The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1920. AMERICA AND IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 13 May 1920, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1920. AMERICA AND IRELAND

§N April 24, . 1916, . the Irish Republic was proclaimed by the leaders of the Rising. On December 14, 1918, that proclamation was ratified by the electors at the polls. When Pearse and Connolly raised the flag of the Republic the majority of Irish people looked on with bewilderment; when, two years, later, the Sinn Fein leaders asked the Irish people to decide between Sinn Fein and the old Parliamentary Party which had been sold and betrayed and foiled' by British schemers, the Irish' people by a vast majority proclaimed, their allegiance, to . Sinn Fein. > Self-deter-

mination, government only by consent of the governed, was the Sinn Fein war-cry; and, sickened by years of trickery and chicanery, the . Irish nation determined that the time had .come to demand what was right and just and no . longer to remain beggars for the halfloaves that were so often refused. Thereupon, elected by the people and representing the people, the Bail Eirinn began to function as the de jure. ' Government of Ireland.. In spite of the army of occupation, in spite of arrests and deportations and raids and proclamations, it operated with such success that the British Labor Commission recognised that it was the de facto as. well ..as the de jure Government in fourfifths of Ireland.

There can be no just government without consent of the governed: that was one of the principles laid down by Wilson and accepted by Lloyd George. Lloyd Georg© repudiated his principle, as is his habit, but the Irish people determined that -they would stand fast by Wilson’s maxim, which was sound and just. It became then a conflict between might and right—between the tanks and machine-guns of French and the moral force of a people steadfastly pursuing their just aims. America professes that, she came, into the war to fight for the rights of all small nations. The Irish people sent envoys to the United States in order to explain that Ireland was ground down by her oppressors just as much as Belgium was by the Prussian army of occupation. The first result of the mission was that on March 4, 1919, by a vote of 216 to 41, the House of Representatives resolved: That it is the earnest hope of the Congress of the United' States of America, that the Peace Conference now sitting at Paris and passing upon the. rights of the various people mill favorably consider the claims of the Irish people to self-determination. On June 6, 1919, the American Senate, with only one dissenting voice, resolved:

That the Senate of the United. States earnestly - request the American Plenipotentiary Commissioners at Versailles to endeavor to secure for Eanion de Valera, Arthur Griffith, and George Noble Plunkett a hearing before the said Peace Conference in order that they may present the cause, of Ireland , and resolvedfurther, That the Senate of the United States express its sympathy with the aspirations of the Irish people for a. government of its own choice. This was moral recognition, at any rate. However, the American Commission betrayed the American people, and Wilson returned broken and ruined because he allowed himself to become the dupe of Lloyd George . and Clemenceau. The Peace Conference was a delusion and a. snare,. and only an instrument designed to bind faster the bonds of the oppressed and to render more secure the strongholds of despotism. The American people recognised this, and they repudiated Wilson and his British and French friends. On March 18, 1920, the Senate passed by a vote of 38 to 36, in committee, and later by a vote of 45 to 38, the following resolution : • In consenting to the ratification of the treaty 'with Germany, the United States adheres to the principle- .of. self-determination and. to the resolution, of sympathy with the aspirations of the. Irish people for a government of their own choice, adopted by the Senate, June 6, 1919, and declare that when selfgovernment is attained by Ireland, a. consummation d is hoped is at hand, it should promptly be admitted as a inember of the League of Nations. • . , The Yeas on the first poll. were the following: Ashurst Borah, Brandegee, Capper, Colt, . Curtis, Freyhnghuysen, France, Gerry, Gore, Grona, Harris, Harrison, Henderson, Hitchcock, Johnson, Jones, Kendrick, Kirby,. La Follette, McKellar, McLean, McNeary, Morris, Moses, ; Nugent, Phelan, Pitman, Ransdell, Reed, Sheppard, Shields, Smith, Smith, Sutherland, Walsh, Walsh, Watson. (38.) The Noes were: Ball, Beckham, Calder, Jones, Kellogg, Kenyon,

Robinson, Smith, ; Spenser, Cummins, Keyes, Sterling, Dial, King, Swanson, Willingham, Lenroot, Thomas, Edge,; Lodge, Townsend, -Elkins, Meyers, Trammell, Fletcher, New, Underwood, Gay, Page, -"Wadsworth, Hale, Phillips, Williams, Harding, Pomerene, Wolcott. (36.) Twenty-two did not vote. ? * b~c; •;= ?

Up to date thus much has been won for Ireland by the heroic efforts of de Valera and his-friends. The importance of the last resolution is best estimated by the following cable which de Valera sent to Griffith on March 19: —• : “A Te Deum should be sung throughout Ireland. We thank Almighty God. We thank the noble American nation. We thank all the friends of Ireland here who have worked so unselfishly for our causewe thank the heroic dead whose sacrifices made victory possible. Our mission has been successful. The principle of self-determination has been formally adopted in an' international instrument, Ireland has been given her place among the nations by the " greatest nation of them all.” • —• Writing in America, William J. M. A. Maloney, M.D., says, concerning the resolution: ‘‘By favorably passing upon the claim of the Irish Republic, and by intervening on its behalf at the Paris tribunal of nations, Congress implicitly and effectively recognised Irish independence.”