18 MARCH 1922, Page 2

The rival Sinn Fein factions assembled bodies of armed men

in Limerick .last week and then decided that it would be better to defer the fight which the Irish public was anticipating. On Saturday the Provisional Government troops and the Repub- licans alike went home, leaving the barracks to the local levies, who are said to favour Mr. Griffith rather than Mr. De Valera. In Belfast the Sinn Feiners continue to murder soldiers, police- men and Protestant citizens. A young lieutenant of the Sea- forths, who was in plain clothes, was assassinated in the street last week by a Shin Fein gang, apparently as the result of a report in which the Dublin Provisional Government made wild charges of misconduct against an officer of that regiment.