Tho real cure for reprisals is the cessation of the
campaign of assassination. The Sinn Feiners themselves could stop reprisals whenever they liked. Let us quote from a letter written by the Rev. Nicholas Lawless, Roman Catholic priest of Faughart, to the promoters of a meeting held at Dundalk recently in aid of the Belfast Roman Catholics expelled from the ship- yards. Mr. Lawless wrote :—
" I do not see my way to attend your meeting on Friday. It seems to me you are beginning at the wrong end. The direct way to save our people in the North is to end at once the crimes that disgrace Catholic Ireland North and South. It is those crimes that enraged, and no wonder, the workers of Belfast, who have said they will let Catholic workers back when the shooting of Royal Irish Constabulary men and others stops. It is all very well to denounce reprisals, but who will say that reprisals are as wicked as the crimes that provoke them P Instead, then, of boycotting Belfast, let us all join in boycotting murderers and burners in the rest of Ireland. There is no other way to cure the ills of North and South. . When Catholics (clergy and laity) pluck up courage to grapple with the secret societies and prevent their sending out murderous commands, and compel them to give a dispensation to the unhappy youths they even have condemned to suicidet then let us stand in sackcloth and ashes, with bread and water in our hands, and tell the Belfast workmen to sit on the stool of repentance."
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