HUN TREACHERY AND IRISH DISLOYALTY: ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS

New Zealand Tablet, 9 June 1921, Page 17

HUN TREACHERY AND IRISH DISLOYALTY: ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS

It is with some hesitation (says Old Ireland ) that we make public the following statements, feeling, as we do, that our readers will find it hard to credit that such things can have happened: There was an insurrection in Ireland in 1916 against British rule, and one '■Roger Casement, a leader of the revolt, sought German assistance in this attempt to end British dominion over Ireland. Even after the military defeat of the rising the Irish people remained hostile to England. They established a Republic, and sought its “recognition” by America, France, and other Powers, and laid its case before the Conference of Versailles. The Germans actually communicated with their own embassies in various neutral countries during the Great War as to methods of influencing neutral opinion and making trouble in countries subject to their enemies. American citizens of Irish and German descent displayed friendship towards one another, and there were prolrish societies in Germany and America. We feel that the public is entitled to know the source from which we have learnt these amazing facts. They are taken from a British Government White Booh entitled “Documents Relative to the Sinn Fein Movement,” so that their authenticity is unimpeachable/ That incorrigible humorist, Mr. Lloyd George, proclaimed this White Book as proof of the “German Plot,” which was the excuse for the imprisonment, without trial, of President de Valera and other Irish leaders in May, 1918. Of course, it proves nothing of the kind.’" There may or may not have been communication between Irish and German diplomats in the period from June, 1917 (when the Irish participants .in the rising were released), and May, 1918, but this book does not prove, or even advance, any evidence of it... It shows that the Germans communicated with their friends in America and elsewhere, and the Irish with theirs, but there is a link , missing. No

communication, direct or indirect, between Ireland and Germany, is shown. We cannot find this missing link, but we suspect that it is concealed somewhere near the top of the upas tree of British politics. • By the way, while the newspaper exposure of the flaws in , the proofs of the “plot” were interesting, if superfluous, we dissent from their implication that, had the “plot” existed, there would have been anything discreditable about it. After all, the charge boils down to this: that Irishmen were seeking assistance in realising their openly-avowed aspirations. Contrast this with that cynical confession, “Secrets of Crewe ''House,” and see how the British propagandists proclaimed their sympathy for the nations subject to the Central Powers, and promised them Peace with honor, national freedom, the “Fourteen Points,” and so on, purely to create internal dissensions amongst their enemies, and without any intention of keeping the promises. But if the White Booh does not contain proof of the “plot,” some of its contents are most interesting. Amongst them are a lot of documents relating to the events in and before Easter Week, 1916 (two-thirds of the book is devoted to these), the Irish appeals to President Wilson and the - French Foreign Minister, the constitution of Sinn Fein, an alleged constitution of the Irish Volunteers, and a very neat summary of the case for Irish independence submitted to the miscalled “Peace Conference.” We feel it our duty to assist Mr. George’s efforts to bring the lastmentioned document before the public by publishing it in exfenso. EXTRACTS FROM A STATEMENT OF IRELAND’S CASE BEFORE THE POWERS TO BE ASSEMBLED IN A PEACE CONFERENCE. “Ireland, a sovereign State, appeals to the nations to support its claim for admission to the Peace' Conference, in order that she may there demand the establishment and recognition of her place among the free nations of the world. Grounds of Appeal. “The grounds on which this appeal was based were set forth at great, length. They are summrised in the following extracts: — \ “1. Because Ireland is one of the four ancient and sovereign States of Europe. This was established among the European Powers at the Council of "Constance, anno 1417. There the question of precedence arose between- the legates of Charles the Sixth, King of France, and the legates of Henry the Fifth, King of England. The latter, abandoning any claim in respect of the Kingdom of England, put forward a claim in respect of the Kingdom of Ireland, which they pretended and assumed has been transferred to England. . . “The King of England made good the case of the nation of Ireland to he considered the third in precedence of the four ancient and sovereign States of Europe; and his legates took precedence of the legates of the King of France accordingly. . . ' “2. Because for over a\ thousand years Ireland exercised her full sovereign status, and for another five hundred years, during which time the full exercise of that sovereignty was frustrated, her sovereign status was recognised by the European Powers, and its re-establishment made the subject of negotiation and treaty by certain of those Powers. For until certain predatory adventurers, who admitted Henry, the Second, King of England, as their feudal lord, made an incursion' into Ireland, anno 1169, and were followed two years thereafter by their king, no question has ever been conceived xof Ireland’s sovereign status. . . v . “3. Because Ireland, has never surrendered her sovereign status, no Power possessing title by conquest, by compact, or by treaty to exercise Irish sovereignty and because, therefore, the sovereignty of Ireland exists in suppression, the exercise of it being prevented by external force. . . - . "" . “4. Because the conscious will of the Irish nation for the restoration of the exercise of its sovereignty has been asserted in every generation since the suppression, and has been again asserted during the present war. Since the suppression of Irish sovereignty and the wanton elimination of Irish polity and- culture, and the attempted de-

struction of all literary and historical traces of Ireland’s ancient greatness, at and ’ about' the opening years of the sixteenth century, Ireland has never been in any other than a state of war for the recovery of these things, and for a recovery of the sovereign freedom ‘in which they were once comprised.' Of all the years that have passed since then, not a year has passed that has not seen that war maintained in thought or by deed. At periodic intervals that war has taken the form of an armed rising-out that has infallibly declared'its end to be the achievement of Ireland’s absolute and entire freedom. In the intervals between each such rising-out the nation has lain stricken from the last attempt and has" prepared for the next. It is now a solemn charge and tradition from generation to generation that each generation shall in its day make another attempt, however hopeless the chances, in order to carry the war forward until the day when Ireland shall take her place among the free and sovereign nations of the world according to her ancient right. During this European War this tradition has been seen fulfilled, and of all .the small nations whose cases will arise for attention at the Peace Conference meeting to conclude the problems it has raised Ireland will bo the only one who has of her* own initiative arisen with arms in her hands to strike for her sovereign freedom. “5. Because Ireland, by history, by culture, and by language, is a distinctive, individual, and separate nation.-. . . :. . ■ '" •’ “6. Because . Ireland . possesses within herself - all the moral and material constituents pf independent statehood, • ..... 4 “7. Because the geographical position of Ireland now renders the restoration of her independent sovereignty essential to the peaceful development of Europe and the world in general, since an aggressive maritime Power controlling Ireland will dominate the Atlantic Ocean, will control ingress and egress thereto and therefrom, will control ingress and egress to and from other seas, and so will make impossible that freedom of the seas upon which the future peace of the world will depend. Even as before in times past, the peace of the world and balance of power have made the restoration of sovereignty in other small nations a vital question among the Powers, so now the revolution of time has raised the question of the suppressed sovereignty of Ireland into one of deep significance for the Powers. The world has turned westward. For Europe the Americans have come into a. striking new importance. For the Americans the affairs of Europe have become weighted with a-new significance. Between them lies the Atlantic; but neither can use the Atlantic to reach the other without coming within range of the sudden swift activities of any fleet of warships that can avail themselves of the ports and harbors of Ireland, Even as .the Atlantic is the only rapid ‘ means of communication between Europe and America, so Ireland, lying where and as she does, holds the key to the Atlantic. Any great naval Power having at its free use and disposal the ports and harbors of Ireland can at any time interrupt that communication, to north, to south, or to west. Any great naval Power, therefore, controlling Ireland can at any moment it feels so disposed abrogate the freedom of the seas at their most strategic point, in spite of whatever device by which it might be thought that that freedom could otherwise be achieved, and can do so against any other combination of Powers. Any great naval Power, therefore, dominating Ireland must become- the dictator of the world, since sea-power is world-power, and other Powers must live at its behest or charity. Such an active irritant ' in the world’s affairs must infallibly lead to future wars, to pluck that Power from an overweening place achieved through an accidental geographical advantage, especially when it is seen that that advantage exists by crushing the moral rights of the sovereign nation of. Ireland. The neutralisation of Ireland, however, by’ the restoration of the exercise of its sovereign nationhood, cancels all this. The neutralisation of Ireland will ensure in great measure the neutralisation of the Atlantic; will ensure, that is to _say, the freedom of the seas at their most strategic point (no othpr great sea being equally commanded at its angle of communication, and no other great sea being of equal importance for international : communication) .- by the single act that gives a long-delayed

justice to an oppressed nation. Moreover, Ireland is wellendowed to protect and ensure that * neutralisation once granted. The cost of the expensive administrative machinery by which she is held and oppressed, Arid the price of which is taxed on her, turned from that immoral purpose would provide a fleet of small craft, submarine and supramarine, with which to defend her' shores ; ' and the sufficiency of such small craft for defensive and offensive operations has now been proved. The coast of Ireland is surrounded by hills and high ground, from ‘ which batteries could bring warships within range long before' they could themselves be governed. And the railways of Ireland have been planned by . the Power that suppresses the sovereignty of Ireland, not, as first devised, with a view to developing the resources of the country, but with a view to its military and naval defence. For it is not the desire of the Irish nation to aid any . Power in hostile operations against another, when once her sovereign freedom- is established and ensured. ' ‘ ' ’ f 8. Because most of the great Powers in the present European War, which the Peace Conference,; is to terminate and conclude, ,have publicly declared that they are contending for the right of small nations- to be free, and to decree and continue their government for themselves without fear or dictation from other more powerful nations. On this ground the United States of America have lately entered the war to further the principles enunciated by their President. . .’ p , 1 . “9. Because, particularly, the Power that now suppresses the sovereignty of Ireland has declared that it is ghting in this war for the proeurance, the assertion, and the defence of the freedom of' small nations. . . “10. Las because of the law of God, Who’created all things free hot bond, and. Whose will it cannot be that a hard and hurtful bondage should continue that must inevitably lead to hatred and the renewed shedding of blood. He is the only sovereign; but He has endowed nations and men with that attribute of Himself, Therefore, they must aspire to that sovereign freedom by the law He has implanted in them; and they must hold life as a cheap thing in comparison with the prompting of that law. Until they have seen sovereign freedom, His creatures have not fulfilled the life He gave them. , ~ “Then follows a very lengthy historical, financial, and statistical statement of an extreme Sinn Fein character.’’