Melbourne, March 97.
Though not celebrated on March 17 in every State capital, St.: Patrick's Day was not allowed to pass without some demonstrations on behalf of Sinn Fein. In Melbourne the City Council rather stupidly insisted upon the Union Jack being carried, and the process sionists, with a sense of humour which throws doubt upon Cross-land's theory that they have none, hired an ancient derelict (a white man because no Chinese would take on the job) for 15/- to bear the banner which has braved the battle and the breeze. It had only been carried a few yards when the ancient was knocked down (and apparently spirited away, for the police have been unable to find him to prove the assault), the flag seized and petrol poured over it with a view to burning, before it was rescued by the police, and again placed at the head of the procession—this time carefully guarded. It was probably a stage-managed affair, and caused no stir, except in the columns of the newspaper which wrote the incident up as an outrage. Just enough, however happened, to enable Bishop Phelan, the Zocum tenons of Archbishop Mannix now in Rome, shriek a bit about the way the Ivishmen had spat up the loyalty which had been stuffed down their throats and bad "danced" on the Union In Sydney nothing happened ''to write home about," though an Irish Attorney-General made a speech in which he claimed the right of Irishmen in Ireland to enjoy the same privileges as those of Irishmen in Australia. It is not clear that this meant that he approved of an independent Irish Republic. In Brisbane the Sinn Feiners started out with a diminutive flag, and, after the police had Wrushed aside some counter-demonstrationists, produced a full-sized banner. In other towns there was nothing of interest, except the fact that in Perth, capital of Western Australia, the American flag wag given pride of place beween the Sinn Fein and the Australian flags. This fact may be attributed to the recent influx of American agitators and criminals, or to a vague desire to minimize the fact that the extremists had quite lately been soundly defeated at the polls. Generally speaking, where there was no attempt to interfere with the '"mouth-fighting" to which our Yankee cousins are accustoming us, there was no vestige of disturbance worth the name.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.