To inform the cowardly assassins in Ireland who shoot from
behind hedges that some of their own people are with the convoy, and that if they insist upon shooting they will be turning their arms against their own people, is a different matter. It is not a sentence of death against " A " because " B " has committed a crime, but a warning to criminals not to go on committing murders when their own friends may be among their victims. At the same time we admit that even when General Coming's method is recognized as justifiable it has its dangers. There may be a tendency for soldiers and police, when naturally enraged by being fired at from invisible ambushes, to turn upon the Sinn Fein hostages in their charge, particularly if the hostages had seemed to be making signals or in any way expressed satisfaction at the ambushing of the convoy. We hope and believe that it will be enough to mention this possibility for it to be guarded against. Those in charge of the hostages ought to have it made plain to them that the hostages have a complete right of protection from the- forces of the Crown.
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