Masked Raid

The Irish Republican Army, Ireland's most fanatical antiRoyalist group, have long been a headache to the Government of Northern Ireland. According to Belfast's police, they staged the burnings, beatings and bombings specially arranged for the State visit of King George & Queen Elizabeth (TIME, Aug. 9). They were accused last week of another outrage: attacking a man's home when his person is not available.

The Republicans felt that they had a specially acute grudge against the Rt. Hon. Sir Dawson Bates, 60, Home Secretary of Northern Ireland. He had just taken charge of the police campaign to track down the extremists who did their best to reduce the royal visit to a shambles. Moreover, since 1922 he has been empowered by the Civil Authorities Act to jail indefinitely anybody suspected of sedition, has frequently exercised his privilege to the discomfort of Republicans.

So last week, while Sir Dawson was in Belfast, three masked raiders called at his home, Magherabuoy House, Portrush. Briefly, but effectively, they beat his servants with revolver butts, ravished his desk, scattered his papers, turned his house inside out. Police astutely concluded that they had been searching for embarrassing evidence of recent burnings, beatings, bombings--evidence on the strength of which Sir Dawson might feel inclined once more to make use of the Civil Authorities Act.

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