Londonderry.
