These words, which we record with much satisfaction, leave no
room for unauthorized reprisals. General Strickland's report upon the burnings in Cork, which rumour says lays the blame upon Government forces, has not yet been published. We cannot imagine why. If the Black-and-Tans were proved guilty General Strickland, who is a man of scrupulous fairness and great moral courage, has no doubt said so in the frankest terms. Whatever the truth the Government have nothing to fear. Everybody knows that there is a limit beyond which human endurance will not go, and when the Irish assassins pressed the forces of the Crown beyond that limit the results were inevitiable. The primary blame is upon the assassins, though of course it is the duty—a duty which Sir Hamar Greenwood plainly recog- nizes—to insist upon maintaining discipline and to correct lapses from it.- So long as the Government withhold General
Strickland's report a plausible argument is presented to those who say that the Government are afraid to publish it.
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