23 DECEMBER 1922, Page 2

As we pointed out last week, there is a whole

world of difference between such reprisals as these and the very proper corporate punishment which the British Govern- ment visited upon certain districts—though that punish- ment never included death sentences ; or, again, between the Free State reprisals and the undisciplined excesses of soldiers or police maddened by a warfare that was conducted by means of assassination. In spite, however, of our desire that the Free State should not copy the methods of its opponents, we sincerely hope that it will prove able to restore peace to Southern Ireland.