I 962 142 •py 2 IRELAND'S REQUEST TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR RECOGNITION AS A SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENT STATE Price Fifty Cents ISSUED AT THE OFFICE OF THE IRISH DIPLOMATIC MISSION 1045 MUNSEY BUILDING WASHINGTON, D.C. 36 IRELAND'S REQUEST TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR RECOGNITION AS A SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENT STATE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^>^ :/ !^'-^ To His Excellency The President of the United States. Mr. President: I have the honor on behalf of the people and Government of Ireland to request from the United States Government the recog- nition of the Republic of Ireland. In support of that request, I beg to submit the following facts and considerations.* When the people of a nation have proved beyond question their desii'e for an independent government of their own by the civilized as Avell as decisive test of the ballot; when they have, with scrupulous regard to propriety in method taken all the measures necessary to establish such a government; and when, having established it, they have, through voluntary acceptance of that government's decrees and obedience to them, succeeded in making it the de facto ruling authority of their country, func- tioning in every department of civil administration — no State which denies them recognition can maintain at the same time that it upholds the principle of "government by the consent of the governed." Particularly is this true at this moment of history when the greatest war of all time has just been fought to estabhsh as moral and political principles of universal applica- tion the rights of nations great and small, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and, "the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and obedience." The people of Ireland are a people and the government of the RepubHc of Ireland is a government exactly such as described. Hence, as it is not to be believed that the United States would abandon the principle of "government by the consent of the governed," which has always been a fundamental guiding prin- ciple of its national poKcy, reiterated with special emphasis dur- ing the war by you, Sir, as the necessary basis of any peace which the United States would feel itself justified in guarantee- ing, the people of Ireland and their government are confident that their claim to recognition will not be refused or ignored by the Government of the United States. Summarized, the fundamental facts on which Ireland's claim is based are: * The documents, lists of election returns, opinions of jurists, correspondence and other forms of testimony, to which reference is made in the course of this communication, \s il! be found in an Appendix, to which has been prefixed a descriptive table of contents. [31 1. That the people of Ireland constitute a distinct and separate nation, ethnically, historically, and tested by every standard of political science; entitled therefore, to self-determination; 2. That Ireland never voluntarily accepted British domination and that that domination has been consistently challenged through the centuries ; 3. That the people of Ireland in a general and regular parlia- mentary election, in effect a national plebiscite, held under British supervision (thus eliminating completely any question of illegitimate influences in favor of the Republic) declared unmistakably by an over- whelming majority, their desire to be an Independent Republic — which is, therefore, and ought to be accepted by other nations as Ire- land's definite choice by self-determination; 4. That the people's representatives elected for the purpose and summoned to meet in a National Congress (Dail Eireann) duly met in public session in the nation's capital at Dublin, formally proclaimed Ireland's independence as a Republic, and notified its establishment as a Republic to all the nations of the world; 5. That the National Congress thus assembled elected and set up a government, which government is, on democratic principles, the de jure, and has ever since been functioning in fact as the obeyed, de facto government of Ireland, entitled, therefore, to international recognition as the rightful and actual government of Ireland; 6. That the rival (British) authority in Ireland is an alien usurping authority, commanding neither the respect nor the obedience of the people of Ireland, unable even to maintain discipline among its own forces — ignored and "non-existent" save within the immediate shadow of the fortresses of the Army of Occupation, without a title, therefore, either in morality or in fact to recognition as the government of Ireland, unless, as President Cleveland expressed it, "the will of the military officer in temporary command of a particular district can be dignified as a species of government." 7. That the standards heretofore announced in principle and ap- proved in practice by the United States, entitle Ireland to recognition from the United States. In the face of indisputable facts such as these the right of self-determination would be but a "mere plirase" indeed were the Republican Government of Ireland now to be denied recog- nition. IRELAND A NATION The people of Ireland undoubtedly constitute a nation — one of the oldest and most clearly defined in Europe. Their nation is not a nation merely — in the sense of modern political science it was a sovereign independent state for over a thousand years knowing no external master but moulding its own institutions to its own life in accordance with its own Avill. The original Norman came as an invader and an aggressor, and down through the long seven centuries and one-half during which his successors have sought to secure their domination in [4] Ireland the Irish have consistently challenged their authority and have resisted it Avith a courage and a perseverance for which there is no parallel in history. Neither Czecho-Slovakia nor Jugo-Slavia, nor Finland nor Armenia nor Poland itself, nor any of the other newly estabhshed states of Europe, whose independence is now rightly recognized, even approach the perfection of nation- hood manifested by Ireland nor can their claim compare with Ireland's on other gipounds. These nations, for instance, had no elected or organized government of their own to point to as Ire- land has, ready to discharge the duties of a responsible govern- ment, not only, but actually discharging the most essential of them. IRELAND'S TITLE TO SELF-DETERMINATION ON THE BASIS OF AMERICAN PRINCIPLES The entry of the United States into the late war raised that struggle once for all from the slough of contending imperiahsms to the level of a crusade for "the inviolable rights of peoples and mankind." Long before the United States had declared war, you, Sir, had well expressed it, May 27, 1916, as the "passionate con- viction of America" that "* * * the principle of public right must henceforth take preced- ence over the individual interests of particular nations. * * * every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live. "* * * the world has a right to be free from every disturbance of its peace that has its origin in aggression and disregard of the rights of peoples and nations," and as the war approached, you confirmed these views in a famous address to the Senate: "* * * No peace can last or ought to last which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed * * * ." taking it for granted that statesmen everywhere were agreed that "* * * henceforth inviolable security of life, of worship, of indus- trial and social development should be guaranteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto under the power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose hostile to their own," and proposing that "* * * no nation should seek to extend its polity over any other nation or people but that every people should be left free to determine its own polity, its own way of development unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful," [5] concluding "These are American principles, American policies. We could stand for no others. * * * They are the principles of mankind and must prevail." These principles were the fundamental ones in the program with which you, Sir, went before the Nation. They are embodied as a plank in the platform of the Democratic Party, adopted in St. Louis in 1916, and were emphatically endorsed by the Ameri- can people at the elections. "We believe that every people has the right to choose the sover- eignty under which it shall live; that the small states of the world have a right to enjoy from other nations the same respect for their sover- eignty and for their territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist upon; and that the world has a right to be free from every disturbance of its peace that has its origin in aggression or dis- regard of the rights of peoples and nations. At the earliest practical opportunity our country should strive earnestly * * * that all men shall enjoy equality of right and freedom * * * in the lands wherein they dwell." The responsible spokesman of the American people had in these words made clear to the masses everywhere that their thought was also his thought, and they knew that America's President, proclaiming such principles and with the will to realize them, backed by America's might, could achieve the common ideal, could, in the conditions prevaihng, really reform the world and reconstruct it on a basis of justice, bringing to war-weary and harassed humanity the secure and lasting peace for which it yearned. The British Imperialists themselves had not dared to oppose. Mr. Bonar Law, speaking for the British War Cabinet had said, when this Address was published: "What President Wilson is longing for we are fighting for." The people of Ireland in particular welcomed your lofty program in the universal adoption of which they saw the con- summation of all their nation had struggled for through seven centuries and one-half of ceaseless endeavor ; and when America entered the war "* * * to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples * * * for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and obedience * * * for democracy * * * for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free," [6] — America "privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured," they confidently believed that a new day had dawned for them in common with all the other oppressed peoples of Nations that "have called out ;to the world generation after generation for justice, liberation, and succor, and no cabinet in the world has heard them," and that "have waited for this day when the friends of liberty should come across the sea to shake hands with us to see that the new world was con- structed upon a new basis and foundation of justice and right." Such a world as this was the world they had ever been hoping for, and America's might and her unselfish record joined with her pledged word, was the assurance that their hopes would at last be fulfilled. On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, a year before America entered the war, a small band of Irish patriots went forth to give to British rule in Ireland the challenge in arms that had been given in practically every preceding generation, — to assert once more their country's right to Hberty, and to proclaim her an independent Republic. * Ill-equipped comparatively and hopelessly outnumbered, their effort could be a protest only, but the independence they proclaimed they knew to be Ireland's right and they knew it accorded with the aspirations of the Irish people. To convince the world that might not believe, when America entered the war for the "ultimate peace of the world" and "for the rights of the nations great and small," Irish Repubhcans or- ganized themselves as a pohtical party to be ready should occa- sion offer to secure the indisputable evidence of the people's vote as the basis of Ireland's claim in any world-settlement on Ameri- can ideals. The war progressed, and to the very close, there was no indication of any change of viewpoint on your part concerning the necessity of universal acceptance of the principle of self- determination if a lasting peace were to be secured. It was evi- dent from your addresses that you were prepared to contemplate even "a somewhat radical reconsideration of many of the rules of interna- tional practice hitherto thought to be established," [7] where these might be necessary for your program, that you faced the fact that the price of such a peace as you wished for would necessarily be "full, impartial justice— justice done at every point and to every nation * * * our enemies as well as our friends." "Impartial justice in every item of the settlement no matter whose interest is crossed * * *." "The impartial justice meted out must involve no discrimination between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just * * * a justice that plays no favorites." a price which all who came to the peace table must be prepared to pay. Ireland was seeking nothing but justice; so when the General Parhamentary Elections were announced for December 14, 1918, the Sinn Fein or Republican Party put the estabhshment of the Republic a direct issue to. the Electors. The result was that of the one hundred and one (101) popularly elected representatives the Republicans secured seventy-two (72) ; The so-called Parliamentary Party (who were self-determination- ists and did not oppose the idea of a Republic as such, but deemed it at the moment unattainable) secured six (6) ; The official Unionists twenty-one (21); and the Independent Unionists, two (2). The 'Republican representatives therefore won in a majority of practically two and one-half to one (23/2 to 1) over all other parties, whilst the self-determinationists (Republicans and ParUa- mentarians taken together) secured a majority of nearly three and one-half to one (33/2 to 1) over those in favor of union with England. In terms of the total popular vote, 311,210 votes only were cast for union with England out of a total of 1,519,898; that is, a bare twenty per cent (20%). The people of Ireland were asked what they wanted — their answer, given as above, was unmistakable and has not been questioned either by the minorities in Ireland or by the Rritish Premier himself (Appendix) . Absolute unanimity in politics is, of course, out of question. The degree of unanimity attained in this general plebiscite of the people of Ireland was extraordinary — far higher than that re- quired in the conservative Senate of the United States even for its most conservative act, the ratification of treaties with foreign powers. To pretend that absolute unanimity must be obtained, or to refuse to accept as final in determining the will of the nation such [8] a majority as that in Ireland, is to cut at the foundation, not merely of the principle of self-determination, but at the founda- tion of democracy itself, for democracy, in the last analysis, stands on the principle of majority rule. Since the general parliamentary election of December 1918, two general local-government elections have been held, the municipal elections held in January and the rural elections in June 1920, these al§o in accordance with British law and under British supervision, and on a system of proportional represen- tation admittedly passed in the British Parliament for Ireland only, in the hope that by giving minorities everywhere the fullest representation the Republican strength would be weakened. The results of these elections were even more decisive than those of the parHamentary election and prove that the Repub- lican victory of 1918 was no chance victory. They prove, in fact, that sentiment in favor of the Republic has steadily ad- vanced in the intervening period. Every man over twenty-one and every woman over thirty had a vote and minorities every- where were able to secure, as already explained, representation in proportion to their strength — yet so unanimous is sentiment in favor of the Republic and its Government that Of twelve (12) cities and boroughs in Ireland, eleven (11) had majorities in favor of the Republic; and of one hundred and sixteen (116) town- ships ninety-two (92) favored the Republic. Thus, over 80.5 per cent of the City and Urban Councils give allegiance to the Republic, support Dail Eireann, and carry its decrees into effect. Of the two hundred and six (206) Rural District Councils, one hundred and seventy-two (172) are definitely Republican (83.5 per cent) and only nineteen (19) definitely in favor of England. And of the three thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven (3,427) representatives elected to these Councils, two thousand, seven hundred and eighty-two (2,782) (81.2 per cent) are definitely in favor of the Republic and only three hundred and eighty-six (386) (11.3 per cent) against it. Of the one hundred and fifty-four (154) Roards of Guardians, one hundred and thirty-seven (137) are definitely in favor of the Repub- lic (89.0 per cent), and only fifteen (15) against it, (9.7 per cent.) Of the thirty-three (33) County Councils, twenty-nine (29) are loyal to the Republic, and of a total of six hundred and ninety-nine (699) representatives elected to these Councils, six hundred and twelve (612), (87.6 per cent) are definitely in favor of the Republic, whilst only eighty-seven (87) are against it. 19] ENGLAND'S PLEAS Britain claims national self-determination was not intended to apply to nations like Ireland, because Ireland had been for a long time in the British political system — but Czecho-Slovakia had long been in the poHtical system of Austria, and Poland in the poKtical systems of Germany, Austria, and Russia. Self-^ determination was obviously not meant for the free nations who already had it, but principally for such nations as Ireland ' ' held in forced bondage by powerful imperial neighbors. ' ' England's hold on Ireland in the past has been maintained by force alone, and by force is maintained whatever hold she has on Ireland today — by machine guns, aeroplanes, tanks, bayonets — not by the con- sent of the people. England claims that the establislmaent of Ireland as an independent nation would be an act of "secession." Secession presupposes a previous voluntarily contracted union — there has been no such contract between Ireland and England. As shown in (Appendix) the methods by which the so-called "United Kingdom" was created, and the Act of "Union" passed were, as Gladstone puts it, "so foul and vile" that it has "no moral title to existence whatever." That union was simply, to use Lloyd George's own term, "the union of the grappling hook" or as Lord Byron puts it, the "union of the shark with its prey." The sepa- ration of Poland or Finland from its conquerors is not considered an act of secession. Another form of the above pretence is that the Irish ques- tion is a domestic question for Britain — one for her alone to settle. The struggle of the American Colonies to obtain theii* freedom from England in 1776 was similarly claimed to be a ' ' domestic question. ' ' But even before the Continental Congress sent Franklin, Adams, Dean, Lee and Dana to visit the courts of Europe to seek recognition, the American Revolution had ceased to be a "domestic question." Every foreign tyrant that has ever sought to be allowed to do as he wills with a subject people has claimed that the determination of his relations with them was purely a domestic question for himself. If the argument that Britain seeks to have applied to Ireland were accepted in the case of other countries, then Greece and other nations of the Near East would still be struggling with the Sultan, and the countries of Latin America still be subject to Spain. That Ireland is not in any real sense a domestic question for England has already been recognized by the people of America, by the Legislatures of many of its States, and by the House of Representatives and the Senate. [10] The "domestic" or "internal question" argument is a con- venient cloak for expediency. Witness the case of Poland. In 1916 France, England and Russia in a secret treaty declared Poland to be a matter of Russian internal poHtics and they agreed to hand over the whole of Poland to the Czar. Yet PolEind has since been admitted by these same powers to constitute an inter- national question. On this "domestic question" argument the Enghsh Joint Commission on the Problems of the International Settlement, an association of English publicists, in a Memorandum pub- lished in 1918, says: "In the past the Irish 'question' has been regarded as a domestic one, concerning only the British Commonwealth — the war has changed this and it is now a question of international importance. Its impor- tance lies not only in the fact that a settlement is publicly demanded by America, Russia and Germany, but in that its solution is increasingly regarded by the world at large as a test of the sincerity of the principles to which Great Britain stands pledged in this war." Closely related to the previous pretexts is the plea that Ireland's independence would menace England's security. By security here is of course really meant self-interest, commercial supremacy, the privilege of regulating in England's interests Ireland's internal economic life and Ireland's trade with the rest of the world. It would indeed be a peculiar doctrine, striking at the root of all freedom, to assert that a nation loses its security by having in- dependent neighbors. Were England's plea admitted, then no small nation would have a right to freedom, for some neigh- boring Empire would certainly claim it as necessary to its "security." It was on a plea such as this that Germany claimed to enter and to hold Belgium. By it, England could equally well claim the control of the channel ports in France. England has far less reason to fear a free Ireland — an isolated island — than she has to fear a free Belgium or a free France with an indefinite hinterland of resources. Ireland is not necessary to England's safety, and it is not for her national safety, nor for her legitimate security that England is fearful. Ireland is quite ready by treaty to insure England's safety and legitimate security against the danger of foreign powers seeking to use Ireland as a basis of attack against her. England's danger is not in a free but in an oppressed and subject Ireland. As a subject nation Ireland must hate her oppressor, and exert every effort to encompass her freedom from bondage. The Irish people's hatred for England would cease [111 with the removal of the cause, and an independent Irish nation might well find common interests with Britain. Final peace between the two nations can come with Ireland's independence and with that only. England can bring it about in an hour by withdrawing her army of occupation from Ireland. She will be surrendering no right in doing so. The Irish cannot be expected to sacrifice the rights of nationhood, and the struggle through the centuries has proved that they will not. A further plea is the assertion that the question of Ireland's independence is a religious one. That pretence can deceive only those who are unacquainted with the real facts of the Irish pohti- cal situation. The Irish question is fundamentally and entirely a political struggle between Ireland and Britain — between Irish nationality and British imperialism. That it is not a rehgious struggle can be seen from the fact that Catholic Ireland fought Catholic England centuries before Martin Luther nailed up his theses. Protestant Ireland fought Protestant England. Some of the bitterest opponents of Irish freedom today are Catholic Eng- lishmen. Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics ahke have suf- fered death for Irish hberty. The struggle for the RepubHc was initiated by Protestants, and in the past century and a half the foremost Irish leaders have been Protestants — Wolfe Tone, Russell, McCracken, Orr, Lord Edward FitzGerald, Robert Emmet, John Mitchel, Thomas Davis, Smith O'Brien, down to Butt and Parnell. It is obvious that if the Irish cause had been a religious cause the majority would not have chosen their leaders from the creed they were supposed to be opposing. This alone disproves the pretense that the Irish struggle against England is founded in a rivalry of religious beliefs. The so-called "Ulster" question is discussed in an Ap- pendix. It is shown that the minority in Ireland is but a political minority sustained by England to weaken Ireland's strength and that England may point to a minority in favor of union with herself. The guiding principle of her pohcy is made manifest in a state-paper sent by Westmoreland to Pitt.* There was never a nation yet seeking its freedom that did not have a minority at least against it. Washington had to contend with the "tories" and "loyalists" of his day, and they were far more numerous relatively than the Imperialists in Ire- land today. The minorities in Czecho-Slovakia and Jugo-Slavia are much larger than those in Ireland. The only thing excep- tional in the Irish situation is that over the greater part of the country there is this strange phenomenon — almost complete * "History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century." Vol. Ill, by Rt. Hon. W. E. H. Lecky. [12] political unanimity. What makes Ulster loom up at all, apart from the use made of it by British propagandists, is the con- trast that in the northeast corner of that Province there is not the strange and exceptional but the usual condition — to be found in most countries — well marked differences of political opinion. A free Ireland will have no difficulty in solving its minority problem. It can solve it much more easily, in fact, than most countries have been able to solve similar problems. The English Jomt Commission, already referred to, have stated their view: "If the people of Great Britain were definitely to express through the Government their willingness to agree to the application of self- determination Avithout any qualification except that suggested in the General Principles of the series (of Memoranda), viz., that due regard be paid to the general interests and welfare of the world as a whol(^ — - we are convinced a representative body of Irishmen called together for the purpose will very speedily devise minority safeguards which will be accepted by the opinion of both England and the world at large as fair and just." THE FUNCTIONING OF THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT Having received their mandate from the Irish people, the elected representatives met in Congress (Dail Eireann) and formally proclaimed Ireland's independence — notified all the nations, and set up a national executive which immediately proceeded to function. The Government of the Republic of Ireland is conducted under the central administration of a Cabinet consisting of the President^ and Ministers of State for Home and for Foreign Affairs, for National Defence, for Finance, for Local Govern- ment, for Industries, for Labor, for Agriculture, and for Educa- tion, with supplemental directors of Trade and Commerce, of Fisheries, of Forestry, and of Information. Each of these departments is noAv actively functioning, and has been so functioning without interruption since April, 1919. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is prosecuting Ireland's claim for recognition as a sovereign and independent state through a number of diplomatic missions to foreign peoples and governments. The Minister of Defence has organised a disciplined army of Volunteers, which is being equipped. The Minister of Finance has floated a considerable loan, both domestic and foreign, for the general purposes of the [131 government, in particular for the economic development of the country. The confidence reposed in the RepubHcan Gov- ernment by the people of Ireland is evidenced by the fact that the domestic loan was over-subscribed by one-half. The Minister of Local Government co-ordinates the work of the municipal and rural councils, and controls tlirough these democratically elected bodies, the administration of all the local affairs of the nation. The Minister of Industries and the Director of Trade and Commerce have caused a survey of Ireland's economic resources to be made, with a view to their proper utilization, along co- operative lines, for the benefit of the nation; and are developing closer trade relations with foreign countries through the con- sular service. The Ministry of Labor is particularly concerned with the advancement of schemes for the proper housing of the workers, the question of unemployment, and the arbitrament of industrial disputes. The Minister of Agriculture has organized a Land Bank to finance the agricultural industry of the country. Through the agency of this Bank several large grass ranches have been divided into economic holdings and allotted to farmers and laborers co-operatively organised. The Ministry actively aided the Director of Forestry in instituting an Arbor Day movement for the planting of waste lands throughout the country. The Minister for Home Affairs has organized a national judiciary — civil and criminal courts — the only courts, except the British com'ts-martial, now^ functioning in Ireland; and a police force. The rulings of the Land Courts on the intricate questions, arising out of the land problem, have brought about a cessation of the land unrest endemic in certain parts of Ireland in recent years. The Department of Education is promoting a general scheme of national education, and has taken over, and now directly controls certain technical and other educational institutions. The Fisheries Department is attending to the special needs of the fishing industry. A chain of co-operative societies has been formed amongst deep-sea fishermen, and the Department is aiding these societies financially to secure motor-driven boats, and essential equipment. Its inspectors see that the necessary technical knowledge is made available for those em- ployed in the curing and marketing of the fish. The other Departments similaiiy promote the national interests directly in their charge, working in close association with all interested in their respective spheres. [14] The functioning of the RepubHcan government is seen in its legislative acts and in the obedience rendered to them. Both the EngHsh Government, through DubKn Castle and the Irish Republican Legislature are issuing laws and decrees. But the laws and regulations of Dubhn Castle are purely repressive and destructive and are principally honored in the breach, whereas the laws of the Irish legislature are constructive and are observed. One hundred and fifty thousand soldiers cannot enforce Enghsh laws upon an unwilKng population, whereas the force of public opinion has served to obtain a nearly full measure of o])edience for Ireland's own laws. The administration of justice and the maintenance of civil order is another test of actual government. That Irish courts administer justice to the practical exclusion of the English courts is now a matter of universal knowledge. The following extract from the account of the Manchester Guardian's special corre- spondent, published in the Weekly Edition of July 9, 1920, p. 32, bears testimony to this fact: "Of all the activities of Sinn Fein none has come more closely before the public in recent months than the work of the Republican courts in administering justice and keeping civil order * * *. "One is able to give from authoritative sources some account of the machinery of these courts, which are suppressing the ordinary official courts over a great pai't of Ireland, and are attracting to them Unionist landlords, solicitors and barristers. They are held in 26 counties, but are to be found working most completely and effectively in the west. In Galway city, for instance, a sort of petty sessional court meets openly every night. In Cork courts are held openly in the city hall. A Sinn Fein land tribunal met in the County Council offices in Dublin a week ago. In most places they are held more or less surreptitiously, but their publicity is growing. The falling off in business in all the southern and western circuits has become notorious, and it is due almost entirely to the competition of the Sinn Fein courts and the fact that now they alone can claim popular consent and have the ability to enforce decrees." When the Lord Mayor of Cork — now dead in Brixton jail — was arrested, he was presiding at a Court of the Republic adjud- icating in a case in which an English Insurance Company was the plaintiff. Thus the Government of the Republic is functioning and claims recognition not only because it is the legitimate and right- ful government of the Irish people — the only government with the democratic sanction of the consent of the governed, but also because it is also the actual government in Ireland. The rival British Government in Ireland has been declared, even by Lord Grey, to be almost "non-existent." Referring to the "helpless- ness" of the British authority in Ireland, he said recently that British authority "has apparently ceased." [15] IRELAND'S CLAIM TO RECOGNITION IS A MORAL RIGHT Ireland, as already set forth, can show indisputable proof of the will of its people. Ireland can show a responsible, fully organized and functioning government, the only government securing the obedience of the people and hence the only de facto government in Ireland. Relying then, upon the established policy of the United States since the days of Jefferson, she con- siders herself entitled to recognition. "How," wrote Jefferson, "can we consistently refuse to recognize people who ask to establish our form of government .'^" "It accords with our principles to acknowledge any government to be rightful, which is founded by the will of the nation substantially declared." "We certainly cannot deny to other nations that principle whereon our own Grovernment is founded." — (Jefferson's Works, VI, 131.) With respect to the recognition of Greece, Secretary of State Livingston, addressing the envoys of Great Britain, France and Russia, said, April 30, 1833: "The President of the United States has directed me to inform you that it has been the principle and the invariable practice of the United States to recognize that as the legal government of another nation, which, by its establishment in the actual exercise of political power might be supposed to have received the express or implied assent of the people." — (Moore, Digest of International Law% I, p. 112.) President Grant, in his Annual Message of Dec. 7, 1875, said, with respect to Cuba: "Where a considerable body of people, who have attempted to free themselves of the control of the superior government, have reached such a point in occupation of territory, in power, and in general organi- zation as to constitute in fact a body poKtic; having a government in substance as well as in name, possessed of the elements of stability, and equipped with the machinery for the administration of internal policy and the execution of its laws, prepared and able to administer justice at home as well as in its dealings with other powers; it is within the province of those other powers to recognize its existence as a new and independent nation. In such cases other nations simply deal with an actually existing condition of things, and recognize as one of the powers of the earth that body politic which, possessing the necessary elements, has, in fact, become a new power." — (Moore, op. cit., I, 107). And President McKinley, in his Special Messasje of April 11, 1898, added: "When it shall appear hereafter that there is within the island a government capable of performing the duties and dischai'ging the functions of a separate nation, and having as a matter of fact, the proper forms and attributes of nationaHty, such government can be promptly and readily recognized." — (Moore, op. cit. I, 110). [16]' Secretary of State Webster, in replying on December 21, 1850, to the Austrian protest against the recognition of Hungary, declared : "It is not to be required of neutral powers that they should await the recognition of the new government by the parent state. No principle of public law has been so frequently acted upon within the last thirty years by the great powers of the world as this." From these precedents, a few among many, it is apparent that the United States has a clear diplomatic tradition in the policy of recognition of new states when they have established theii' independence de facto, notwithstanding the inevitable pro- tests of the "parent" states. Nor is the feeble control exercised in isolated places by the British army of occupation any bar to the recognition of Ireland. Viscount Grey has called attention to the "helplessness" of this "feeble government" of the British military forces. On September 3, 1918, the United States Government, through Secretary Lansing, recognized the Czecho-Slovak National Council in Paris as the "de facto" Government of the indepen- dent Czecho-Slovak State, although the entire Czecho-Slovak territory was occupied by the armies of Austria-Hungary. No national election had at that time manifested the national will for independence. Under somewhat similar circumstances, the independence of Poland, Finland, Jugo-Slavia and Armenia has been recognized. But even if Secretary Seward's policy of legitimacy were to be adopted, Ireland would still be entitled to recognition by the United States. For unless the GoA^ernment of the United States is prepared to deny that sovereignty resides in the people, the people of Ireland have through the ballot reinforced by law the claim of sovereignty resting on de facto authority. Inasmuch as the governments of Czecho-Slovakia, Finland, Poland, Jugo-Slavia, Armenia, Esthonia, Latvia and others were accorded recognition, on what moral basis can recognition be refused to the duly elected government of the Republic of Ire- land.^ As ah'eady pointed out, in the former countries, there was not even definite proof that the people wanted to be separated from the controlling Empires — their governments when recog- nized were in many cases purely provisional and nominal, were neither elected by the people, nor functioning nor in a position to function. Refusal of recognition to Ireland must imply therefore that the principles which were accepted as of universal application during the ivar are now specially restricted to favor the interests [17] • of England or to discriminate unjustly against Ireland — a dis- crimination which the repeated professions of statesmen during the war make immoral and impossible. The statesmen of Britain were as insistent on the rights of small nations to rule themselves as was America's President himself. Before the war, the Allied Nations reply to a note of your government was: "The Allied Nations are confident that they are fighting, not for selfish interests, but above all to safeguard the independence of peoples, right and humanity * * *," Their war aims necessarily imply "the re-organization of Europe, guaranteed by a stable regime, and based at once on respect for nationalities and liberty of economic development possessed by all peoples, small and great." On America's declaring war, Mr. Bonar Law said: "America's aims and ideals are those of the Allies." And the British Cabinet sent this message to America: "* * * They (the British people) also believe that the unity and peace of mankind can only rest upon democracy; upon the right ■ of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own govern- ment; upon the rights and liberties of nations, both great and small, and upon the universal dominion of public right." And when you, sir, at Washington's tomb, July 4, 1918, demanded "The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sover- eignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people im- mediately concerned, and not upon the basis of the material interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery. * * * What we seek is the reign of law based upon the consent of the governed, and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind," Mr. Lloyd George, the next day, addressing the American troops in France said : "President Wilson yesterday made it clear what we are fighting for." These declarations constitute a complete estoppel upon any protest from England against the recognition of Ireland's inde- pendence. We appeal to the principles upon which the war was fought not merely because they were the terms of the imphed contract on which millions offered up their lives and because to repudiate [18] them would be to break faith with these milHons; but because these principles are permanent truths as precious and vital to mankind today as when they were first enunciated and when, during the war, they were so consciously apprehended and valued as to be considered well worth securing at the price of a nation's blood and a nation's treasure. The bearing of these principles on the peace and progress of humanity lay then and hes now in their universaKty — that was and is their essence and to refuse to accept this universality is to render them valueless and to make vain all the sacrifices made to establish them. To reject Ireland's claim is to fail in the acid test. It is surely unnecessary to urge these considerations on the head of the American nation who was the interpreter of these ideals for us all. Ireland then asks no more than this:— a recognition that to her apply these principles to which the British Premier appealed when he said, speaking of Russia: "Supposing you * * * re-organized Russia, what manner of government would you set up there. ^> "You must set up a Government which the people want; other- wise it would be an outrage on all the principles for which we fought in the war." and of Poland : "Poland has chosen her own Government by universal suffrage, and it is intolerable that any country from outside should come in and impose upon her a government which she does not want." Even Britain itself cannot fail to understand, nor can she complain should there manifest itself in other nations the spirit glorified by her own spokesman, Lloyd George, in the appeal "When he saw an organized and insolent bully trampling on the weak, he felt he was pursuing his ideals in his endeavor to combat that oppression." England can point to no title to Ireland except the titles of aggression and usurpation. British authority in Ireland rests and has always rested on force alone. The admission of force as a title of right is a relic of barbarism. It was clearly seen to be such during the wai\ In an enhghtened age the conscience of mankind revolts against it, and it ought now to be impossible. Every appeal during the recent war had its point pecuharly in this — the rejection of the right of might. Millions were led to fight and die asserting the principle that the people of no nation might be forced by duress of arms under a sovereignty [19] under which they did not desire to Kve. That principle was accepted as universally appKcable, and as the necessary founda- tion for a lasting peace. The responsible statesmen of all the AUied and Associated Powers explicitly and definitely proclaimed it. It is the guiding principle on which rests the will of your government and people to participate in the war in defense of liberty. It has actually been applied to bring the freedom which they sought to Poland, to Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia, and to a number of other oppressed peoples. How can it be denied to Ireland.^ Every plea of England's statesmen that is not founded on a falsehood has its basis in the doctrine that might is right and the latter can be met and completely answered by the questions in which you, Sir, succinctly embodied the issues of the war: "Shall the military power of any nation or group of nations be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the right of force? "Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and make them subject to their purpose and interest? "Shall peoples be ruled and dominated, even in their own internal affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible force or by their own will and choice? "Shall there be a common standard of right and privilege for all peoples and nations or shall the strong do as they will and the weak suffer without redress?" To repudiate the evidence of the ballot, the most civilized method of declaring the national will, and to demand that, as a condition of recognition, the. bullet be more effectively used, is to introduce into international relations an inhuman principle of immorality. Ireland's claim today, measured by all the moral and legal standards the United States has estabhshed since its infancy and measured by the moral principles upon which the greatest war in history was fought, is as strong as any additional bloodshed can make it. Further bloodshed would not more decisively prove the national will of the people of Ireland, but a refusal of recognition now would invite it. IN or in requesting executive recognition at this time, do we ask you, Mr. President, to move far in advance of your people. Both branches of Congress have made manifest their will by recognizing that the case of Ireland was a proper one to be heard at the Peace Conference, and by expressing their sympathy with the Irish people's effort to establish a govern- ment of their own choice. We now ask you, in your capacity as spokesman and chief executive of the American people, to take executive notice of this action of Congress "as the Council [20] associated with (you) in the final determination of (America's) international obHgations. " Ireland's right to independence has been already admitted, by imphcation, in the decision to exempt her nationals in the United States from the appUcation of the British- American mihtary service convention of March, 1918. Ireland merely asks that the impHed recognition be now made explicit. I have the honor, Mr. President, to avail myself of this opportunity to express the assurances of my profound considera- tion and esteem. President of the Republic of Ireland. October 27, 1920. [21] APPENDIX TABLE OF CONTENTS I. War Aims: (a) President Wilson's Statements; (b) Professions of British Statesmen ; (c) French Statesmen's Declarations; (d) Britain's Recruiting Pledge to Ireland; (e) American Principles Reasserted in U. S. Note to Italy (f) Both Houses of Congress Recognize Ireland. II. Ireland a Nation. III. (a) British Renunciation Act, 1783. (b) So-called "United Kingdom" and Act of "Union." IV. Ireland's Exercise of the Right of Self-Determination : (a) Parliamentary Election Returns; (b) Municipal and Urban Election Returns ; (c) County Councils Election Returns; (d) Rural District Councils Election Returns. V. The "Ulster" Question. VI. English Ruthlessness in Ireland: (a) Twentieth Century; (b) A Century of Coercion; (c) In Past Centuries. VII. The Commercial Ruin of Ireland. VIII. Continental Congress Address to People of Ireland. [25] [I] (a) WAR AIMS PRESIDENT WILSON'S STATEMENTS (Before America's entry into the War) "No man, or group of men, chose these to be the issues of the struggle. They are the issues of it; and they must be settled — by no arrangement or compromise or adjustment of interests, but definitely and once for all and with a full and unequivocal acceptance of the prin- ciple that the interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of the strongest." — President Wilson— September 27, 19i8. April 20, 1915. (Address to Associated Press in New York.) "* * * We are trustees for what I venture to say is the greatest heritage that any nation ever had, the love of justice and righteousness and human liberty. For, fundamentally, those are the things to which America is addicted and to which she is devoted. * * * ," February 26, 1916. (Address to Gridiron Club, Washington.) "* * * The point in national affairs * * never lies along the hues of expediency. It always rests in the field of principle. The United States was not founded upon any principle of expediency; it was founded upon a profound principle of human liberty and of humanity, and whenever it bases its policy upon any other foundations than those it builds on the sand and not upon the solid rock * * *." "* * * this single thing upon which her character and history are founded, her sense of humanity and justice. If she sacrifices that, she has ceased to be America; she has ceased to entertain and to love the traditions which have made us proud to be Americans; and when we go about seeking safety at the expense of humanity, then I, for one, will believe that I have always been mistaken in what I have conceived to be the spirit of American history * * * ." "* * * whenever an impulse to settle a thing some short way tempts us, we might close the door and take down some old stories of what American idealists and statesmen did in the past, and not let any counsel in that does not sound in the authentic voice of American tradition * * * ." May 27, 1916. (Address to the League to Enforce Peace, at Washington.) "* * * The principle of public right must henceforth take preced- ence over the individual interests of particular nations. * * * ." " * * * there must be a common agreement for a common obj ect and at the heart of that common object must lie the inviolable rights of peoples and of mankind * * * We beheve these fundamental things: "First, that every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live * * *. "Second, that the small states of the world have a right to enjoy the same respect for their sovereignty and for their territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist upon. [26] "And third, that the world has a right to be free from every distur- bance of its peace that has its origin in aggression and disregard of the rights of peoples and nations."* October 26, 1916. (Address at Cincinnati). "* * * America is going to take this position, that she will lend her moral influence, not only, but her physical force, if other nations will join her, to see to it that no nation and no group of nations tries to take advantage of another nation or group of nations, and that the only thing ever fought for is the common rights of humanity * * * America was established in order to indicate, at any rate in one Government, the fundamental rights of man. America must here- after be ready as a member of the family of nations to exert her whole force, moral and physical, to the assertion of those rights throughout the round globe." December 18, 1916. (Dispatch in reply to German Proposition of Peace). "* * * Their (the people and the Government of the U. S.) interest, moreover, in the means to be adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples of the world of the peril of wrong and violence is as quick and ardent as that of any other people or government. They stand ready and even eager to cooperate in the accomplishment of these ends, when the war is over, with every influence and resource at their command." January 22, 1917. (Address to Senate on Conditions of Peace). Speaking, "as the responsible head of a great Government," of America's participation in the guarantees of the peace to end the war: '♦* * * 'pjjg treaties and agreements which bring it to an end must embody terms that will create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and preserving, a peace that will win the approval of mankind, not merely a peace that will serve the several interests and immediate aims of the nations engaged * * *, "* * * There is only one sort of peace that the peoples of America could join in guaranteeing. The elements of that peace must be elements that engage the confidence and satisfy the principles of the American Government, elements consistent with the political faith and the practical convictions which the peoples of America have once for all embraced and undertaken to defend. "* * * Only a tranquil Europe can be a stable Europe. *Note: This declaration of President Wilson, on May 27, 1916, was made a plank in the Democratic Party platform at the National Convention assembled in St. Louis in 1916. At the ensuing Elections the Party ticket was triumphant; thus, the prin- ciples here stated received the sanction of the people of America. The platform declaration was as follows: "We believe that every people has the right to choose the sovereignty under which it shall live; that the small states of the world have a right to enjoy from other nations the same respect for their sovereignty and for their territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist upon; and that the world has a right to be free from every disturbance of its peace that has its origin in aggression or disregard of the rights of peoples and nations. At the earliest practical opportunity our country should strive earnestly * * * that all men shall enjoy equality of right and freedom * * * in the lands wherein they dwell." [27] "* * * The equality of nations upon which peace must be founded, if it is to last, must be an equality of rights; the guarantees exchanged must neither recognize nor imply a difference between big nations and small ; between those that are powerful and those that are weak. Right must be based upon the common strength, not upon the individual strength, of the nations upon whose concert peace will depend * * *_ "* * * No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle that Governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right any- where exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property. * * * "* * * and that henceforth inviolable security of life, of wor- ship, and of industrial and social development should be guaranteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto under the power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose hostile to their own. "* * * Any peace which does not recognize and accept this principle will inevitably be upset. It will not rest upon the affections or the convictions of mankind. The ferment of spirit of whole popu- lations will fight subtly and constantly against it, and all the world Avill sympathize. The world can be at peace only if its life is stable, and there can be no stability where the will is in rebellion, where there is not tranquillity of spirit and a sense of justice, of freedom, and of right. * * * "* * * No doubt a somewhat radical re-consideration of many of the rules of international practice hitherto thought to be established may be necessary in order to make the sea indeed free and common in practically all circumstances for the use of mankind, hut the motive for such changes is convincing and compelling. * * *, "* * * I would fain believe that I am speaking for the silent mass of mankind everywhere who have as yet had no place or oppor- tunity to speak their real hearts out concerning the death and ruin they see to have come already upon the persons and the homes they hold most dear. * * * "* * * I am proposing as it were that the nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the doctrine of the world: that no nation should seek to extend its polity over any other nation or people, but that every people should be left free to determine its own polity, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and poAverful. * * * "* * * I gjjj proposing government by the consent of the governed. * * * "* * * These are American principles, American policies. We could stand for no others. And they are also the principles and policies of forward-looking men and women everywhere, of every modern nation, of every enlightened community. They are the principles of mankind and must prevail."* *Note: Two days after President Wilson's address to the Senate, Mr. Bonar Law said: 'What President Wilson is longing for, we are fighting for." [28] March 5, 1917. (Second Inaugural Address.) "* * * We have still been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that we were not ready to demand for all mankind — fair dealing, justice, the freedom to live and be at ease against organized wrong. * * * "* * * Y^Q have always professed unselfish purpose and we covet the opportunity to prove that our professions are sincere. * * * "* * * These, therefore, are the things we shall stand for. * * * That the ^ essential principle of peace is the equality of nations in all matters of right or privilege. * * * That govern- ments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed and that no other powers should be supported by the common thought, purpose, or power of the family of nations * * *." PRESIDENT WILSON'S STATEMENTS (During the War) April 2, 1917. (Address to Congress). "* * * ^g Qj^ gig^^ jjQ^ |.|jg^l ^g ggg i^Q facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples in- cluded: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. * * * \Ye a.re but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when these rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them. * * * "* * * But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things we have always carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties oi small nations, for the universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. "To such a task we can dedicate our lives and fortunes and every- thing that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and hap- piness and the peace that she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other."* May 22, 1917. (Letter to Representative Heflin). "* * * The whole of the conception which I take to be the conception of our fellow countrymen with regard to the outcome of the war and the terms of its settlement I set forth with the utmost explicitness in an Address to the Senate of the L^nited States on the 22nd January last. * * * " *Note: a few days later, Mr. Bonar Law said in the House of Commons: "America's aims and ideals are those of the Allies." [29] May 26, 1917. (Cablegram to Russia). "* * * She (America) is fighting for no advantage of Selfish object of her own, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force * * *. "We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government and the undictated development of all peoples, and every feature of the settle- ment that concludes this war must be conceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first be righted and then adequate safeguards must be created to prevent their being committed again. We ought not to consider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and sonorous sound. Practical questions can be settled only by practical means. Phrases will not accompHsh the result. Effective readjustments will, and whatever readjustments are necessary must be made. "But they must follow a principle and that principle is plain. No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live. * * * * '* * For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure * * *" July 14, 1917. (Cablegram to French Government). "* * * our peoples today stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of liberty in testimony of the steadfast purpose of our two countries to achieve victory for the sublime cause of the rights of the people against oppression. The lesson of the Bastile is not lost to the world of free peoples." August 27, 1917. (Reply to the Pope). "* * * The American people believe that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not the rights of governments — the rights of peoples great or small, weak or powerful — their equal right to security and freedom and self-government." December 4, 1917. (Address to Congress). "* * * vre shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will be full impartial justice — ^justice done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends. * * *." January 8, 1918. (Address to Congress). "=1= * * ^^Q have spoken now surely in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all nationalities and peoples, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this principle be made its foundation no part of the structure of international justice can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other principle; and to the vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and every- thing that they possess. * * * " [30] February 11, 1918. (Address to Congress). "* * * National aspirations must be respected; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. 'Self- determination' is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril. * * * "* * * jjjjs ^ar had its roots in the disregard of the rights of small nations and of nationalities which lacked the union and the force to make good their claim to determine their own allegiances and their own forms of political life. * * * "* * * Unless these problems are dealt with in a spirit of un- selfish and unbiased justice, with a view to the wishes, the natural connections, the racial aspirations, the security and peace of mind of the peoples involved, no permanent peace will have been attained * * * all well-defined national aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can be accorded them * * *." July 4, 1918. (Address at Mt. Vernon). "* * * 'j'jje settlement of every question, whether of territory" of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned, and not upon the basis of the material interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery. * * * "* * * These great objects can be put into a single sentence: What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind * * *."* September 1, 1918. (Public Message to Labor). "It is a war to m-ake the nations and the peoples of the world secure against every such Power as the German autocracy represents. ^ ^ ^ "Germany was striking at what freemen everywhere desired and must have — the right to determine their own fortune, to insist upon justice. * * * "* * * The world cannot be safe * * * so long as Govern- ments, like that which, after long premeditation, drew Austria and Germany into this war, are permitted to control the destinies and the daily fortunes of men and nations, plotting while honest men work, laying the fires of which innocent men, women and children are to be the fuel. * * * The soldiers * * * are crusaders * * * They are giving their lives that homes everywhere as well as the homes they love in America may be kept sacred and safe and men everywhere be free as they insist upon being free * * *." September 27, 1918. (Address to Public Meeting in New York). "* * * Those issues (war issues) are: 1. Shall the military power of any nation or group of nations be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the right of force? *Note: Premier Lloyd George the following day, addressing the American troops in France, said: "President Wilson yesterday made it clear what we are fighting for." [31] 2. Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and make them subject to their purpose and interest? 3. Shall peoples be ruled and dominated, even in their own internal affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible force or by their own will and choice? 4. Shall there be a common standard of right and privilege for all peoples and nations or shall the strong do as they will and the weak suffer without redress? * * * "* * * It is of capital importance that we should also be explicitly agreed that no peace shall be obtained by any kind of com- promise or abatement of the principles we have avowed as the principles for which we are fighting. * * * "* * * 'YYie price (of peace) is impartial justice in every item of the settlement, no matter whose interest is crossed. * * * "* * * These then are some of the particulars, and I state them with the greater confidence because I can state them authoritatively as representing this Government's interpretation of its own duty with regard to peace: "First, the impai'tial justice meted out must involve no dis- crimination between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just. It must be a justice that plays no favorites and knows no standard but the equal rights of the several peoples concerned; "Second, no special or separate interest of any single nation or any -group of nations can be made the basis of any part of the settlement which is not consistent with the common interest of all." EXTRACTS FROM NOTES BETWEEN GERMANY AND PRESIDENT WILSON PRECEDING THE ARMISTICE Germany to America, October 6, 1918: "* * * It (the German Government) accepts the programme set forth by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of January 8, 1918, and in his later pronouncements, especially his speech of September 27, as a basis for peace negotiations. * * *." President Wilson's Reply to Germany, October 8, 1918: "* * * Does the Imperial Chancellor mean that the Imperial German Government accepts the terms laid down by the President in his address to the Congress of the United States on January 8th last and in subsequent addresses, and that its object in entering into discussions would be only to agree upon the practical details of their application? ******." Germany to President Wilson, October 12, 1918: "* * * The German Government has accepted the terms laid down by President Wilson in his address of January 8 and in his sub- sequent Address on the foundation of a permanent peace of justice. Consequently its object in entering into discussions would be only to .agree upon practical details of the application of these terms. [32] "The German Government believes that the Governments of the Powers associated with the Government of the United States also adopt the position taken by President Wilson in his Address. * * *." President Wilson's Reply to Germany, October 14, 1918: '•* * * 'jYie unqualified acceptance by the present German Gov- ernment and by a large majority of the German Reichstag of the terms laid down by the President of the United States of America in his addresses to the Congress of the United States on January 8, 1918, and in his subsequent addresses justifies the President in making a frank and direct statement of his decision in regard to the communications of the German Government of the 8th and 12th October, 1918. * * *. "* * * It is necessary, also, in order that there may be no possi- bility of misunderstanding, that the President should very solemnly call the attention of the Government of Germany to the language and plain intent of one of the terms of peace which the German Govern- ment has now accepted. It is contained in the Address of the President delivered at Mount Vernon on July 4th last. It is as follows:— '"'•^ * * The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can separately, secretely, and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at least its reduction to virtual impotency. * * *.' " President Wilson's reply to Germany, October 22, 1918: "Having received the solemn and explicit assurance of the German Government that it unreservedly accepts the terms of peace laid down in his address to Congress of the United States on January 8, 1918, and the principles of settlement enunciated in his subsequent addresses, particularly the address of September 27th, and that it desires to discuss the details of their application, * * * the President of the United States feels that he cannot decline to take up * * * the question of an armistice." Germany to President Wilson, October 23, 1918: ":!.■ * * 'YYie German Government now awaits proposals for an armistice which shall be a first step towards a just peace, as the Presi- dent has described it in his proclamation." PRESIDENT WILSON'S STATEMENTS (After the Armistice) February 24, 1919. (Address at Boston). Speaking of his reception on the other side of the Atlantic: "* * * it was * * * the cry that comes from men who say we have waited for this day when the friends of liberty should come across the sea and shake hands with us to see that the new world was constructed upon a new basis and foundation of justice and right. "The proudest thing I have to report to you is that this great country of ours is trusted throughout the world. * * * Every interest seeks out first of all when it reaches Paris the representatives of the United States * * * because there is no nation in Europe that suspects the motives of the United States. [33] "They resort to that nation which has won enviable distinction being regarded as the friend of mankind. "Before this war Europe did not believe in us as she does now * * * she seems to have believed that we were holding off because we thought we could make more by staying out than by going in. * * * When they saw that America went in to support the great cause which they held in common, that America not only held the ideals but acted the ideals, they were converted to America and became firm partisans of these ideals. "Speaking * * * in the name of the people of the United States I have uttered as the objects of this great war ideals, and nothing but ideals, and the war has been won by that inspiration. * * * If America were at this juncture to fail the world, what would come of it? "I do not mean any disrespect to any other great nation when I say that America is the hope of the world. And if she does not justify that hope results are unthinkable." "We set this Nation up to make men free and we did not confine our conception and purDose to America, and now we will make men free." "Think of the picture: America said, 'We are your friends,' but it was only for today, not for tomorrow. America said, 'We set up light to lead men along the paths of liberty, but we have lowered it — it is intended only to light our own path.' "When I think of the homes upon which dull despair would settle if this great hope is disappointed, 1 should wish for my part never to have had America play any part whatever in this attempt to emancipate the world." March 4, 1919. (Address at New York). "Europe is a bit sick at heart at this moment because it sees that the statesmen have had no vision and that the only vision has been the vision of the people. "Those who suffer see. Those against whom wrong is wrought know how desirable is the right of the righteous. Nations that have long been under the heel * * * have called out to the world, generation after generation, for justice, liberation, and succor, and no cabinet in the world has heard them. * * * no nation has said to the nations responsible 'You must stop: this thing is intolerable and we will not permit it.' "It was set up for the benefit of mankind ; it was set up to illustrate the highest ideals and to achieve the highest aspirations of men who wanted to be free, and the world of today believes that and counts on us, and would be thrown back into the blackness of despair if we deserted it." "* * * If men cannot now, after this long agony of bloody sweat, come to their self-possession and see how to regulate the affairs of the world we will sink back into a period of struggle in which there will be no hope, and therefore no mercy." "And those boys went over there with the feeling that they were sacredly bound to the realization of those ideals * * * tJ^at they were crossing those 3,000 miles of sea in order to show to Europe that the United States when it became necessary, would go anywhere where the rights of mankind were threatened." [34] "* * * it must not be over until the nations of the world are assured of the permanency of peace." "* * * when they (the peoples of Europe) saw the multitudes hastening across the sea * * * they stood at amaze and said: 'The thing is real; this nation is the friend of mankind as it said it was.' "Nothing entangles a nation, hampers it, binds it, except to enter into a combination with some other nation against the other nations of the world." ' [I] (b) WAR AIMS Professions of British Statesmen PREMIER ASQUITH August 6, 1914: "* * * We are fighting to vindicate the principle that small nationalities are not to be crushed, in defiance of international good faith, by the arbitrary will of a strong and overmastering power." September 25, 1914: "* * * It means that room must be found and kept for the inde- pendent existence and free development of the smaller nationalities, each with a corporate consciousness of its own." November 10, 1914. (Guildhall Banquet): "Perhaps I might say primarily a war for the emancipation of the smaller states * * *. The peace must be such as will build upon a sure and stable foundation the security of the weak, the liberties of Europe and the free future of the world." November 9, 1915: "* * * But, be the journey long or short, we shall not pause or falter until we have secured for the smaller States of Europe their charter of independence, and for the world at large its final emancipa- tion from the reign of force." January 7, 1917: "We have believed, and we have maintained from the first day of the war, that we are fighting for no selfish purposes, but in the gen- eral service of civilization and humanity." September 26, 1917: *'* * * This war * * * "is the creation of a world-wide policy uniting the peoples in a confederation of which Justice will be the base and Liberty the cornerstone." September 29, 1917: "An international system in which there will be a place for great and for small states, and under which both alike can be assured a stable foundation and an independent development." [35] MR. ARTHUR BALFOUR November 9, 1914: * * * We are five nations; but we fight, not for ourselves alone, but for civilization, drawn to the cause of small States, the cause of all those countries which desire to develop their own civilization in their own way, following their own ideals without interference from any insolent and unauthorized aggressor. That is the cause for which we fight." SIR EDWARD GREY March 22, 1915: "* * * We wish the nations of Europe to be free to live their independent lives, working out their own forms of government for themselves and their own national developments, whether they be great States or small States, in full liberty. That is our ideal." February 23, 1917: "This war * * * will secure to Europe * * * a peace in which each nation will be able to live its own life." MR. WINSTON CHURCHILL September 24, 1915: "We want a natural and harmonious settlement which liberates races, restores the integrity of nations and subjugates no one. * * *. Let us war against the principle of one set of Europeans holding down, by force and conquest, against their wills, another section." LORD ROBERT CECIL May 23, 1917: "I laid special stress on the fact that our aims and aspirations were dictated solely by our determination to secure a peace founded on national liberty and international amity, and that all imperialistic aims based on force or conquest were completely absent from our programme." July 24, 1917: "We want a * * * peace, resting not on conflict or domination, but on some national principle, so far as may be, which would secure that the settlement to be arrived at, so far as any settlement could be, should be secure from change or alteration in the future." MR. BONAR LAW September 4, 1914: "* * * ^g ^j.Q figiiting for the moral forces of humanity. We are fighting for the respect of public law and the right of public justice, which are the foundations of civilization. We are fighting, as the Prime Minister said, for right against might." January 24, 1917: "What President Wilson is longing for we are fighting for." [36] April 19, 1917: "America's aims and ideals are those of the Allies." July 26, 1917: "We are not only fighting for the freedom of ourselves — we are fighting for the rights of other nations * * * to live their own way * * *. The one thing we are fighting for is peace, and security for peace, in the time to come." PREMIER LLOYD GEORGE September 19, 1914: "The heroic deeds that thrill humanity, through generations were the deeds of little nations fighting for their freedom. Yes, and the salvation of mankind came through a little nation. God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of humanity, to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to stimulate and strengthen their faith ; and if we had stood by when two little nations were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarism, our shame would have rung down the everlasting ages." September 6, 1917: "* * * But if this is the day of Great Empires, it is also preemi- nently the day of httle nations. It is around them that the greatest struggle for liberty centres." January 5, 1918: " * * * The settlement of the new Europe must be based on such grounds of reason and justice as will give some promise of stability. Therefore it is that we feel that government with the consent of the governed must be the basis of any territorial settlement in this war." January 1, 1917, (Times Report, Allied reply to German Peace Note): "Once again the Allies declare that no peace is possible as long as they have not secured reparation of the violated rights and liberties, recognition of the principle of nationalities, and of the free existence of small States." January 12, 1917. (Times Report, Allied reply to President Wilson's Note) : "The Allied Nations are confident that they are fighting, not for selfish interests, but above all to safeguard the independence of peoples, right and humanity * * * . "Their war aims necessarily imply the re-organization of Europe, guaranteed by a stable regime, and based at once on respect for nation- alities and liberty of economic development possessed by all peoples, small and great." "February 4, 1917. "The Liberal Party has special interest in the causes for which f we are struggling in this great war, and the principle that the rights of I nations, however small, are as sacred as the rights of the biggest Empires." [37] January 5, 1918, (Labor Conference): "The sanctity of treaties must be established; a territorial settle- ment must be secured based on the right of self-determination, or the consent of the governed." August 3, (Message read at all places of entertainment): "We are in this war for no selfish ends. We are in it to recover freedom for the nations who have been brutally attacked." August 9, 1918, (Report of Address at Castle Hotel): "When he saw an organized and insolent bully trampling on the weak, he felt he was pursuing his ideals in his endeavor to combat that oppression. "The world is a world for the weak as well as for the strong. If not, why did God make little nations?" April 16, 1919, (House of Commons): "Supposing you * * * re-organized Russia, what manner of gov- ernment would you set up there? "You must set up a Government which the people want; other- wise it would be an outrage on all the principles for which we fought in the war." July 21, 1920, (House of Commons): "Poland has chosen her own government by universal suffrage, and it is intolerable that any country from outside should come in and impose upon her a government which she does not want." H< ^ H< ^ :{: ^ :{: April 17, 1917, (British Cabinet Message to America) "The glowing phrases of the President's noble deliverance illumine the horizon, and make clearer than ever the goal we are striving to reach. * * * These words represent the faith which inspires and sus- tains our people in the tremendous sacrifices they have made, and are still making. They also believe that the unity and peace of mankind can only rest upon democracy ; upon the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government ; upon the rights and liberties of nations, both great and small, and upon the universal dominion of public right." [I] (c) WAR DECLARATIONS OF FRENCH STATESMEN M. CLEMENCEAU: "* * * To conquer in order to be just, has been the motto of our Governments since the beginning of the war. * * *." "* * * I have been asked to explain myself in regard to war aims and to the idea of a society of nations. I have replied in my declaration 'We must conquer for the sake of Justice' * * *. " [38] (To French Chamber 20th November, 1917) "The splendid victories of the last few weeks * * * are the first sheaves of the harvest of great rewards the chief of which will be to deliver the world from an oppression of implacable brutality and at one stroke to throw open the paths of progress to all the permanent centres of human civilization. The supreme obstacle to the estab- lishment of right among men is about to disappear amid the shouts of victory which it is our duty to turn into a triumph of humanity. * * *." "* * * Xhe sole reward they ask is to collaborate with all peoples of just conscience in solving the problems of lofty and social justice which will be the generous fruit of the grandest victory of all ages. * * *." M. POINCARE, President of the French Republic, January 18th, 1918, opening the Peace Conference: "* * * While the conflict was gradually extending over the entire surface of the earth the clanking of chains was heard here and there, and captive nationalities from the depths of their age-long gaols cried out to us for help. * * * The Jugo-Slavs, the Armenians, the Syrians, the Lebanese, the Arabs, all the oppressed peoples, all the victims, long helpless or resigned, of great historical deeds of injustice, all the martyrs of the past, all the outraged consciences, all the strangled liberties revived at the clash of our arms and turned towards us, as their natural defenders. Thus the war gradually attained the fullness of its first significance, and became, in the fullest sense of the term, a crusade of humanity for Right ; and if anything can console us in part at least, for the losses we have suffered, it is assuredly the thought that our victory is also the victory of Right. * * * . * * * And in the light of those truths you intend to ac- complish your mission. You will therefore seek nothing but justice, 'justice that has no favourites,' justice in territorial problems, justice in financial problems, justice in economic problems * * * . "* * * What justice banishes is the dream of conquest and imperialism, contempt for national will, the arbitrary exchange of provinces between states as though peoples were but articles of furni- ture or pawns in a game. The time is no more when diplomatists could meet to redraw with authority the map of empires on the corner of a table. If you are to remake the map of the world it is in the name of the peoples * * *. "* * * As it is to have for its essential aim to prevent, as far as possible the renewal of wars it will, above all, seek to gain respect for the peace which you will have established, and will find it the less difficult to maintain in proportion, as this peace will in itself imply greater realities of justice and safer guarantees of stability. "Ry establishing this new order of things you will meet the aspi- ration of humanity, which, after the frightful convulsions of these bloodstained years, ardently wishes to feel itself protected by a union of free peoples against the ever-possible revivals of primitive savagery. An immortal glory will attach to the names of the nations and the men who have desired to cooperate in this grand work in faith and brother- hood and who have taken pains to eliminate from the future peace causes of disturbance and instability. " [39] [I](cl) BRITAIN'S RECRUITING PLEDGE Following are copies of two official appeals to the manhood of Ireland, published throughout Ireland as late as 1918 with the authority of the British War Office: [Numbered: (417) 5626. 3. 20,000. Falconer G. 5] (1) IRELAND AND AMERICA "The Star-Spangled Banner is unfurled for the fight. There is not the slightest ambiguity about the language of President Wilson : " 'Territory, sovereignty or political relationship — any or all of these — to be settled upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned'. "The President also said: "'We are concerting with our Allies to make not only the liberties of America secure, but the liberties of every other people as well'. ''No man can read these words without applying them to Ireland as well as to Belgium, Poland, the Jugo-Slavs and the Ukraine. The Allies {and America clearly states this) cannot undertake to free the peoples under Germany and Austria and leave OTHER peoples under a system of Government which they resent. America, speaking through its President, declares that 'the liberties of every other people' are as valued and are to be made secure, aye, as the liberties of America. Will Ireland fight for this freedom? America will see her rights are secured." (2) IRELAND AND THE PEACE CONFERENCE "The Allies declare in specific terms that they are out to give freedom to Small Nationalities. The Central Powers, Germany and Austria refuse to declare any such thing, and their treatment of Belgium, Serbia, Mon- tenegro and Roumania in the present war is enough to show their prin- ciples and method. But they go further and ask the Allies to agree to close out all nations not in the enjoyment of freedom prior to the war. The Allies refuse. Is it not in the interest of Ireland then to test the public declarations of the Allies, and aid them in the fight they are waging for Small Nationalities. They cannot then in the face of Europe give freedom to all the Small Nations and leave Ireland out.'' [I] (e) EXTRACTS FROM RECENT U. S. NOTES American Principles Reasserted The principles for which the United States stands are reasserted in the latest State document, that of Secretary Colby in a Note to Italy, August 10, 1920: "That the present rulers of Russia do not rule by the will or the consent of any considerable proportion of the Russian peoples is an incontestable fact. * =!= * Without any desire to interfere in the [40] internal affairs of the Russian people or to suggest what kind of govern- ment they shall have, the government of the United States does express the hope that they will soon find a way to set up a government repre- senting their free will and purpose." Speaking of Finland, ethnic Poland, the Armenian state, and the necessity of maintaining their independence. Secretary Colby said: "The aspirations of these peoples for independence are legitimate. Each was forcibly annexed, and their liberation from oppressive alien rule involves no aggression against Russia's territorial rights and has received the sanction of the public opinion of all free peoples. Such a declaration pre-supposes the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the territory embraced by these boundaries." [I] (f) ROTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS RECOGNIZE IRELAND 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 peoples will favorably consider the claims of Ireland to self-determination." On June 6, 1919, the Senate by a vote to which there was only one dis- sentient, resolved: "That the Senate of the United States earnestly request the American Plenipotentiary Commissioners at Versailles to endeavor to secure for Eamon de Valera, Arthur Griffith, and George Noble Count Plunkett, a hearing before the said Peace Conference in order that they may present the cause of Ireland, and resolved further, that the Senate of the United States express its sympathy with the aspiration of the Irish people for a government of its own choice." TREATY OF PEACE WITH GERMANY Irish Reservation Senate Resolution, March 18, 1920: "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 aspiration of the Irish people for a government of their own choice adopted by the Senate, June, 6, 1919, and declares that when self-government is attained by Ireland, a con- summation it is hoped is at hand, it should promptly be admitted as a member of the League of Nations." [41] [11] "Ireland A Nation" The fact that nationhood is not denied to Ireland, except by those who have an obvious special interest in the denial, makes it unnecessary to labor any proof of it. G. K. Chesterton, the well-known Enghsh pubhcist, accepts the fact as obvious: — "* * * if Aunt Jane is not a person there is no such thing as a person, and I say with equal conviction that if Ireland is not a nation then there is no such thing as a nation: France is not a nation, England is not a nation; there is no such thing as patriotism on this planet. "* * * if we free Ireland we must free it to be a nation; if we go on repressing Ireland we are repressing a nation; if we are right to repress Ireland we are right to repress a nation. "* * * I will not argue with a man about whether Ireland is a nation, or about the yet more awful question of whether it is an island." — ^("Irish Impressions" pp. 187-188). Mr. H. H. Asquith, when Premier of England, said: "There are few cases in history— as a student of history I myself know of none — of a nationhood at once so distinct, so persistent and so assimilative as the Irish. * * * j start then with the proposition that Ireland is a nation." And again: "I have always maintained, and I maintain as strongly today that * * * Ireland is a nation. Not two nations, but one nation, and that the condition of the success of any scheme that statesmen can devise is the recognition, the full and generous recognition, of Irish nationality." It is interesting to test Ireland's title to nationhood by accepted current definitions. Professor Yeomans in the "Cyclopedia of American Govern- ment," citing Burgess and Garner, defines a "nation" as follows: "A body of people possessing racial unity. Racial unity can, however^ no longer be identified with community of origin * * * ^ nation is a population with a feeling of ethnic solidarity, due to the existence of one or more of a variety of factors of which the following are most important: a common origin; a common language; a common literature, tradition and history; a common religion; common customs and habits of life; common interests of any sort whether due to geographic unity, to similarity of occu- pation, or to anything else. No one of these factors is indispensable and no one is necessarily decisive in making a nation. The relative strength of every factor has varied in the past and will vary again." [42] It would be difficult to point to any nation in the world that combines so many of these factors of nationhood as Ireland. Surely Poland, Czecho- slovakia and Jugo-Slavia, rightfully recognized as independent, do not begin to approach Ireland in the distinctive character of their nationhood. The British "Joint Commission on the Problem of the International Settlement," an organization of English publicists, in Memorandum IV of its series, has this to say of Ireland: "Ireland has all the attributes of a nation. Her boundaries cannot be disputed. Her peoples from the earliest times have known the country by a single name, and giye it an undivided affection. Through long ages she has been famous for work in gold and metal, in stone and in parchment. Her written history, compiled by her own scholars, is as old as that of England. She possesses an ancient and splendid literature. The work of her unbroken roll of learned scholars and poets for over a thousand years has, during the last three hundred years, been preserved by the devotion of her people, who in their darkest hour still labored in their cabins to copy and continue the manuscript tradition left them by their fathers. There is no other instance in Europe of a zeal such as this. The national conscious- ness of the people, based on a great tradition, has never failed, and is now of passionate intensity." — ("Ireland" p. 13) "The early history of Ireland reveals a story of singular beauty and spiritual dignity. Instead of a country of barbarian disorder, Ireland appears as a land of mixed races united under Celtic leadership in an intense national faith. "The whole country was, from earliest times, known by a single name, Eire, which later took the form of Ireland. Its chroniclers began writing its history in the seventh century, and from, at least as early as the eighth century a code of laws existed for the whole of Ireland. National senti- ment was inspired by love of the country itself, and its geography was part of the earliest literature. Schools of learning were so ordered as to be in fact a National University, and by their care the Irish language was guarded and perfected as the language of Ireland one and indivisible. It is the eaiiy unity of all Ireland in its intellectual and spiritual life which reveals the soul of the country and which has given it from the first the fervour of national consciousness. "What is known of the political life of the time reveals a settled govern- ment which commanded the affection of the people and social conditions both humane and reasonable. Communication with continental peoples was frequent, and Irish travellers — poets, missionaries, scholars and traders were found in every land. Woolen goods, leather work, fine embroideries, and other wares from Ireland were known in Europe as far even as Naples and Russia. Irish scholars above all had a great repute, especially as teachers, in foreign lands. Ireland lived no secluded life, but was in direr* contact with the trade, the science, and the literature of Europe. The w-alth of the country invited many invaders — Danes, Normans, and Ep>?»'^sh. The invasion of Henry II, in 1169, broke the unity of the naf^onai life and the natural progress of civilization, culture and governme-ic. Two contending forms of civilization were set against each other, '>^ie based on a political and imperial idea of a State— the other on the national and spiritual tradi- tion of a country. The conflict thus begun has continued to the present day * * *"— ("Ireland" pp. 3-4.) , , ^ 'This larger history of Ireland is unknown in England, to the loss of both countries. But there can be no understanding of the country unless we recognize the deepest passion of the race, the soul that has been fash- [431 ioned in that long spiritual and intellectual history. Economic questions and political discontents are important, because until they are rightly settled the greater matter of material life are withered and broken. But after a century of conflicts over the material problems of land, and local government, and an Irish Parliament, the national uprising of today has made it clear that the greater demand which lies above and beyond all others, is that Ireland shall have the power to establish a true national civilization, and a culture worthy of the tradition which is the proudest inheritance of the race. "Ireland desires 'to possess her own soul, so that it may be at liberty and rest, and free to contribute to the higher development of neighboring races and of the human race generally.' " — ("Ireland" pp. 13-14.) [HI] (a) The Renunciation Act, 1783 The Colonial Parliament of Ireland represented only the English in Ireland. It was co-eval with the English Parliament, however, and strove to maintain its independence through the centuries. By the 18th century the attitude of the Colonists had become more assertively Irish and the contest for supremacy between the two Parliaments, accordingly, became more intense. The Renunciation Act, of 1783, was regarded as finally ending the struggle with victory for the Irish Parliament. Under this Act the English Parliament explicitly acknowledged the right and title of the people of Ireland to govern themselves, and definitely renounced forever English pretensions thereto. Following is copy of the Act : (RENUNCIATION ACT, 1783) "George III. (Anno Vicesimo Tertio) Cap. XXVIII. An act for removing and preventing all doubts which have arisen, or might arise, concerning the exclusive rights of the parliament and courts of IRELAND in matters of legislation and judicature; and for preventing any writ of error or appeal from any of his Majesty's courts in that kingdom from being received, heard, and adjudged, in any of his Majesty's courts in the kingdom of GREAT BRITAIN. Whereas, by an act of the last session of this present parliament (intituled An Act to appeal an act, made in the sixth year of the reign of his late majesty King George the First, intituled, An act for the better securing the dependency of the kingdom of IRELAND upon the crown of GREAT BRITAIN;) it was enacted. That the said last mentioned act, and all matters and things therein contained, should be repealed; and whereas doubts have arisen whether the provisions of the said act are sufficient to secure to the people of IRELAND the rights claimed by them to be bound only by laws enacted by his Majesty and the parliament of that kingdom, in all cases whatever, and to have all actions and suits at law or in equity, which may be instituted in that kingdom, decided in his Majesty's courts therein finally, and without appeal from thence: therefore, for removing all doubts respecting the same, may it please your Majesty that it i^^Y be declared and enacted; and be it declared and enacted by the King's most excellent majebvy by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and com- ™9^^'.*^/ys present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same. That the said right clainit-d hy the people of Ireland to be bound only by laws enacted by his Majesty and the parliament of tlxat hmgdom, in all cases whatever, and to have all actions and suits at law or in equity, which may be instituted in that kingdom, decided in his Majesty's courts therein finally, and without appeal f^rm thence, shall be, and it is hereby declared to be established, and ascertained forever, _ and shalt, at no time hereafter, be questioned or questionable. 1 V n V ^^ further engcted by the authority aforesaid. That no writ of error or appeal shall be received or adjudged, or any other proceeding be had by or in any of hi» p L^-^^ v^ s courts m this kingdom, in any action or suit at law or in equity, instituted in any ot has Majesty s courts m the kingdom of Ireland; and that all such writs, appeals or pro- ceedings, shall be, and they are hereby de^vlared null and void to aU intents and purposes; and that all records, transcripts of records or proceedings, which have been transmitted I [44] from Ireland to Great Britain, by virtue of any writ of error or appeal, and upon which no judgment has been given or decree pronounced before the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, shall, upon application made by or in behalf of the party in whose favor judgment was given, or decree pronounced, in Ireland, be delivered to such party, or any person by him authorized to apply for and receive the same." This Act and the Treaty of Limerick (1691) stand out chief among Britain's many "scraps of paper," in her relations with the" Irish Nation. [HI] (b) The So-Called "United Kingdom" and the Act of "Union" W No argument is more ' frequently used by British Ministers as an excuse for refusing the people of Ireland the right of self-determination than the argument that for Ireland to declare herself independent would be "secession" similar to the attempted secession of the Southern States from the American Union. How audaciously false this analogy is can only b§ realized by those who know how different in moral binding force was the forced Act of Union that created the so-called "United Kingdom," and the voluntary contract which united the states of America. No English statesman or jurist has been able to maintain that the Act of Union was a contract binding on the Irish people. W. E. Gladstone, former Prime Minister of England, speaking at Liver- pool, on June 28, 1886, said: "There is no blacker or fouler transaction in the history of man than the making of the union between Great Britain and Ireland. * * * The carrying of it was nothing in the world but an artful combination of fraud and force, applied in the basest manner to the attainment of an end which all Ireland detested. * * * ^ more base proceeding, a more vile proceeding, is not recorded, in my judg- ment, in any page of history." And, in the House of Commons, London, on April 16, 1886, he said: "We used the whole civil government of Ireland as an engine of wholesale corruption. * * * j .^jjj ^j^jy g^^y -f^j^g^^ ^^ obtained that Union against the sense of every class of the community, by wholesale bribery and unblushing intimidation." At West Calder, in 1893, Mr. Gladstone said: "The Act of Union was carried by means so indescribably foul and vile that it can have no moral title for existence whatsoever." And, again, on January 28, 1897, he said: "Union with Ireland has no moral force * * * it rests on no moral basis. That is the line I would always take were I an Irishman. That is' the line which as an Enghshman I now take." [45] And, elsewhere, he spoke of the means by which the "Union" was carried as "unspealtably criminal." A. V. Dicey, English jurist, in politics an Unionist, was compelled to admit that: "The Union was passed under circumstances which would have made any other conveyance null and void." W. E. H. Lecky, the historian, also an Unionist, said of it: "In a country where the sentiment of nationality was as intense as in any part of Europe, it destroyed the national legislature contrary to the manifest wish of the people, and by means so corrupt, treacherous, and shameful that they ai'e never likely to be forgotten. The Union of 1800 was not only a great crime, but was also like most crimes — a great blunder." No one will hold that such statements as these have been made by the advocates of the South in the Civil War. Lest they appear to be wild or irresponsible exaggerations it is per- haps better to enter into some details: The Act of Union which created the "United Kingdom," and to which the British appeal when they talk of an analogy between the case of Ireland seeking her independence and the case of the Southern States seceding, was invalid, not only because it was a direct violation of the Act of Renunciation (Appendix [III]) passed 17 years before, but also because: 1. It was passed by a Parliament whose members were in no sense representatives of the Irish people. 2. These members did not vote freely for it, but were bribed and intimidated by the British Ministers. 3. It was ultra vires for the Parhament to pass such legislation even if it had been representative of the people and had its members been ever so anxious of their own accord to pass it. They were not competent legally to do so. The Pau-liament was intended, as Lord Plunkett warned them, to make "laws," not "legislatures." Only the sovereign people could vote away their own sovereignty. 4. It was passed against the will and in spite of the protests of the Irish people, who were prevented by a regime of military terror from resisting it. It is not necessary to dwell on the non-representative character of the Irish Parliament. In England itself. Parliament did not begin to be repre- sentative of the people till the reform act of 1832. Students of English history do not need to be informed of its character, previous to that date. Conditions were similar in the case of the Irish Parliament, only the latter was a colonial or settler parliament as well as an ascendancy class par- liament of the most restricted type. It did not represent even the Protestant minority resident in Ireland. It represented only a few noble families and great proprietors, and those on the English government pay- roll in Ireland: [461 "British clerks and officers were smuggled into her Parliament to vote away the constitution of a country to which they were strangers, and in which they had neither interest nor connection. They were employed to cancel the royal charter of the Irish Nation, guaranteed by the British Government, sanctioned by the British legislature, and unequivocally confirmed by the words, the signature, and the Great Seal of their Monarch." This is the account qf a contemporary Irish historian. Sir Jonah Bar- rington. The actual facts of the passing of the "Union" were set forth by Earl Grey, a former British Prime Minister, speaking in the English Parliament, April 2, 1800, he said: "I no not mean to speak disrespectfully of the Irish Parliament, But the facts are notorious. "There are three hundred members in all, and one hundred and twenty of these strenuously opposed the measure (Act of Union), among whom were two-thirds of the county members, the representa- tives of the City of Dublin, and almost all the towns which it is pro- posed shall send members to the Imperial Parliament. "One hundred and sixty-tv/o voted in favor of the Union— of these, one hundred and sixteen were placemen, some of them were English Generals on the Staff, without one foot of ground in Ireland and com- pletely dependent upon (English) Government. "Is there any ground then to presume that even the Parliament of Ireland thinks as the Rt. Hon. gentleman supposes; or that, acting only from a regard to the good of their country, the members would not have reprobated the measure as strongly and as unanimously as (he rest of the people (of Ireland) ? "But this is not all. First, let us reflect upon the arts which have been used since the last session of the Irish Parliament, to pack a major- ity in the House of Commons (of Ireland). All holding offices under Government, even the most irftimate friends of the Minister, who had uniformly supported his administration till the present occasion, if they hesitated to vote" as directed, were dismissed from office and stripped of their employments. "Even this step was found ineffectual and other arts were had recourse to, which I cannot name in this place; all will easily conjecture. * * '■- I defy any man to lay his hand upon his heart and say that he believes the Parliament of Ireland was sincerely in favor of the measure.'" The legal competency of Parliament to pass the Act of Union was denied by the chief Irish lawyers. The Attorney General, Saurin, said: "* .-:< * You cannot make it obligatory on conscience; it will be obeyed as long as England is strong, but resistance to it will be in the abstract, a duty; and the exhibition of that resistance will be a mere question of prudence." [47] Lord Chief Justice Bushe: "I look upon it (the Union) as England reclaiming in a moment of our weakness that domination which we extorted from her in a moment of our virtue — a domination which she uniformly abused, which invariably oppressed and impoverished us and from the cessa- tion of which we date all our prosperity." Mr. Fitzgerald, ex-Prime-Sergeant-at-Law, raised the vital constitutional question, and said: "It is not, in my opinion, within the moral competence of Parlia- ment, to destroy and extinguish itself, and with it the rights and liberties of those who created it. The constituent parts of a State are obliged to hold their public faith with each other, and with all those who derive any serious interest under their engagements; such a compact may, with respect to Great Britain, be a union; but with respect to Ireland, it will be a revolution, and a revolution of a most alarming nature." Lord Plunkett, later Lord Chancellor, was most explicit of all. His exact words were: "I, in the most express terms, deny the competency of Parha- ment to do this act. I warn you, do not dare to lay your hands upon the Constitution. I tell you, that if, circumstanced as you are, you pass this act, it will be a mere nullity, and no man in Ireland will be bound to obey it. I make the assertion deliberately. I repeat it; I call on any man who hears me to take down my words. You have not been elected for this purpose. You are appointed to make laws, and not legislatures. You are appointed to exercise the function of Legislators, and not to transfer them. You are appointed to act under the Constitution, and not to alter it; and if you do so, your act is a dissolution of the Government— you resolve society into its original elements, and no man in the land is bound to obey you. * * * You may extinguish yourselves, but Parliament you cannot extinguish. It is enthroned in the hearts of the people; it is enthroned in the sanctuary of the Constitution; it is immutable as the island it protects." In these opinions the Irish lawyers are fully borne out by inter- national authorities such as Grotius and Locke: Grotius says: "If the supreme power shall really attempt to hand over the king- dom or put it into subjection to another, I have no doubt, that in this it may be lawfully resisted. For as I have said before, it is in that case another government, another holding of it; which change the people have a right to oppose. — ("Rights of War and Peace," I., IV., 10.) Locke, in Chap. XIX., section 217, of his Treatise on Civil Government, says: "The delivery also of the people into subjection of a foreign power, either by the Prince or by the Legislature, is a dissolution of the Govern- ment. For the end why people entered into society being to be pre- served one entire, free, independent society, to be governed by its own laws; this is lost whenever they are given up into the power of [48] another * * * Whensoever, therefore, the legislature shall trans- gress this fundamental rule of society, and either by ambition, fear, folly, or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of another, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people; by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and by the establishment of a new legislature (such as they shall see fit) provide for their own safety and security; which is the end for which they are in society. "-^(Ed. 1694, p. 338). The legislative body cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands, for being but a delegated power, they who have it cannot pass it over to any others. It is superfluous to enter into details to show the circumstances of military repression attending the passage of the Act of Union. That it was not a contract voluntarily entered into by Ireland is best evidenced by the fact that from the day of its passing it has been necessary to use perpetual force and coercion to maintain it. As regards the pretended moral obligation of the "Union :" at the present day, independent of its origin, it would have lost all binding force on the Irish people through England having herself broken the supposed agreement in almost every particular. [49] [IV] Ireland's Exercise of the Right of Self-Determination The Popular Elections in Ireland, 1918 and 1920, Addressing the House of Commons, in April, 1920, the present British Prime Minister (Mr. D. Lloyd George) said: . "If you asked the people of Ireland what they would accept, by an emphatic majority they would say: 'We want independence and an Irish Republic' There is absolutely no doubt about that. The elected representatives of Ireland now by a clear, definite majority, have declared in favor of independence — of secession.'^ Had there been any ambiguity or indecisiveness as to the expression of the national will of Ireland, the responsible head of the British Govern- ment would not have recorded such judgment. It is of importance that this manifestation of the will of the Irish people should be appreciated by other foreign executives and peoples. The three recent occasions on which the will of the Irish Nation was made manifest were; (a) the General National Parliamentary Elections of December, 1918; (b) the Municipal and Urban Elections of January, 1920; and (c) the County and Rural District Councils Elections of June, 1920. An examination of the results of these elections will confirm the British Premier's conclusion. National Parliamentary Elections, 1918. The issue was clearly put to the people (see Exhibits B and C). Those who voted for the nominees of the Sinn Fein Party knew that they were voting for complete independence, for the establishment of a republic, for the repudiation of the British Parliament, and for the policy of active op- position to British government in Ireland. The Irish Unionist Alliance (the pro-English Party in Ireland), in a statement on the 1918 elections, said: "The General Election of December, 1918, was the first occasion when the numerical strength of Sinn Fein could be officially known, for they contested all the constituencies against the sitting Home Rule members. They stood boldly on the issue of an Irish Republic, free from all connection with England, and on that issue swept the Home Rule party out of existence." Leaving out of account the four University seats, whose occupants were elected on a special, restricted, and in fact, duplicated franchise — not to be considered in a plebiscite — Ireland is divided into electoral districts which return a total of one hundred and one (101) representatives. Of these representatives elected in December, 1918, seventy-two (72) belonged to [50] the Sinn Fein Party, that is, stood unequivocally for an independent Irish Republic; six (6) belonged to the old Parliamentary Party (these were self-determinationists and did not oppose the ideal of a republic as such, except on the ground that it was in their view, at the moment, unattain- able); twenty-one (21) belonged to the Unionist Party proper; and two (2) were Independent Unionists. Reckoned in terms of numbers of representatives elected, the Repub- licans secured a majority of practically 2}4, to 1 over all parties, and the self-determinationists (Repubhcans and Pailiamentarians together) a majority of nearly 33^ to 1, standing against the idea of union with England. In terms of popular vote, 311,210 votes were cast for Union with England, out of a total of 1,519,898, or in other words, a bare 20 per cent. There are four provinces in Ireland, viz: Leinster, Munster, Connaught, and Ulster, and these are subdivided into thirty-two counties. In the province of Leinster, of its twenty-seven (27) members, every one elected, with one exception — and he only by a plurality of fifty-four (54) votes — was a Republican. In the province of Munster, of its twenty-four (24) members, every one elected, with one exception — and he a self-determinationist — was a Republican. In the province of Connaught, of its thirteen (13) members, every one elected was a Republican. Ulster elected thirty-seven (37) members; of these twenty (20) were oiBficial Unionists, two (2) Independent Unionists. The remaining fifteen (15) opposed the connection with Britain, ten (10) of the number being Republicans, and five (5) self-determinationists. Ulster has nine (9) counties. The combined Republicans and Self- Determinationists polled a majority in no less than five (5) of the nine (9), and secured the entire representation in three counties; whilst the Unionists secured a majority in four counties only, and were able to secure the entire repre- sentation in not one (Ulster) county. Outside of Antrim, there were elected in the province of Ulster, as many as fourteen (14) representatives opposed to Britain, as against ten (10) Unionists in favor of Britain. Only in the County of Antrim, which includes the city of Belfast, did the Unionists secure anything like a homogeneous predominance. That county is givep as many as thirteen (13) representatives. Of these twelve (12) returned were Unionists, so that over one-half of the total popular Unionist representation in Ireland comes from a single county. In all Ireland there are thirty-two (32) counties. In no one county was an entirely Unionist representation elected. In four only did the Unionists poll even a majority. Compare with the Republicans, who polled a majority in no less than twenty-seven (27) counties, and secured the entire representation in as many as twenty-four (54). Further, not a single one of the six (6) Irish boroughs returned an entirely Unionist representation, whereas /our (4^) out of the six (6) boroughs returned an entirely Republican representation. In only one of the six (6) Irish boroughs is the Unionist representation even a majority. The result was even more decisive of the national will of Ireland than its figures indicate. To appreciate its full significance the conditions under which it was held must be considered. The whole election machinery, of course, was in [51] British hands. Ireland was governed by martial law. Avowed Republi- cans were proscribed and Republican leaders were thrown into jail on the flimsiest charges. Every method that suggested itself for disorganizing the Sinn Fein party was utilized. In some cases the primaries were broken up by the English soldiery and police; many of the candidates had to be selected at secret meetings in out-of-the-way places. Only twenty-six (26) of the seventy-three (73) Sinn Fein candidates were out of prison. Even some of these at liberty were prohibited from addressing electors. Republican newspapers were everywhere suppressed, and the entire press of the country subjected to British censorship. Free speech, free assemblage, were everywhere denied. Republican headquarters, central and local, were constantly raided; elec- toral lists were seized, and pamphlets and leaflets destroyed on sight; posters and handbills put up by the Republicans were torn down by the military and the police. The whole power of the British Government was employed to prevent a Republican verdict at the polls, and to secure a verdict favorable to England. Aeroplanes were used to distribute warnings against voting for Republican candidates. Opposition speakers were given every facility; the Republican speakers were harassed without respite. The public press, the power of patronage and dismissal, cajolery and intimi- dation were all actively employed. Despite these influences and forces, a few among many, the verdict of the people was unmistakably for the estab- lishment of the Irish Republic. These elections were general — that is, they were held in every one of the electoral districts throughout the country. They were by ballot on the basis of adult suffrage, so that practically every grown man and ivoman in the island could vote. They were in effect a plebiscite of the whole nation, and so it is impossible for anyone any longer to pretend that what the Irish people want is not definitely known. As the Irish people's effort represents the only effort made by a nation to adopt the civilized program suggested by President Wilson; as their present claim to international recognition will be regarded in history as the acid test of the sincerity of the professions of statesmen during the war, and as, if successful, it will mark an epoch in the history of the development of democratic institutions and the substitution of peaceful methods for the methods of force in international affairs, these elections merit a special and extended consideration. Below are set forth the official returns of the elections referred to: [IV] (a) Irish Self-Determination General (Parliamentary) Elections, December, 1918 Exclusive of the four (4) University seats, Ireland at the last election returned one hundred and one (101) representatives: Republican (supporting an Irish Republic)— 72 Nationalist (demanding self-determination) 6 Unionists favoring union with England (Official) 21 Unionists favoring union with England (Independent) 2 101 [52] UNIVERSITY SEATS Rep. Nat. Un. Ind.Un. National (Dublin, Cork, Galway, etc.) 1,644 813 Queen's (Belfast) 118 1,487 Dublin (Trinity) 257 1,904 793 Total 1,762 1,070 3,391 793 DETAILS OF THE POPULAR RETURNS BY PROVINCES: LEINSTER Dublin City: Rep. Nat. Un. Clontarf _ L 5,974 3,228 College Green 9,662 2,853 Harbour 7,708 5,386 St. James' 6,256 1,556 St. Michan's 7,553 3,996 Stephen's Green 8,461 2,902 2,755 St. Patrick's 7,835 4,064 Total for DubUn City 53,449 23,985 2,755 Counties: Carlow 16,135 Dublin, North 9,138 4,428 South 5,133 3,819 4,354 Pembroke 6,114 2,629 4,138 Rathmines 5,566 1,780 7,400 Dublin County seats 25,951 12,656 15,892 Kildare, North 5,979 2,722 South 7,104 1,545 Kildare County... 13,083 4,267 Kilkenny, North 16,113 South 8,685 1,855 Kilkenny County Seats 24,798 1,855 King's County 25,702 Longford County 11,122 4,173 Louth County 10,770 10,515 Meath, North 6,982 3.758 South 6,371 2,680 Meath County Seats 13,353 6,438 Queen's County 13,452 6,480 Westmeath County 12,435 4,061 Wexford, North 10,162 7,189 South.... 8,729 8,211 Wexford County Seats 18,891 15,400 Wicklow, West 6,239 1,370 East : 5,916 2,466 2,600 Wicklow County Seats 12,155 3,836 2,600 Total for Leinster 251,296 93,666 21,247 Percentage 68 .6 25 .57 5.8 [53] MUNSTER Rep. Nat. Un. Cork City 41,307 14,642 4,773 Limerick City.. 17,121 Waterford City 4,431 4,915 „.. Total for boroughs : 62,859 19,557 4,773 Counties: Clare, East 23,511 West 21,674 Clare County Seats 45,185 Cork, North 17,949 Northeast 18,239 Mid 16,632 East 19,022 West 16,659 South 17,593 Southeast 17,419 Cork County Seats, 123,513 Kerry, North 17,600 West... 18,853 South 16,835 East 17,222 Kerry County Seats 70,510 Limerick, West 22,562 East 12.750 3,608 Limerick County Seats 35,312 3,608 Tipperary, North 16,455 Mid. 17,458 South 8,744 2,701 East 7,487 4,794 Tipperary County Seats 50,144 7.495 Waterford County 12,890 4,217 Total for Munster 400,413 34,877 4,773 Percentage 91.0 8.0 1.0 CONNAUGHT Rep. Nat. Un. Galway, Connemara 11,754 3,482 ^ North. _ 8,896 3,999 ....- East 17,777 South 10,621 1,744 ' Galway County Seats 49,048 9,225 Leitrim County 17,711 3,096 Mayo, North 7,429 1,761 West 10,195 7,568 South 21,567 East 8,975 4,514 Mayo County Seats 48,166 13,843 [54] Roscommon, North 21,258 South 10,685 4,323 Roscommon County Seats 31,943 4,323 Sligo, North 9,030 4,242 South 9,113 1,988 Sligo County Seats - - 18,143 6,230 Total for Connaught.^ 165,011 36,717 Nil. Percentage 81 .8 18 .2 ULSTER In Ulster, in eight seats, an arrangement was come to between Sinn Fein and the Nationahst Parliamentary party to prevent them falhng to the Unionists on a minority vote. These seats are indicated thus*. The Column headed "Self-Determination Vote" is the total of the Sinn Fein and so-called Nationalist vote. Self-Det. Rep. Nat. Vote Un. Ind.Un. Belfast, Cromac 997 997 11,459 2,508 Duncairn 271 2,449 2,720 11,637 Falls 3,245 8,488 11,733 Ormeau 338 338 7,460 4,833 Pottinger 393 393 8,574 3,172 St. Anne's 1,341 1,341 9,155 1,752 Shankill 534 534 15,514 Woodvale 1.247 1,247 12,232 Victoria 395 395 12,778 Total 8,761 10,937 19,698 60,517 40,557 Derry City 7,335 120 7,455 7,020 Counties: Antrim, North 2,673 2,673 9,621 Mid 2,791 2,791 10,711 East 861 861 15,206 South 2,318 2,318 13,270 Antrim County Seats 8,643 8,643 48,808 Armagh, North _ 2,860 2,860 10,239 Mid 5,688 5,688 8,431 *South 79 4,345 4,424 Armagh County Seats 8,627 4,345 12,972 18,670 Cavan, West 22,270 22,270 t East -- 21,148 21,148 t Cavan County Seats 43,418 43,418 Derry, North 3,951 3,951 10,530 South 3,425 3,981 7,406 8,942 Derry County Seats 7,376 3,981 11,357 19,472 fin these districts public opinion was so overwhelmingly Republican that there was no opposition— r-the Republican candidate alone was nominated. [55] Donegal, North 7,003 South 5,787 West 6,712 East 40 3,075 10,078 4,752 10,539 4,116 10,828 7,596 7,636 4,797 Donegal County Seats 19,542 19,539 39,081 4,797 Down, North.. West.... Mid *East.... *South.. 1,725 707 3,876 33 4,312 8,756 1,725 707 8,188 8,789 9,200 10,559 10,639 6,007 5,573 Down County Seats. Fermanagh, North.. *South. 6,236 6,d73 132 6,236 6,805 6,768 4,524 Fermanagh County Seats 12,909 132 13,041 11,292 Monaghan, North 6,842 South 7,524 2,709 4,413 9,551 11,937 4,497 Monaghan County Seats 14,366 7,122 21,488 4,497 Tyrone, Northeast 56 Northwest 10.442 South. _ 5,437 11,605 2,602 11,661 10,442 8,039 6,681 7,696 10,616 Tyrone County Seats ! 15,935 14,207 Total for Ulster 153,253 73,451 The Percentage of votes in Ulster follows : Cavan. _ Donegal Monaghan Tyrone Fermanagh !.. Armagh Derry Down Antrim 2,153 436 6,341 13,068 19,409 41,978 2,589 30,142 24,993 226,704 242,044 43,146 Self-Det. Vote Un. Total 100 100 90 10 100 83 17 100 55 45 100 54 46 100 41 59 100 37 63 100 30 70 100 15 85 100 SUMMARY The percentages of votes throughout Ireland follow: Rep. Leinster 68 .6 Munster 91 .0 Connaught 81 .8 Ulster 30 . ALL IRELAND 63.6 Self-Det. Nat. Vote Un. Ind. Un. Total 25.57 94.17 5.8 0.0 100 8.0 99.0 1.0 0.0 100 18.2 100.0 0.0 0.0 100 14.3 44.3 47.3 8.4 100 15.7 79.3 17.8 2.9 100 TOTAL VOTES FOR ALL IRELAND Rep. Including Universities 971,735 Excluding Universities 969,973 Self-Det. Nat.. Vote Un. Ind. Un. Total 239,781 1,211,516 271,455 43,939 1,526,910 238,711 1,208,684 268,064 43,146 1,519,894 [56] [IV] (b) Municipal Elections, January, 1920 A fresh opportunity presented itself to the Irish people in 1920, to record the national determination in favor of the Irish Repubhc, estabHshed by the vote of December, 1918. The Municipal and Urban Elections of January, 1920, resulted in an overwhelming Republican victory. Eleven (11) of the twelve (12) Cities and Boroughs, and ninety-two (92) of the one hundred and sixteen (116) towns are Republican, have formally and publicly pledged their allegiance to the Government of the Irish Repub- lic, and carry into effect the decrees promulgated by the National Congress (Dail Eireann). The City and Urban Councils so pledged are channels through which the new Irish Government functions. CITIES AND BOROUGHS For the Irish Republic: Dublin Derry Kilkenny Waterford Cork Drogheda Limerick Wexford Clonmel Galway Sligo ^ For Union with England: Belfast. Number of Irish Cities and Boroughs for Irish Republic 11 Number of Irish Cities and Boroughs for Union with England.. 1 Lbinsteb townships For Irish Republic: Ardee; Arklow; Athy; Bagnalstown; Balbriggan; Birr; Blackrock; Bray; Callan; Carlow; Dalkey; Dundalk; Edenderry; Enniscorthy; Gorey; Granard; Howth; Kells; Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) ; Longford ; Maryboro'; Mountmellick ; Mullingar; Naas; Navan; Newbridge; New Ross; Pem- broke; Trim; Tullamore; Wicklow. For Union with England: Killiney; Rathmines. Number of Leinster Towns for Irish Republic... 31 Number of Leinster Towns for Union with England 2 MUNSTER For Irish Republic: Bandon; Bantry; Carrick-on-Suir; Cashel; Clonakilty; Dungarvan; Ennis; Fermoy; Fethard; Kilkee; Killarney; Kilrush; Kinsale; Lismore; Macroom; Mallow; Midleton; Nenagh; Newcastle West; Passage West; Listowel; Queenstown (Cobh); Rathkeale; Skibbereen; Templemore; Thur- les; Tipperary; Tralee; Youghal. For Union with England: — None. Number of Munster Towns for Irish Republic 29 Number of Munster Towns for Union with England Conn AUGHT For Irish Republic: Athlone; Ballina; Balhnasloe; Boyle; Castlebar; Loughrea; Roscom- mon; Tuam; Westport. [57] For Union with England: — None, Number of Connaught Towns for Irish Republic 9 Number of Connaught Towns for Union with England 0- Ulster For Irish Republic: Armagh; Aughnacloy; Ballybay; Ballyshannon; Belturbet; Buncrana; Bundoran; Carrickmacross; Castleblayney; Cavan; Clones; Cootehill; Downpatrick; Donaghadee; Enniskillen; Gilford; Keady; Letterkenny; Monaghan; Newry; Omagh; Strabane; Warrenpoint. For Union with England: Antrim; Bally clare; Bally mena; Ballymoney; Banbridge; Bangor; Carrickfergus; Coleraine; Cookstown; Dromore; Dungannon; Holy wood; Larne; Limavady; Lisburn; Lurgan; Newcastle (Down); Newtownards; Portadown; Portrush; Portstewart; Tanderagee. Number of Ulster Towns for Irish Republic 23 Number of Ulster Towns for Union with England 22 CITIES, BOROUGHS, AND TOWNS Returns of Councils by Provinces. Total Province • Councils Leinster 37 Munster 33 Connaught. 11 Ulster 47 Grand Totals, 4 Provinces 128 103 25 IV (c) COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTIONS, JUNE. 1920 Following returns indicate: (a) the County Councils by provinces; (6) the total number of seats in each Council; (c) the total number to which Republicans were elected; and, {d) the total number of seats won by candidates favoring union with England: Total For For Un. Leinster: Seats Rep. with Eng Carlow 20 20 Dublin 19 16 3 Kildare 21 21 Kilkenny 19 19 King's County 21 21 Longford 20 20 Louth 28 28 Meath 21 21 Queen's Coxmty 22 21 1 Westmeath 23 23 Wexford 19 19 Wicklow 19 19 12 Councils 252 , 248 4 [58] For Union For With Republic England 35 2 33 11 24 23 Total For ForUn. Munster: Seats Rep. with Eng Cork _ 32 32 Clare 20 20 Kerry 20 20 Limerick 20 20 Tipperary, North 20 20 Tipperary South 23 23 Wateiford 20 20 7 Councils 155 155 GonN aught: Galway , 20 20 Leitrim 19 19 Mayo 24 24 Roscommon 20 20 Sligo 20 20 5 Councils 103 103 Ulster: Antrim 21 3 18 Armagh 23 8 15 Cavan 20 20 Derry 19 8 11 Donegal 20 18 2 Down 20 7 13 Fermanagh 20 11 9 Monaghan 20 16 4 Tyrone ..- 26 15 11 9 Councils 189 106 83 SUMMARY BY PROVINCES No. of Total No. Total No. Total No. Councils Seats Rep. Seats Un. Seats Leinster 12 252 248 4 Munster 7 155 155 Connaught 5 103 103 Ulster 9 189 106 83 Grand Totals - 33 699 612 87 IV (d) Rural District Council Elections, June, 1920 LEINSTER For Other For Total _ ^ Republic Self -Deter- Union With No. Of County Carlow: minationists England Seats Baltinglass No. 2 8 .... .... 8 Carlow 37 37 Idrone 9 .— .... 9 Total 54 54 Percentage of seats 100 .... .... 100 County Dublin: Balrothery 17 1 .... 18 CelbrideNo. 2 6 6 Nt. Dublin 5 1 .... 6 St. Dublin.... 6 .... .... 6 Rathdown No. 1 6 .... 1 7 Total 40 2 1 43 Percentage of seats 93 4.7 2.3 100 Council REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPLTBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN [59]. For Other For Total ^ ^^ Republic Self-Deter- Union With No. Of County KiLDARE: minationists England Seats Athy No. 1 20 3 3 26 Baltinglass No. 2 2 1 .... 3 Celbridge No. 1 8 1 .... 9 Edenderry No. 2 11 11 Naas No. 1 30 2 .... 32 Total 71 7 3 81 Percentage of seats 87.7 8.6 3.7 100 CoTjNTY Kilkenny: Callan 22 22 Carrick-on-Suir No. 3 8 .... .... 8 Castlecomer 8 .... 1 9 Ida - 10 10 Kilkenny — — 13 1 .... 14 Thomastown 23 4 .... 27 Uriingford No. 1 11 11 Waterford No. 2 15 15 Total - -- 110 5 1 116 Percentage of seats 94.9 4.3 .9 100 King's County: Birr No. 1 - 29 .... .... 29 Edenderry No. 1 13 2 .... 15 Roscrea No. 2 9 .... 1 10 Tullamore - 24 .... .... 24 Total ...- - 75 2 1 78 Percentage of seats ; 96.2 2.6 13 100 County Longford: BaUymahon 13 .... .... 13 Granard 21 .... .... 21 Longford 17 .... .... 17 Total 51 51 Percentage of seats 100 .... .... 100 County Louth: Ardee No. L. 8 8 .... 16 Dundalk 9 6 .... 15 Louth 7 2 .... 9 Total - 24 16 .... 40 Percentage of seats 60 40 .... 100 County Meath: Ardee No. 2 4 2 .... 6 Dunshaughlin 10 2 .... 12 Edenderry No. 3 2 .... 1 3 Kells 20 1 .... 21 Meath 8 1 .... 9 Navan 11 1 .... 11 Oldcastle 6 .... .... 6 Trim 19 3 .... 22 Total 80 9 1 90 Percentage of seats 88.9 10 1.1 100 Council REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN [60] For Other For Republic Self-Deter- Union With Queen S CoXXNTY : minationists England Abbeyleix — 24 3 Athy No. 2 10 Mountmellick 39 Roscrea No. 3 -— 5 1 Slievemargy - 10 Total - 88 4 Percentage of seats... -. 95.7 4.4 County Westmeath : Athlone No. 1 -.- - 13 Ballymore 6 Coole - 6 Delvin 17 2 MuUingar -.. 39 11 Total .-- 81 13 Percentage of seats -- 86.2 13.8 County Wexford: Enniscorthy 27 1 Gorey 25 3 New Ross — - 20 5 Wexford... - 20 4 Total ._ 92 13 Percentage of seats 86.2 13.8 County Wicklow: Baltinglass No. 1 - 24 Naas No. 2_ _ 6 Rathdown No. 2 -. 4 2 Rathdrum 21 3 Shillelagh 13 3 Total - 68 8 Percentage of seats 89.5 10.4 No. Of Seats Council 27 10 39 6 10 REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN 92 100 13 6 6 19 50 REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN 94 100 28 28 25 24 REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN 105 100 24 6 6 24 16 REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN 76 100 SUMMARY FOR LEINSTER Leinster Representatives —. 834 79 7 920 Total percentage of seats _.. 90.7 8.6 .8 100 Total Leinster Councils 58 All Republican MUNSTER County Clare: Ballyvaughan 11 Corofin 9 Ennis-- 16 Ennistymon 20 Kildysert 11 Kilrush 32 Limerick No. 2 7 Scariff ;. 19 TuUa 17 Total 142 Percentage of seats 99 .3 11 REPUBLICAN 9 REPUBLICAN 17 REPUBLICAN 20 REPUBLICAN 11 REPUBLICAN 32 REPUBLICAN 7 REPUBLICAN 19 REPUBLICAN 17 REPUBLICAN 143 100 [6]] For Other For Total ^ ^ Republic Self-Deter- Union With No. Of Council 1.0UNTY I^ORK: minationists England Seats Bantry 16 .... .... 16 republican Bandon 24 .... .... 24 republican Castletown 7 .... .... 7 republican Charleville 7 2 .... 9 REPtTBLiCAN Clonakilty 17 .... 1 18 republican Cork 30 .... .... 30 republican Dunmanway -... 15 1 .... 16 republican Fermoy 19 .... .... 19 republican Kanturk 33 .... .... 33 republican Kinsale -... 19 .... .... 19 republican Macroom 23 .... .... 23 republican Mallow - 19 .... .... 19 republican Midleton 18 .... .... 18 republican Millstreet 12 .... .... 12 republican Mitchelstown No. 1 11 .... .... 11 republican Skibbereen 23 .... .... 23 ' republican SchuU ....... 11 .... .... 11 REPUBLICAN Youghal No. 1 6 .... .... 6 republican Total .... 310 3 1 314 Percentage of seats 98,8 .9 .3 100 County Kerry: Cahirciveen 22 ..„ .... 22 republican Dingle 20 .... .... 20 republican Kenmare 16 .... .... 16 republican Killarney 28 .... .... 28 repubucan Listowel 31 .... .... 31 republican Tralee 32 .... .... 32 republican Total 149 .... .... 149 Percentage of seats.. 100 .... .... 100 County Limerick: Groom 20 .... .... 20 republican Glen 6 .... .... 6 republican Kilmallock 24 .... .... 24 republican Limerick No. 1 20 .... .... 20 republican Mitchelstown No. 2 6 .... .... 6 republican Newcastle West 29 .... .... 29 republican Rathkeale 25 .... .... 25 republican Tipperary No. 2 7 .... .... 7 republican Total 137 137 Percentage of seats 100 .... .... 100 County Tipperary: Garrick-on-Suir, No. 1 6 .... .... 6 republican Cashel 21 1 .... 22 republican Glogheen 15 .... .... 15 republican Clonmel No. 1 5 3 .... 8 republican Slieveardagh 9 .... .... 9 republican Tipperary No. 1 19 .... .... 19 republican Gortnahoe 5 .... .... 5 republican Birr No. 2 4 .... .... 4 republican Borrisokane 15 .... .... 15 republican Nenagh 25 .... .... 25 republican Roscrea No. 1 11 1 1 13 republican Thurles 18 .... .... 18 republican Total 153 5 1 159 Percentage of seats 96.2 1.9 .6 100 [62] For Other For Total Republic Self -Deter- Union With No. Of Council County WateRFORD: minationists England Seats Carrick-on-Suir 10 .- -. 10 republican Clonmel No. 2. - 6 .... .... 6 republican Dungarvan 13 .... .— 13 republican Kilmacthomas - - 19 .... .... 19 republican Lismore 17 .... 1 18 republican Waterford No. 1 18 1 .- 19 republican Youghal No. 2 6 .... .... 6 republican Total - --- 89 1 1 91 Percentage of seats.. -.J 97.8 1.1 1.1 100 SUMMARY FOR MUNSTER Munster Representatives 982 8 3 993 Percentage for Munster... 98.9 .8 .3 100 Total Councils in Munster .60 All Republican CONNAUGHT For Other For Total Republic Self-Deter- Union With No. Of Counci! County Galway: minationists England Seats Ballinasloe 17 .... .... 17 republican Clifden — 15 5 .... 20 republican Galway 21 .... .... 21 republican Glenamaddy 21 .... .... 21 republican Gort -.- - 19 .... .... 19 republican Loughrea 33 2 .... 35 republican Mount BeUew 14 .... .... 14 republican Oughterard 17 .... .... 17 republican Portumna... 15 .... .... 15 republican Tuam — 36 1 .... 37 republican Total...- 208 8 .... 216 Percentage of seats 95.4 3.7 .... 100 County Leitrim: BaUinamore 12 .... .... 12 republican Carrick-on-Shannon No. 1 17 .... .... 17 republican Kinlough 6 .... .... 6 republican Manorhamilton 21 1 .... 22 republican Mohlll - 23 .... .... 23 repltblican Total... 79 1 .... 80 Percentage of seats. 98.8 1.2 .... 100 County Mayo: Ballina 26 .... .... 26 republican Ballinrobe 18 .... .... 18 republican Belmullet 15 .... .... 15 republican Castlebar 17 .... .... 17 republican Claremorris 19 .... .... 19 republican Swinford 24 .... .... 24 republican Westport - 28 1 .... 29 republican Total - 147 1 .... 148 Percentage of seats 98.6 .7 .... 100 [63] For Other For Total _, _, Republic Self -Deter- Union With No. Of County KoSCOMMON: minationists England Seats Athlone No. 2 10 .... .... 10 Ballinasloe No. 2 4 .... .... 4 Boyle No. 1 19 19 Garrick-on-Shannon No. 2... 8 .... .... 8 Castlereagh 19 .... .... 19 Roscommon 19 .... .... 19' Strokestown 20 .... .... 20 Total _ , 99 .... .... 99 Percentage of seats - 100 .... .... 100 County Sligo: Boyle No. 2 15 .... .... 15 Dromore West... 15 1 .... 16 Sligo 24 .... .... 24 . Tubercurry , 24 .... .... 24 Total '78 1 .... 79 .Percentage of seats 98.7 1.3 .... 100 Council REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN SUMMA.RY FOR CONNAUGHT Total Representatives for Gonnaught Percentage of seats... 611 11 1 622 100 Total councils in Gonnaught . ..,.. 33 All Republican ULSTER . For For Self For For Antrim: Republic Determination Labor Union Total Antrim 2 2 17 21 BaUycastle 5 3 .... 7 15 Ballymena 2 3 14 19 Ballymoney 2 7 1 9 19 Belfast .... .... 26 26 Larne 1 4 8 13 Lisburn 2 .... .... 17 19 Total 9 15 10 98 132 Percentage of seats... 6.8 11.4 7.6 74.2 100 Armagh: Armagh 6 5 .... 16 27 Grossmaglen 4 4 .... 1 9 Lurgan 1 .... .... 8 9 Newry No. 2 7 2 .... 3 12 Tanderagee. .... 18 9 Total - 18 11 1 36 66 Percentage of seats .... 27.3 16.6 1.5 54.6 100 GavAn: Bailieboro 9 3 .... 1 13 Bawnboy 10 .... .... 3 13 Gastlerahan 9 .— .... — . 9 Gavan 43 1 .... 2 46 Enniskillen.. 8 .... .... -.. 8 Mullaghoran.. 7 .... ... .... 7 Total 86 4 .... 6 96 Percentage of seats .... 89.6 4.2 .... 6.2 100 [64] trNTONIST REP.-NAT. unionist EVEN UNIONIST UNIONIST UNIONIST UNIONIST REP.-NAT. UNIONIST REPUBLICAN UNIONIST REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN Donegal: Ballyshannon Donegal 11 Dunfanaghy 10 For For Self For Republic Determination Labor 7 Glenlies. Inishowen Letterkenny Derry No. 2 Milford Strabane No. 2. Stranorlar 24 15 7 2 15 14 6 Total...... 101 Percentage of seats ... 66 . 4 Down: Banbridge Castlereagh.... Downpa trick.. Hillsborough. Kilkeel Moira Newry No. 1.. Newtownards Total Percentage of seats Fermanagh : Beleek Clones No. 2. Enniskillen No. 1 IrAdnestown Lisnaskea 20 18.2 3 3 12 3 7 Total Percentage of seats Derry: Coleraine .... Limavady... Derry No. 1. Magherafelt. 35.5 Total. Percentage of seats MONAGHAIV : Carrickmacross. Castleblayney... Clones No. 1. ... Monaghan Total Percentage of seats Tyrone: Castlederg Clogher Cookstown Dungannon Omagh Strabane No. 1. 15 20.8 13 12 6 14 45 71.4 7 7 5- 4 26 3 Total... Percentage of seats 52 42 . 6 3 6 4 2 7 1 3 30 19.8 10 9.1 13 16.4 16 99 1 2 7 11.1 18 14.8 For Union 4 4 "5 2 20 13. 15 9 12 15 3 5 4 11 74 67. 1 3 15 10 9 38 13 10 7 11 41 57.0 11 17 7 9 6 8 13 9 52 42.6 Total 9 18 10 27 21 16 8 22 10 11 152 100 19 9 26 15 10 6 10 15 110 100 6 9 29 15 20 100 16 16 12 28 72 100 15 14 13 21 63 100 14 16 17 17 39 19 122 100 REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAIV REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN EVEN REPUBLICAN EVEN REPUBLICAN UNIONIST UNIONIST EVEN UNIONIST REPUBLICAN UNIONIST REP.-NAT. UNIONIST REPUBLICAN REP.-NAT. UNIONIST UTVIONIST REP.-NAT. UNIONIST UNIONIST UNIONIST REP.-NAT. UNIONIST REPUBLICAN REP.-NAT. REPUBLICAN EVEN UNIONIST REP.-NAT. REP.-NAT. REPUBLICAN REP.-NAT. [6= SUMMARY FOR ULSTER Ulster representatives 374 124 18 376 892 Percentage of seats 41.9 13.9 2.0 42.2 100 Total No. of Councils Republican - - '-^ Republican-Nationalist - • - — ^^' Unionist - - - - - - ^^ Evenly divided "^ Total Ulster Councils - — - ^^ SUMMARY FOR ALL IRELAND No. of Rep. Rep.-Nat. Un. Even Councils Leinster 58 58 Munster ■- 60 60 Coimaught 33 33 Ulster... ...- - - - .- _55 _^ JLO ^ __5 Total 206 172 10 19 5 Percentage of seats - 100 83.5 4.9 Q.2 2.4 Percentage of combined Republican and Republican-Nationalists Seats 88 . 4 [661 [V] THE "ULSTER" QUESTION ANALYZED* Erroneous ideas prevalent with regard to Ireland as the result of an extensive and carefully directed propaganda are well illustrated in the views commonly held about Ulster. This Irish province is spoken of as though its people formed in them- selves a separate nation; as though it were territorially distinct and its people different in race, religion and general characteristics, from the rest of Ireland's inhabitants. Ulster's people are represented as leading a more progressive existence, more cultured, more industrious, more prosperous and as possessed of a broader political outlook than Irish people generally. It would be difficult to conceive of a case so completely misrepresented, for the truth is : 1. That in one only of the nine counties of geographical Ulster do the political conditions at all approximate to those commonly held as obtaining throughout the entire Province. In fact the zone of political Ulster, as it is understood by most foreigners, does not extend even throughout this one county (Antrim), but is confined (as shown in appendix) to its county seat, the city of Belfast. 2. That there is no district in Ulster where the inhabitants could, with any degree of accuracy, be termed a different race from the people of the rest of Ireland. 3. That the supposed progressiveness of Ulster is a myth, pure and simple, as will be shown. The fact that the Gaelic inhabitants of a large part of Ulster were deprived of their lands and that Scotch and English settlers were "planted" on these lands is the supposed historic background for this so-called "Ulster" condition. It is conveniently forgotten that while the ownership of the lands changed and many of the nobles were forced into exile, the clansmen remained in the country, outnumbering the newcomers, and made it their fixed goal to win their way back to their patrimony. Thus when the oppression of the landlords and English restriction on trade brought economic depression on Ulster in the eighteenth century, the descendants of the colonists emigrated in large numbers to America, while Ulstermen of old Gaelic stock found occasion to reestablish themselves. Hence with more than three hundred years of intermarriage there are few native born Ulstermen or Ulsterwomen today in whom Gaelic blood does not predominate. The idea that Ulster is traditionally in favor of Union with England is also untrue and clearly disproved by the fact that in four insurrections, [*Note: The statistical returns in this Appendix [V] were taken mainly from "Ireland and the Ulster Legend." W. A. McKnight, London.] [67] since the plantation— 1641-1882-1798 and 1848— Ulstermen led the way in seeking Irish Independence. In this they were merely perpetuating the pre-plantation Gaelic spirit of independence, the spirit of the O'Neills, the O'Donnells, and the other Northern princes. Racially Ulster remains Irish, and the great majority of its people have a perspective of Irish history that extends back twenty-four hundred (2400) years. ACTUAL ZONE OF ULSTER QUESTION The "Ulster question," in so far as there is one, is in reality an "Antrim question," for in the county Antrim alone out of Ireland's thirty-two (32) counties have the Unionists, or British supporters, secured anything like a homogeneous political predominance. Outside of County Antrim the province of Ulster returned in the General Elections of 1918, fourteen (14) representatives opposed to British rule as compared to ten (10) Unionists favoring it. And of the thirteen (13) representatives returned by the County Antrim, nine (9) of these were elected by the city of Belfast alone; which fact practically reduces the zone of the "Ulster question" to a "Belfast question." The following table clearly indicates the preponderance of voters in Ulster, outside the County Antrim, who oppose any form of parliamentary Union with England: General Election, 1918 Self-Det. Unionist Armagh,. _.. _. 1 2 Cavan 2 Derry 1 2 Donegal 4 Down 1 4 Fermanagh.. 1 1 Monaghan 2 Tyrone... 2 1 Total. 14 10 The votes cast in five of Ulster's nine counties show a substantial majority opposed to Union with England: Self-Det. Unionist Votes Votes Cavan...... 43,418 Donegal 39,081 4,797 Fermanagh 13,041 11,292 Monaghan 21,488 4,497 Tyrone 30,142 24,993 Total 147,170 45,579 Plurality vote favoring Self-Determination for Ireland, 101,591 [68] The votes cast in four of Ulster's nine counties show a majority, but less substantial, for Union with England. The votes in these Counties exclusive of the city of Belfast gave a majority for the Union : Self-Det. Unionist Votes Votes Antrim ._ 8,643 48,808 Armagh..... 12,972 18,670 Down...... 19,409 44,567 Derry ^ ; 18,812 26,492 Total. 59,836 138,537 Plurality vote favoring Union with England, 78,701. As the returns show in these four (4) Ulster counties there is a sub- stantial minority favoring self-determination for Ireland, and even in the city of Belfast 27,153 votes were cast in opposition to Union with England, and one representative was elected on the platform of Self-Determination. ANALYSIS OF ULSTER MINORITIES The percentage of votes cast in the county of Antrim entitled the combined forces of the Self-Determinationists to larger representation, for one (1) vote in every six (6) cast in Antrim was theirs. The Self-Determinationist minority in Antrim (the actual zone of the ''Ulster question" and Unionist predominance) is relatively almost as large as the Unionist minority in all Ireland. All arguments applying to the Ulster minority in Ireland as a whole apply equally to this anti-Union minority in Antrim. This constitutes a minority within a minority, which must enter into any detailed political analysis of Ulster. (See Appendix IV). After three hundred (300) years of persistent political effort and one hundred and forty (140) years of unceasing propaganda to build up in Ulster an English garrison, and to create a permanent barrier between the North and South — the zone of the Ulster "garrison" can now be defined as County Antrim. It can even with accuracy be limited to the city of Belfast, the county seat of Antrim, which in itself returns 36 percent or more than one-third (1-3) of all the Unionist representatives in Ireland. The Unionist minority in Ulster is a comparatively small minority, much smaller than the minorities of Czechoslovakia and Jugo-Slavia. The anti-Unionist minority in Ulster is greater than the Unionist minority in the whole of Ireland. There is a North and a South in the United States. There is a North and South in England and a North and South in Germany. Ulster is Ireland's North, and Ulster is Irish in fibre and instinct. The union of the old and new Irish, of North and South, began in 1782. It was broken in 1800 (See Appendix III). It is being restored today. "Let the truth be known, the mass of Irish Unionists are much more in love with Ireland than with England. They think Irish national- ists are mistaken, and they fight with them, and they use hard words, but all the time they believe Irishmen of any party are better in the sight of God than Englishmen." — George Russell, (A.E.), an Ulster- man and Protestant, in his "Reply to Rudyard Kipling." [69] ULSTER'S CLAIM TO SUPERIORITY EXAMINED For the purposes of British propaganda Ulster has been endowed with all the virtues and the other Irish Provinces with all the defects of humanity. Ulster is described as progressive and industrious, while the rest of Ireland is styled idle, reactionary and "priest-ridden." The facts are otherwise. With regard to wealth, population, industry, education, crime and disease — the tests of a people's well-being — British statistics of the 1911 census prove: 1. That the wealth per capita of the population of Ulster is less than that of Leinster ; 2. That the depopulation of Ulster in the past century has been as great as elsewhere in Ireland ; 3. That Belfast's two chief industries are not the main source of wealth in Ireland; 4. That the people of Leinster take greater care with the education of their youth — that they contribute far more per capita for agricultural and technical instruction and provide more bursaries for University education; 5. That there are more "illiterates" in Ulster than in any of the other Provinces; 6. That there are far more "habitual criminals" at large; far more illegitimate births; far larger infantile mortality; far less prevention of tuber- culosis, though the death rate from this disease is higher — than in any other province. The following comparative tables show the amount paid by the rate payers of each Province : For Agricultural and Technical Instruction Leinster Munster Connaught Ulster Money paid per 100 of popu- lation, 1909-1913 $43.25 $32.50 $24.75 $33.75 Money paid in Urban districts exclusive of Belfast and Dublin, per 100 of popula- tion _. $38.75 $21.50 $22.00 $26.00 For University Scholarships and Bursaries under the Irish University Act. Money paid per 1,000 of popu- lation, March 31, 1911— March 31, 1914 Leinster Munster $30.25 $26.50 70] In the following statistics Ulster takes the leading places. Comparative Numbers of Illiierates Total Illite;rates, 1911 census.. Leinster 65,812 Munster 77,117 Connaught 75,817 Ulster 112,571 Habitual Criminals Habitual Criminals at large, 1909-1913 Leinster 76.0 Munster 63.0 Connaught 12.0 Ulster 461.0 Houses of Criminal Resort Houses Classed as Resorts of Habitual Criminals, 1908- 1912 Leinster 7 Munster 9 Connaught Ulster 164 niegiiimate Births in Five Years Illegitimate Births, 1909-1913 Leinster 3,929 Munster 2,712 Connaught 471 Ulster 6,953 Infant Mortality in Five Years Deaths of Infants under one year, 1909-1913 Leinster 15,377 Munster 10,037 Connaught 3,930 Ulster 17,712 Tuberculosis is to Ireland today what typhus was to Ireland of the famine days. The latter is now almost unknown in Ireland, and efforts are being made to stamp out Tuberculosis. In this crusade Ulster is less active than the other provinces. Deaths from Tuberculosis 1913... ..!.... Leinster 2,932 Munster 2,195 Connaught 913 • Ulster 3,347 :7i] Outlay for Prevenlion of Tuberculosis Leinster Munster Connaught Ulster Money paid in 1913 for treat- ment and prevention of Tuberculosis, per 1,000 of population $11.50 $23.90 $12.00 $7.00 In statistics of material wealth Ulster again drops below Leinster: Comparative Wealth of Provinces, 19ii Leinster Population 1,162,044 1,035,495 610,984 1,581.696 Rateable Valuation £5,136,560 3,493,329 1,463,102 5,521,021 Per Capita Valuation £4-10-5 Munster ._ Connaught .. £ 3-7-6 £ 2-7-11 Ulster £ 3-9-10 Status of Counties by Rateable Valuation Rank 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Counties Meath Westmeath Kildare Dublin Kilkenny Wicklow Waterford ... Queen's Carlow.. Limerick Tipperary. King's Down Louth Fermanagh Monaghan Wexford Antrim _. Armagh Cork Longford -. Tyrone Derry . [72] Per Capita rateable Valuation £8-10-2 5-9-7 5-2-7 4-17-8 4-17-2 4-15-7 4-14-9 4-14-5 4-13-8 4-10-8 4-10-6 4-7-6 4-1-11 3-18-1 ] 3-18-6 3-17-3 3-16-7 3-16-2 3-13-9 3-10-8 3-10-1 3-5-3 3-4-6 Political Adherence Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Republican Unionist Republican Republican Republican Republican Unionist Unionist Republican Republican Rep.-Nat. Unionist Down, the Unionist County with the highest per capita valuation of wealth, is only thirteenth on the list. Antrim is nineteenth, for while there is wealth in Belfast, it is for the few^: the ratio to the population is small. In this possibly lies the explanation of the fact that Antrim county lost 297,605 of its people as emigrants between 1851 and 1911. Down lost 162,511. A contented population, prosperous and increasing in numbers, is the basic test of a country's well-being. Ulster's roster of emigration tells the same story of decay as the other Irish provinces. ' Between 1851 and 1913 not less than 1,226,470 emigrants left Ulster, more than half of whom were males. The number of emigrants in the past 70 years is equivalent to 75 per cent of its population today. The number of males who emigrated, is equivalent to 85 per cent of all the males in Ulster today. In the first decade of this century the emigration from Ulster was one- third (1-3) of the emigration from all Ireland. It was twice as large as the emigration from Leinster in the same period. The loss to Ulster from emigration and the lack of prosperity that com- pelled the emigration .are detailed in the following tables : Decrease in Population of Ulster Population in 1841 .:. 2,386,373 Population in 1911 - 1,580,242 Decrease in 70 years 806,131 Not only Catholics, but Protestants, found that Ulster under British rule promised them no livelihood. Decrease in Various Denominations Episcopalians Presbyterians 1834 852,064 642,356 1911...... ...,. 376,171 421,566 Decrease... 475,893 220,790 Total Decrease, 696,683. Poland under Russia, Austria and Prussia, doubled its population in this period, while Ulster has now only two-thirds of its former population. DECAY OF ULSTER TOWNS In 1831 Hamiltonsbaun in Armagh was a town with 1,014 people. In 1841 it was a village with 217 people. In 1901 it was a hamlet with 70 people. Similarly 17 towns in Ulster have been reduced to villages since the Union, Decrease in Number of Homesteads In 1841 there were 403,645 homesteads in Ulster. In 1911 there were 260,339 homesteads in Ulster. This marks a decrease of 143,306 home- steads, [73] While emigration and famine have depopulated Ulster, while home- steads decreased and many towns went to decay under British rule in Ulster since the Union — taxation has increased: Ulster Taxation Per Capita 1801 - £ -6-2 1819 -— -15-5 1914 _. : 2-9-4 1918_ ----- 6-2^8 1919 ...1 8-0-0 1920 -- - : 10-9-0 An instructive document upon the comparative wealth of Irish indus- tries, North and South, by George Russell, (A.E.), an Uisterman and au- thority upon Irish trade, follows. It expands on the fact that the egg and poultry trade exports of Ireland for 1918 amounted to $41,500,000 more than the value of the ships built in Ireland this year: "The theory that Ulster Unionists create most of the wealth of the country is demonstrably untrue. One has only to read the report on the Irish Trade in Imports and Exports and compare the values of exports from Nationalist Ireland with the values of exports from Unionist Ireland to realize that agricultural and Nationalist Ireland is the great wealth producer. But even in this we cannot take figures at their face value. ''The export of ships, mainly from Belfast, was valued in 1918 at £10,147,000, the highest recorded value, and the Belfast people are justly entitled to think with pride of these world-famous yards of theirs. But if we compare this output, not with the great cattle trade, but with one of the minor branches of Irish agricultural industry, the egg and poultry trade, shipbuilding as a wealth creating industry assumes its proper place. "The women on the farms in Ireland who have charge of the poultry without any advertisement at all, or any expressed vanity about their industry were able to export eggs and poultry in 1918 valued 'at £18,449,310. Now the point about this total as compared with the value of the output of the shipbuilders is that the nominal values do not indicate the real wealth created. Practically all the £18,449,310 was new wealth created out of the earth and not five per cent of the feeding stuffs used were imported. "If we look at the imports we see the immense sums paid for steel, iron, coal and other raw materials to enable the shipbuilders to get to work, so that less new wealth is created in one industry than in the other pound for pound in value. And this applies to almost all the industries carried on in Nationalist Ireland; a much smaller percentage of raw materials required is imported, and more real wealth is created not only nominally, but if we examine into the means of production we find that there is more actual profit for the producer in every pound of final value than in the case of the manufacturing industries in North- East Ulster. "I do not wish to depreciate in any way the magnificent energy of Ulster Irishmen. They have a right to be proud of what they have achieved, but it is not right to speak of that corner of Ireland, as so many do, as the wealth-creating centre. It will really suffer much more [74] than the rest of Ireland under the regime Mr. Lloyd George has de- Aased for it. "He has cleverly taken their own valuation of their wealth-pro- ducing capacity, and he demands from six Ulster Counties a tribute of £7,920,000 annually. This will go to pay British workmen not Belfast workmen. I believe it will not take my Ulster countrymen very long to find out who really is oppressing them." English statesmen, following the slogan adopted by Lord Randolph Churchill in opposition to Parnell's movement, and taken up in 1914 by another Englishman, F. E! Smith, M.P., claim that Ulstermen will fight to retain Ulster under English rule instead of under their own. In view of the weight of evidence set out by the foregoing statistics this assumption on the part of English statesmen is not a tribute to the shrewd business sense, any more than to the patriotism, of the Ulsterman. THE MYTH OF RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES DifTerences of religious belief are held to create an irreconcilable gulf between Irishmen in Ulster — because it has been the consistent policy of English statesmen to keep them divided, or to create a widespread impres- sion that they are so divided. The workings of this "Divide and Conquer" policy of empires is clearly traceable in Ulster from the Boyne down to the present Home Rule plan of a "separate Ulster." Religious strife was first aroused in Ireland after the Boyne, which was represented as a religious battle instead of what it was — a phase of the old struggle between the Gael and the Saxon, as Bannockburn, Benburb and CuUoden were. Every device was utilized from that time forward to raise hostility between Protestant and Catholic — ^solely to strengthen England's hold on Ireland. At the time of Dean Swift's agitation against Wood's Halfpence, Boulter, the Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, wrote: "The worst of this is that it stands to unite Protestant and Papist; and whenever that happens — goodbye to the English interest in Ireland for ever." In 1779 Lord Grenville wrote to the British Lord Lieutenant of Ireland: "I cannot help feeling a very great anxiety that such measures may be taken as may effectually counteract the union between Catholics and Dissenters (Presbyterians) at which the latter are evidently aiming. There is no evil I would not prophesy of if that union takes place." When a delegation of Irishmen, including Grattan, interviewed Pitt, urging the benefits of union and amity between Protestants and Catholics, Pitt replied : "Ay, but whose will they be when they come together." This Union, the one natural union for Irishmen, having taken place, a United Ireland in 1782 secured from England a free parliament and free trade. In 1783 the Irish Volunteers (Protestant) demanded the religious emancipation of their Catholic countrymen. [75] John Adams writing from London to the President of Congress in 1783 of the plans of English statesmen to break this union said: "Ireland jg * * * throwing off the admiralty, postoffice and every other relic of British parliamentary authority, and contending for a free importation of their woolen manufactures into Portugal, for the trade to the East Indies, to the United States of America, and all the rest of the world * * * Xhe Irish Volunteers are also con- tending for a parliamentary reform * * * and are assembling by their delegates in a congress at Dublin to accomplish it. "This rivalry of Ireland is terrible to the ministry; they are sup- posed to be at work to sow jealousies and divisions between the Prot- estants and Catholics of Ireland." English statesmen having set themselves to divide Ireland, the Earl of Westmoreland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, wrote to Pitt in January 1792 : "Conceiving the object of you and I to be * * * how England can govern Ireland * * * a country containing one-half as many inhabitants as herself and in many respects more advantageously situated, I hold the task not to be easy, but that the present frame of Irish Government is particularly well calculated for our purpose. That frame is a Protestant garrison, in possession of the land,' magistracy and power of the country holding that property under the tenure of British power and supremacy and ready at every instant to crush the rising of the conquered." In 1798 the Presbyterians of North-East Ulster were as active in pro- moting the insurrection of that year as the Catholics of Wexford were, all aiming to establish an Irish Republic. But in portions of the North false rumors were spread by the British Government that the Southern rising had a religious, an anti-Protestant, motive. Companies of Northern militia were then secured to aid in sup- pressing the Southern movement. Simultaneously Catholic leaders were disturbed by whispers of atheistic doctrines and "French principles" in the Republican movement. To the Catholic Hierarchy, England's Premier, Pitt, presented May- nooth, a training College for priests, which the government endowed in the hope of controlling the national and political views of all its students. The Church of England was already fully endowed in Ireland — and as fully controlled. The Presbyterian Church was approached by Lord Castlereagh with "a plan for strengthening the connection between the Government and the Presbyterian Synod of Ulster;" he aimed to prevent ministers of this Church from again taking an independent patriotic stand as they did in 1798. The plan provided for attractive annual subsidies for all ministers "loy- ally disposed" toward British rule in Ireland. Dr. Killen, the Presbyterian historian, has recorded the effectiveness of these methods upon the Synod. Having secured an entente with the clergy British statesemen then used their power over Ireland's economic resources to intensify the work of sowing dissension, forecasted by John Adams. Their policy was checked by the disestablishment of the English Church, and by other democratic advances. It has been halted by increased facili- ties for communication between the people and the growing knowledge among all Irishmen of the source of their differences. [76] This alien plant of religious dissension has always been nurtured as a mainstay of English influence in Ireland and has always had the support of England's adherents there. It has caused unhappiness and friction among the working classes of North-East Ulster, but it is an unnatural growth and has not destroyed the religious tolerance of the Irish Gael. RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE OF THE IRISH NATION Every claim that danger or discrimination would accrue to Ulster from a self-governed Ireland is based on the allegation that a Catholic majority in Ireland would use its power against that section of Ulster's popula- tion which subscribes to faiths other than the Catholic. The entire history of the Irish race refutes this argument. Ample evidence concerning this Irish Catholic characteristic of religious tolerance is given by English and Protestant historians. Protestant historians — Lecky, Leland, Laing, Fox, Sydney Smith, Taylor, Buckle and Hallam have recognized this native tolerance, most strikingly exemplified perhaps in the Irish Constitution of Kilkenny (1646) and again in 1689, when full religious freedom and liberty of conscience were guaranteed all Irishmen by enactments framed by Irish Catholics. The Irish took this stand in a century when the rest of Europe was torn with internecine wars marked by religious intolerance. Hon.W, E. H. Lecky, in his History of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. II, pp. 389-91, states of the Irish nation: "Their original conversion to Christianity was probably accom- panied by less violence and bloodshed than that of any equally con- siderable nation in Europe ; and in spite of the fearful calamities which followed the Reformation, it is a memorable fact that not a single Protestant suffered for his religion in Ireland during all the period of the Marian persecution in England. "The treatment of Bedell, a Protestant prelate, during the out- break of 1641, and the Act establishing liberty of conscience, passed by the Irish Parliament in 1689, in the full flush of the brief Catholic ascendancy under James II, exhibit very remarkably this aspect of the Irish character; and it was displayed in another form scarcely less vividly during the Quaker missions, which began toward the close of the Commonwealth and continued with little intermission for two generations * * *. "The experience of (John) Wesley half a century later was very similar * * * and he has more than once in his Journal spoken in terms of warm appreciation of the docile and tolerant spirit he almost everywhere encountered." Rev. H. S. Lunn, an English clergyman and follower of Wesley, in reply to fears expressed in his day of Papal persecution in Ireland, stated: "He was met everywhere by misrepresentations of the facts of Irish history, and by a wilful ignoring of those facts which was equally misleading * * * Por his own part, it was not without much study that he had entered upon this conflict, but as he reviewed the history of Ireland he found that the annals of Irish Catholicism, from its earliest date, were free from any record of persecution. [77] "And in the dark middle Ages, when the EngUsh people were persecuting the Jews to extort from them their hidden treasures, once again the Irish occupied an unique position amongst European nations, and did not engage in such persecution. "But there was one great lesson taught by universal history * * * that wherever the power of democratic self-government had been extended, a fatal blow had been struck at all persecution." The Chief Rabbi of the Jews, speaking at Dublin, Ireland, in 1871, stated : "He had long been anxious for many reasons to visit this beautiful country; and amongst others — because it was the only country in which his race had not been persecuted." — Jewish Chronicle, July 21, 1871. The cry that the Catholic majority in Ireland would persecute their Protestant countrymen is met by these further testimonies of Protestant authorities : Taylor, in his History of the Civil Wars of Ireland, Vol. I, p. 169, states : "The restoration of the old religion was effected without violence. No persecution of the Protestants was attempted, and several of the English, who fled from the furious zeal of Mary's Inquisitors, found a safe retreat among the Catholics of Ireland. It is but justice to this maligned body to add that on the three occasions of their obtaining the upper hand they never injured a single person in life or limb for pro- fessing a religion different from their own. They had suffered persecu- tion and learned mercy, as they showed in the reign of Mary, in the wars from 1641 to 1648, and during the brief triumph of James II." In addition to evidences of the kindness and good will of Catholic Ireland toward the English Society of Friends, Wesleyans and Catholics when persecuted by their own English countrymen, the Irish Protestant historian, Mrs. John R. Green, in "Irish Nationality" dwells upon the wel- come given by Catholic Ireland to the German Protestant Palatinates and the French Huguenots, both persecuted by their own countrymen. These different Protestant sects sought and found refuge in Ireland, among the Catholics of the South and still practice the Protestant faith without hin- drance or discrimination by their Catholic neighbors. Similar evidence is given by Alfred Webb, a Dublin member of the Society of Friends, who in Parnell's day received fifty letters from Protes- tants in all parts of Ireland replying to his queries concerning Irish Catho- licism. The letter of Charles Eason, Manager of an extensive Enghsh- owned business in Ireland, was typical: "* * * I have never known an instance of Catholic intolerance toward me personally, nor toward the business I have governed, nor does my memory recall any case of intolerance from Catholics coming under my own knowledge at any time." J. A. Fox, instancing the very large number of Protestants who have been elected by Catholic constituencies in Ireland, "with and without the protection of the ballot" declares that: "* * * to reject such a candidate on account of his religious belief, when acceptable in all other respects, is a thing unknown in Ireland." [78] Today, the Right Hon. Denis Henry, a Catholic Unionist, is elected by a Protestant constituency in Ulster and sits in the British Parliament, an advocate of parliamentary union with England. Today also, Ernest Blythe, a Protestant supporter of the Irish Republic, represents an Ulster constituency in the Congress of the Irish Republic, while in the south Robert Barton, a Protestant Republican, was elected by a Catholic constituency with an overwhelming majority over The O'Mahony, a Catholic gentleman and adherent of the so-called "Nationalist" party, led by the late John E. Redmond. The non-sectarian attitude of the Republican movement in Ireland is further illustrated by the new Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, in Ireland, Rt. Rev. H. P. Glenn, who in his address to the General Assembly of that church on June 7, 1920, in Belfast, stated with reference to recent property losses in Ireland: "It is a notable fact that nowhere has a hand been raised against one of our isolated church buildings nor against a single individual Presbyterian, as such, in the South and West." George Russell, (A.E.) in his Reply to Rudyard Kipling, writing as an Ulsterman of Protestant faith states conclusively: "I am a person whose whole being goes into a blaze at the thought of oppression of faith, and yet I think my Catholic countrymen in- finitely more tolerant than those who hold the faith I was born in. I am a heretic judged by their standards, one who has written and made public his heresies, and I have never suffered in friendships or found my heresies an obstacle in life. I set my knowledge, the knowledge of a lifetime, against your ignorance, and I say you have used your genius to do Ireland and its people a wrong." Almost one-third of all the Protestants in Ireland live outside Ulster. These people, living as a minority of about 300,000 in a population of close to 2,500,000 Catholics, live contentedly and without fear of persecution as their families have lived for many generations. There is then evident insincerity in the British statesmen's argument, echoed by Belfast supporters, that Ulster's Protestant minority necessitates a drastic division of Ireland to save them from the machinations of a Roman Catholic majority in all Ireland. Under this argument the Protestants of the South would also need to be cut off from their countrymen. To be quite consistent it would further require the separation of the Catholic minority of Antrim and Down. RELIGIOUS CENSUS OF ULSTER An analysis of the religious statistics of Ulster emphasizes the artificial nature of the "separation" arguments. The British official census of Ulster in 1911 gives the population as 1,580,242. The Catholics constitute the largest religious body in Ulster: [79] Catholics Denomination Members 690,134 Percent. 43.6 Presbyterians.... Episcopalians... Methodists 421,566 366,171 48,490 26.6 23.2 3.1 All others 53,881 3.5 Total . 1.580.242 100.0 The Catholic population was 690,134. All other denominations were 890,108. This constituted a majority of 119,984 persons of religious bodies other than the Catholic. This entire majority of Protestants lives in the city of Belfast. Outside the city of Belfast there are more Catholics than Protestants in the Province of Ulster. The religious census by counties in Ulster was: County Antrim... Armagh. Cavan Donegal Down. Fermanagh Londonderry Monaghan Tyrone Total.. Catholic 118,449 54,147 74,188 132,943 78,946 34,749 64,436 53,341 78,935 690,134 Presby- terian 188,018 18,962 2,920 15,064 116,971 1,265 43,191 8,635 26,540 Episco- palian 128,552 38,867 12,954 17,975 78,695 21,121 27,080 8,644 32,283 421,566 366,171 Methodist 20,377 5,010 768 1,697 11,497 3,995 1,939 389 2,818 48,490 One phase of English propaganda with regard to Ulster and Ireland vaguely charges that the country is "priest-ridden." The following statistics disprove that theory: Denomination Percent. Catholics 73.86 Episcopalians i 13.13 Presbyterians ' 10.04 Methodists j 1.42 All others ! 1.55 Members Clergy- Ratio to men members 3,242,670 3,924 1 to 826 576,611 1,575 1 to 366 440,525 667 1 to 660 62,382 244 1 to 255 58,031 171 1 to 397 [80] [VI] (a) ENGLISH RUTHLESSNESS IN IRELAND IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ''Every horror and every shame that could disgrace the relations between a strong country and a weak one is written upon almost every page of the history of our dealings with Ireland." (Gladstone). That England's worst barbarities of the past are being continued in Ireland today is evidenced by the following summaries. They indicate cold-blooded murders of unarmed civilians, the "shooting-up," sacking and burning of whole towns and villages, the deliberate destruction of the hard- earned fruits of the people's industry — methods openly condoned and secretly instigated, by which the British Government is today endeavoring to crush into submission or to exasperate into madness a spirited, but in- nocent people — this when the echoes of the cries of Belgium have hardly died away, and when the war supposed to have been fought to secure for- ever the rights of small nations has scarcely ended. This regime of licensed savagery, of nightly raids and punitive expedi- tions in which men, women and children indiscriminately suffer, is but super-imposed upon the earlier system of fomentation of religious animosi- ties, abrogation of civil law, suspension of habeas corpus and of trial by jury ; imprisonments and deportation without any form of trial, total suppres- sion of free speech and free assembly, and the worse than war-censorship of the press, through the destruction of machinery and the confiscation of literature. ENGLISH ATROCITIES IN IRELAND, FROM JANUARY 1, 1919 TO OCTOBER 12, 1920 1919 Murders* _ 8 Towns sacked and burned 4 Deportations ..._. 20 Armed assaults on unarmed civilians... 476 Raids on private houses, burglaries, robberies, etc 13,782 Arrests and imprisonments for patriotic activities.... 959 Creameries and manufacturing plants destroyed. Proclamations and suppressions 335 Totals. 15,584 30,663 46,247 1920 Total (to Oct (for 21 12) mos.)' 69 77 98 102 328 t348 1,128 1,604 24,938 38,720 4,023 4,982 35 35 44 t379 *Theso do not include Republicans who have been killed in armed conflicts with the British forces. tTo April, 1920. [81] CRIMES BY BRITISH ARMED FORCES TO APRIL 20, 1920 Details of crimes committed in Ireland by British armed forces in the past two years, including the findings of over 100 public inquiries held by the civil authorities together with verdicts of coroners' juries, are contained in the Irish Bulletin, an official record made by the Irish Government, in the numbers and volumes specified here. Every charge contained in this official record is based upon an accumu- lation of evidence secured from eye-witnesses and official British documents. The charges made against the British Government comprise: 1. Arresting and imprisoning without charge or trial, or with trial on invented charges, the elected representatives of the Irish people.; Vol. I. Nos. 24, 36, 40, 57, 62, 81, 83, 97. 114. Vol. II. Nos. 2, 27, 42, 44, 72. Vol. III. Nos. 9, 10. 2. Inciting and encouraging its armed forces to murder Irish civilians; Vol. I. Nos. 33, 37, 58, 60, 65, 66, 67, 72, 93, 98, 106, 107, 113. Vol. II. Nos. 3, 5, 25, 28, 36, 43, 48, 49, 50, 55, 56, 57, 60, 62, 66, 74, 79, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15. 3. Wilfully shielding these murderers and rewarding them by promo- tion, high office and increased pay; Vol. I. Nos. 18, 61, 98. Vol. II. Nos. 6, 9, 48, 50, 55, 57, 60, 62, 63, 66, 74, 79, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 14. 4. Conniving at and encouraging the sacking of Irish towns, the bomb- ing, burning and wrecking of Irish homes, the destruction of the factories and industries of the Iri^h people by its armed forces ; Vol. I. Nos. 4, 12, 50, 77, 86, 93, 115. Vol. II. Nos. 3, 10, 15, 20, 21, 28, 40, 43. 49, 55, 57, 60, 61, 71, 79, 83. Vol. III. Nos. 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14. 5. Inciting and encouraging its armed forces to commit savage assaults upon innocent and inoffensive Irish citizens; Vol. I. Nos. 66, 70, 75, 90, 93, 111. Vol. II. Nos. 9, 12, 48, 50, 55, 62, 63, 66, 79, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14. 6. Having among its high officials in Ireland those whom it knows to have directed the assassination of Irish citizens, and to be planning the assassination of others; Vol. III. Nos. 8, 9, 14. 7. Wilfully endeavoring to drive the Irish people into armed insurrec- tion : Vol. I. Nos. 17, 23, 24, 27, 30, 45, 59, 61, 62, 67, 86, 91, 92, 95. Vol. II. Nos. 3, 4, 9, 55, 63, 66, 74, 79, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 6, 8, 9. 10, 14, 15. [82] 8. Employing in its service men whom it knows to be perjm'ers and assassins ; Vol. I. Nos. 112, 113. Vol. II. Nos. 9, 12, 48, 50, 55, 62, 63, 66, 79, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14. 9. Issuing deliberately falsified official reports; Vol. I. Nos. 60, 65, 93,'95, 98, 103, 107, 110, 114. Vol. II. Nos. 1, 4, 16, 17, 20, 22, 24, 26, 56, 81, 83, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 3, 6, 8, 9, 14. 10. Conniving at the looting of property of Irish citizens by its armed forces ; Vol. I. Nos. 6, 50, 77, 87, 92, 100. Vol. II. Nos. 3, 20, 43. 44, 49, 55, 62, 83. Vol. III. Nos. 1, 6. 11. Suppressing National organizations in Ireland which represent 83 per cent of the Irish people; Vol. I. Nos. 13, 37, 64, 78, 81, 109, 114. Vol. II. Nos. 27, 42, 44, 72. Vol. III. No. 12. 12. Preventing by threats the Irish Press from exposing its terrorist regime in Ireland ; Vol. I. Nos. 15, 39, 73. Vol. II. Nos. 5, 44. Vol. III. Nos. 4, 10. 13. Suppressing organized National effort made to improve Ireland's economic position, and arresting and imprisoning men who are engaged upon this work ; Vol. I. Nos. 14, 24, 25, 28, 32, 38, 45, 49, 52, 76, 89. Vol. II. Nos. 44, 46, 71. Vol. III. No. 5. 14. Deliberately provoking sectarian conflicts in Ireland; Vol. I. Nos. 38, 39. Vol. II. Nos. 37, 39, 58, 59, 61, 67. 15. Creating in Ireland an armed police force which has no civil duties, but whose function is to suppress by force the National organizations of the people ; Vol. I. Nos. 24, 27, 29, 31, 55, 59, 62, 90, 94, 114. Vol. II. Nos. 16, 20, 21, 40, 48, 49, 53, 55, 57, 59, 62, 69, 73, 82, 83, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 14, 15. 16. Endeavoring to stamp out the use of the Irish language by the Irish people; Vol. I. Nos. 20, 29, 34, 51, 97. Vol. II. Nos. 27, 31, 37, 44. [83] 17. Shameful inequality in the administration of its own law against offenders who support it politically and offenders who oppose it; Vol. I. Nos. 19, 38, 51, 81, 107. Vol. II. Nos. 18, 68. 18. Charging the Sinn Fein movement with outrages which it knows never to have occurred, or to have been committed by its own agents and supporters; Vol. I. Nos. 17, 33, 49, 60, 72, 108, 115. Vol. 11. Nos. 6, 10, 14, 17, 22. 19. Using its terrorist weapons against Irish women and children; Vol. I. Nos. 30, 33, 58, 59, 74, 79, 82, 88, 92, 97, 100, 101. Vol. II. Nos. 49, 74, 79. . ^■ Vol. III. Nos. 3, 5, 6, 14, 15. 20. Maltreating and murdering its political prisoners; Vol. I. Nos. 61, 103, 114. Vol. II. Nos. 4, 7, 48, 59, 69, 74, 75, 84. Vol. III. Nos. 1, 3. 21. Instructing its armed agents to shoot Irishmen whom they have taken into custody; Vol. 1. Nos. 1, 9, 54, 75, 80. 22. Wilfully endeavoring to stamp out the Irish people's own organiza- tion for the preservation of public order and the suppression of crime; Vol. I. Nos. 40, 55, 61, 63, 109. Vol. II. Nos. 8, 27, 32, 37, 51, 53, 78, 82. 23. Having used its armed forces in Ireland against the Republican movement when the General Election was in progress in December 1918; when the Municipal Council Elections were in progress in January 1920; and when the County and Rural Council Elections were in progress in June 1920; Vol. I. Nos. 44, 47, 99. Vol. II. Nos. 6, 9, 11, 42. 24. Endeavoring to impose by force an authority upon the Irish people which is rejected by all classes of that people and by hundreds of its own officials. Vol. I. Nos. 20, 29, 34, 51, 97. Vol. II. Nos. 2, 25, 30, 34, 40, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 54, 56, 64, 65, 76, Vol. III. No. 11. CRIMES OF MURDER, ASSAULT AND RORBERY The Irish Bulletin, the official record previously referred to, compiled and published in No. 3, Volume 2, the following list of acts of English aggression in Ireland. The outrages of this period — from January 1, 1919, to April 30, 1920 — are typical of those of any period of similar length in the past three years: [84] Feb. 12. Apr. 6. Apr. 28. Apr. 29. June 5. June 16. June 29. Aug. 14. Sept. 9. Oct. 10. Nov. 6. Nov. 12. Nov. 20. Nov. 24. Dec. 29. 1919 Patrick Gavin shot dead by soldiers at the Curragh Camp. Robert Byrne shot dead by police in Limerick Hospital. MI. Walsh shot dead by police at Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. Two men attacked and shot by police at Longford, Co. Longford. Mathew Murphy, Dundalk, shot dead by soldiers at Dundalk. Michael Rice (aged 60) and his son Martin attacked in their house and shot by police. Patrick Studddrt, Kilkee, shot dead by soldiers. Francis Murphy, Glan, Co. Clare, (aged 15) shot dead by soldiers who fired into his father's house at midnight. Fermoy, Co. Cork, sacked by soldiers. Boy shot at Banbridge, Co. Down, by police. Kinsale, Co. Cork, sacked by soldiers. Cork City partially sacked by soldiers. Motorists shot by police at Sligo for refusing to halt. Civilians shot at Tipperary by police. Laurence Kennedy murdered by soldiers at Phoenix Park, Dublin. 1920 Jan. 6. Dr. Keane, Ennistymon, Co. Clare, shot by police while on his medical rounds. Jan. 19. Civilians at Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford shot by police. Jan. 20. Ml. Darcy, Cooraclgire, Co. Clare, drowned while police held off would-be rescuers. Jan. 22. Whole town of Thurles wrecked by soldiers. Feb. 4. Man and girl shot dead in Limerick by soldiers and police. Feb. 14. James O'Brien shot dead at Rathdrum by police. Feb. 16. John Heaphy shot hj police at Ballylongford, Co. Kerry. Feb. 17. Pedestrians held up at the point of the bayonet by soldiers at Thurles, and the contents of their pockets stolen. Feb. 20. Mrs. M. J. Kelly, shopkeeper, 10 WeUington Place, Dublin, savagely assaulted and robbed by soldiers. Feb. 23. J. J. Kinsella shot at on the South Circular Road, Dublin, by a party of soldiers. Feb. 25. Philip Maher, Turtulle, Co. Tipperary, attacked by police on the public highway and beaten with the butt-ends of their rifles. Feb. 25. Railway employee named Kennedy shot at by a patrol of soldiers near Thurles. Kennedy was neither halted nor challenged. Feb. 25. Three men, named Cullanan, Burke and MacCarthy were shot at by police from cover while on their way to their homes, Leugh, Co. Tipperary. Feb. 27. Raiding parties of troops forced an entry into the late Head- quarters at 3, 6 and 76, Harcourt Street, Dublin of the Sinn Fein Bank, the Sinn Fein Organization and the Republican Government of Ireland respectively, and systematically v/recked every room in these houses. In the Sinn Fein Bank the safe was forced and £1040 stolen. Mar. 1. The town of Thurles was partially wrecked by soldiers accom- panied by their officer. Mar. 2. Townspeople of Thurles attacked by police who beat them with the butt-ends of their rifles. [85] Mar. 3. Spectators of daylight military raids in Dublin were attacked by the troops who dispersed them with the butt-ends of their rifles. Mar. 5. Three young men passing the police barracks at Holycross, Co. Tipperary were abused and stoned by police. Mar. 5. The National Monuments at Thurles, Co. Tipperary, were dis- figured by police and soldiers. Mar. 6. Property stolen from Mrs. Lynch, Richmond Road, Dublin by soldiers who raided her house. Mar. 7. Thurles, Co. Tipperary, again wrecked by soldiers. Mar. 12. Sinn Fein Clubs and the residences of prominent Republicans broken into and completely wrecked by police at Cork. Volleys fired in the public street after midnight at shop windows and into private houses. Mar. 13. Miss Cotter, Abbey Street, Cork, shot at by police while hasten- ing at night to call a priest to her dying aunt. Mar. 16. Spectators of military raids upon the residences of Republicans at Monaghan were attacked by troops. Mar. 19. Attempted murder of Alderman Professor Stockley, Sinn Fein leader, Cork. Mar. 19. Police fired at crowds who endeavored to enter the Kilkenny Theatre to attend a performance of the play, "The Parnelhte." Mar. 20. Lord Mayor of Cork murdered by police who broke into his house at the dead of the night. Mar. 21. Engine driver named Howe when passing the Thurles Police Barracks was attacked by police who rushed from the Barracks and knocking him down robbed him. Mar. 22. Ellen Hendrick, aged 18 years, and Michael CuUen, aged 23, were shot dead by soldiers who assaulted pedestrians and smashed shop windows in a riotous parade through the streets of Dublin. Mar. 29. Military raiding the house of S. Byrne, T. C. looted jewellry. Mar. 29. J. MacCarthy, brother of M. MacCarthy, Sinn Fein leader, Thurles, was murdered by men in the uniforms of police who broke into his house at the dead of the night. Mar. 30. T. Dwyer, prominent Republican was murdered by police at The Ragg, Co. Tipperary, who broke into his house at the dead of the night. Apr. 3. Military raiding the house of T. Longmore, Kingstown, Co. Dublin, looted it. Apr. 6. Military raiding the Republican Temperance Bar, Dublin, fired into houses in O'Connell Street and attacked spectators with the bayonet. Apr. 9. Military raiding the residence of Frank Foy, 33, Carrysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, looted it. Apr. 10. Military raiding the residence of Mr. O'Flanagan, 14a Wexford Street, Dublin, looted it. Apr. 14. Soldiers being brought to reinforce the guards at Mountjoy Jail in which Sinn Fein prisoners were dying, slashed with their bayo- nets at the crowd outside the jail as they drove through them. Apr. 14. Police and Military shot dead three civilians at Miltown-Malbay, Co. Clare, who were celebrating the release of Mountjoy prisoners by singing round a lighted tar-barrel. Nine others were seriously wounded. [86] Apr. 14. At Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, a similar demonstration by civilians was attacked by police who used their rifle butts and bayonets upon the people. Apr. 16. The residence of P. Ryan, Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary, was broken into by police who called for the male members of the family saying "We will shoot every Sinn Feiner we meet." Apr. 16. At Reiska, Co. Tipperary, the houses of several residents were fired into by police. Eleven bullets entered the residence of J. O'Brien, Irish teacher. And old age pensioner passing along the road at soine distance was deliberately fired upon by one of the police. The shot went wide. The policeman was taking a second shot when his rifle was knocked up by a comrade who said "We have done enough." Apr. 17. At Holycross, Co. Tipperary, a policeman entered the local smithy and drawing his revolver ordered the smith to mend his bicycle free of charge. He rode away announcing that he would murder the first Sinn Feiner who dared to say a word to him. Apr. 17. Thomas Mulholland, a prominent Sinn Feiner was shot dead by police in John Street, Dundalk. Apr. 17. Immediately after the Coroner's Jury, inquiring into the death of Thomas Dwyer, The Ragg, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, had returned a verdict of murder against the police, a body of Royal Irish Constabulary in uniform drove about the townlands adja- cent to Thurles shooting at the passers by. At the Ragg they halted outside the house of the Dwyers and fired several shots into it, wounding John Brouder who was at his tea. Apr. 26. Nine police suddenly appeared in the streets of Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary, and fired volleys at passers by and into the houses of the inhabitants. After firing for half an hour they broke the windows of the houses with heavy stones, calling at the same time upon the men to come out to be shot. Apr. 26. Patrick Dowling was shot dead in the streets of Arklow by riotous soldiers. Apr. 27. Shops in Limerick City partially wrecked by riotous soldiers; shots were fired at pedestrians and passers by were bayonetted. Apr. 29. At Fermoy, Co. Cork, at 12 noon soldiers fired shots down the streets killing a horse. INDICTMENT IN CORONER'S VERDICTS The details of the outrages listed in the preceding section of this Appen- dix, and of the other outrages since May, 1916, extending into many volumes are necessarily not reproduced here. But the recent death of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, suggests the selection of the Coroner's findings on the death of his predecessor in office, Thomas MacCurtain, and on the death of Thomas Ashe, who in a protest similar to that of Mayor MacSwiney, against being treated as a criminal, refused food and died from the effects of forcible feeding by the British prison authorities. These findings and over ninety o'thers proceeding from juries, summoned by British ofiicials, have clearly indicated the culpability of British officials in these murders, with the result that to avoid the consequent exposures, coroner's juries are no longer summoned by the British, being superseded by secret military inquisition — where verdicts in consonance with the aims of the British Executive are invariably returned. [87] The following was the verdict of the Coroner's jury upon the death of Thomas MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, who was assassinated in his own home shortly after he assumed office in March, 1920. We find that the late Alderman Thomas MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, died from shock and hemorrhage caused by bullet wounds; that he was wilfully murdered under circumstances of the most callous brutality; that the murder was organized and carried out by the Royal Irish Constabulary, officially directed by the British Government, and we return a verdict of wilful murder against David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England; Lord French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; Ian MacPherson, late Chief Secretary for Ireland; Acting Inspector- General Smith, of the Royal Irish Constabulary; Divisional Inspector Clayton, of the Royal Irish Constabulary; District Inspector Swanzy, and some unknown members of the Royal Irish Constabulary." Thomas Ashe, leader of the first historic group of hunger-strikers, died on September ,25, 1917. In the post-mortem examination his throat and neck showed bruises and wounds. The coroner's verdict read: "We find that Thomas Ashe according to the medical evidence of Professor McWeeney, Sir Arthur Chance and Sir Thomas Myles, died of heart failure and congestion of the lungs on the 25th of September, 1917, caused by the punishment of taking away from his cell in Mount- joy Jail the bed, bedding and boots and being left to lie on the cold floor for fifty hours, then subjected to forcible feeding in his weak con- dition after a hunger-strike of five or six days. * * * That the hunger strike was directed against the inhuman punishment inflicted and as a protest against the men being treated as criminals when demanding to be treated as political prisoners." POLICE AND MAGISTRATES IN IRELAND RESIGN As a protest against British policy and the conduct of the British forces in Ireland 515 justices of the peace have resigned. The reason determining their action is typified by that given in the case of the Cavan (Ulster) justices July 11, 1920. "We wish no longer to be associated with an Executive whose actions are subversive of equity and justice and repugnant to the feelings and sentiments of the vast majority of our fellow-countrymen." Sir Henry Grattan Bellew, in tendering his resignation to the British Lord Chancellor, August 11, 1920, wrote: "I hope my colleagues will follow my example so that the wrecking of Irish towns and the ruin of Irish industry may be proceeded with without any camouflage or appearance of approval by Irishmen in the sabotage of their own country." IRISH TOWNS SACKED AND RAVAGED The sacking of Irish towns has been in progress for over a year. For twelve months it has been the policy of the British Government, by encour- aging wholesale sabotage by its troops and police, to endeavor to crush the National movement for Irish independence. No efi'ort has been made by the British Military Government in Ireland either to prevent these sackings or to punish its armed forces engaged in them. [88] These towns have completely or partially fallen to rifle fire, bombs, and incendiary torches. The term "shot-up" used in the list indicates that in the place named British troops, without warning, fired along the streets and into the residences of prominent Republicans. 1919 Fermoy, Co. Cork, sacked by troops. Kinsale, Co. Cork, partially sacked by troops. Cork City, partially sacked by troops. 1920 Thuries, Co. Tipperary, sacked by troops. Three houses in Dublin wrecked by troops. Thuries, Co. Tipperary, partially wrecked by troops. Several houses in Thuries, Co. Tipperary, wrecked by troops. Many houses in Cork City wrecked by police. Many shop windows in Dublin wrecked by troops. BouladufF, Co. Tipperary, "shot-up" by police. Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary, partially wrecked by police. Many houses in Limerick City wrecked by troops. Limerick City "shot-up" by police. Houses at Thuries, Co. Tipperary, fired and bombed by police. Houses at Bantry, Co. Cork, wrecked by police. Limerick City "shot-up" by police. Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary, "shot-up" by police. Kilmallock, Co. Limerick, sacked by police. Midleton, Co. Cork, "shot-up" by troops. Limerick City "shot-up" by police. Limerick City again "shot-up" by police. Bantry, Co. Cork, partially sacked by police. Houses in Limerick City wrecked by police. Many houses at Bantry, Co. Cork, wrecked and fired by police. Fermoy, Co. Cork, sacked by troops. Lismore, Co. Waterford, sacked by troops. Many houses at Newcastle- West, Co. Limerick wrecked and fired by police. Limerick City partially sacked by police. Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary, "shot-up" by police. Newspaper offices at Limerick City wrecked and fired by police. Union Hall, Co. Cork, "shot-up" by police, Midleton, Co. Cork, "shot-up" by troops. Residence at Ballylanders, Co. Limerick, bombed and wrecked by police. Tralee, Co. Kerry, partially sacked by police. Houses at Arklow, Co. Wicklow, bombed and wrecked by police. Galbally, Co. Limerick, "shot-up" by police. Cork City "shot-up" by police. Cork City "shot-up" by police. Ballagh, Co. Roscommon, partially sacked by police. Emly, Co. Limerick, "shot-up" by police. Creamery and houses wrecked. Houses at Limerick City wrecked and burned by police. National Foresters Hall at Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford wrecked by police. [89] Sept. 9. Nov. 6. -Nov. 12. Jan. 22. Feb. 27. Mar. 1. Mar. 7. Mar. 12! Mar. 22. Apr. 17. Apr. 26. Apr. 27. May 1. May 13. May 15. May 18. May 19. "May 28. June 5. June 11. June 12. June 23. June 23. June 25 June 27. June 27. June 27. June 28. June 28. July 1. July 3. July 5. July 6. July 15. July 16. July 16. July 17. July 18. July 16. July 19. July 20. July 20. July 21. Houses at Limerick City bombed and wrecked by police. July 22. Ballina, Co. Mayo, "shot-up" by police. July 22. Leap, Co. Cork, sacked by police. July 23. Caltra, Go. Galway, partially sacked by police. July 30. Upperchurch, Co. Tipperary, partially sacked by police. July 3L Tipperary Town partially sacked by troops. July 3L Business premises at Cork City sacked by troops. Aug. 2. Many houses at Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, partially wrecked by police. Aug. 5. Doon, Co. Limerick, sacked by troops. Aug. 6. Rosegreen, Co. Tipperary, "shot-up" by police. Aug. 7. Tralee, Co. Kerry, "shot-up" by police. Aug. 8. Houses at Kildorrery, Co. Cork, wrecked and looted by police. Aug. 12. Sinn Fein Hall at Enniscorthy, wrecked by police. Aug. 12. Sv/ords, Co. Dublin "shot-up" by troops. Aug. 13. Limerick City "shot-up" by police. Aug. 14. Tralee, Co. Kerry, "shot-up" by troops and police. Aug. 15. Limerick City partially wrecked by police. Aug. 16. Templemore, Co. Tipperai'y, partially sacked by police. Aug. 17. Creameries at Castleiny, Lougbmore and Killea, Co. Tipperary, destroyed by police. Aug. 19. Bantry, Co. Cork, "shot-up" by police. Aug. 21. Oranmore, Co. Galway, sacked by police. Aug. 23. GlengarifFe, Co. Cork, "shot-up" by police. Aug. 24. Several houses at Dundalk, Co. Lotuh, wrecked by troops. Aug. 25. Kill, Co. Waterford, wrecked by police. Aug. 26. Creamery at Knocklong, Co. Limerick, destroyed by police. Aug. 26. Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, partially sacked by police. Aug. 26. Naas, Co. Kildare, "shot-up" by police. Aug. 27. Queenstown, Co. Cork, sacked by troops. Sept. 1. Ballaghadereen, Co. Mayo, sacked by police. Sept. 2. Inniscarra, Co. Cork, partially sacked by police. Sept. 10. Tullow, Co. Carlow, sacked by police. Sept. 17. Galway City "shot-up" and bombed by police. Sept. 18. Several houses wrecked and fired by police in Co. Limerick. Sept. 19. Several houses at Salthill, Co. Galway, wrecked and fired by police. Sept. 20. Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, partially sacked by police. Sept. 20. Tuam, Co. Galway, "shop-up" by police. Sept. 20. Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, sacked by police. Sept. 21. Balbriggan, Co. Dubhn, "shot-up" by police. Sept. 22. Drumshambo, Co. Leitrim, partially sacked by police. Sept. 22. Houses at Tuam, Co. Galway and Galway City wrecked by police. Sept. 22. Ennistymon, Co. Clare, sacked by police. Sept. 22. Lahinch, Co. Clare, sacked by police. Sept. 22. Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, sacked by police. Sept. 22. Houses at Galway wrecked and looted by police. Sept. 24. Newspaper offices and houses at Galway City bombed and wrecked by police. Sept. 24. Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, "shot-up" by police. Sept. 25. Several houses at Athlone, Co. Westmeath, wrecked. Sept. 25. Houses wrecked at Killorglin, Co. Kerry, by police. Sept. 27. Trim, Co. Meath, sacked by police. [90] [VI] (b) A CENTURY OF COERCION The Coercion Act of 1920, which follows marks the climax of England's coercive legislation against Irish liberties : England's Coercion Act of 1920 lA BILL INTITULED An Act to Make Provision for the Restoration and Maintenance OF Order in Ireland. Be it Enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of tlie Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. — (1) Where it appears to His Majesty in Council that, owing to the existence of a state of disorder in Ireland the ordinary law is inadequate for the prevention and punish- ment of crime or the maintenance of order. His Majesty in Council may issue regiilations under the Defense of the Realm Consohdation Act, 1914, (hereintifter referred to as the principal Act) for securing the restoration and maintenance of order in Ireland, and as to the powers and duties for that purpose of the Lord Lieutenant and the Chief Secretary and of members of his Majesty's forces and other persons acting on his Majesty's behalf and in particular regulations for the special purposes hereinafter mentioned : It is provided that all regulations so made shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament as soon as may be after they are made, and if an address is presented to , His Majesty by either House within the next fourteen days during the session of Parliament, after any such regulation is laid before it, praying that the regulation may be annulled, his Majesty may annul the regulation and it shall thenceforth be void, without prejudice to the validity of anything done thereunder, or to the power of mak- ing a new regulation, and the regulations shall not be deemed to be statutory rules within the meaning of Section One of the Rules Publication Act, 1893. (2). The provisions of the principal Act with respect to the trial by court-martial or courts of summary jurisdiction and punishment of persons committing offences against the Defence of the Realm Regulations, shall extend to the trial of persons alleged to have committed, and the punishment on conviction of persons who have committed crimes in Ireland, whether before or after the passing of this Act, including persons committed for trial or against whom indictment nave been found so, however, that— (a) Any crime when so tried shall be punishable with the punishment assigned to the crime by statute or common law : (6) A court-martial when trying a person charged with a crime punishable by death shall include as a member of the court one person (who need not be an officer, or, if an officer, need not possess such qualifications as is mentioned in subsection [3] of section 48 of the Army Act) nominated by the Lord Lieutenant, being a person certified by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland or the Lord Chief Justice of England to be a person of legal knowledge and experience; : and regulations under the Principal Act may be made accordingly. (3) Regulations so made may also — (a) Provide that a court of summary jurisdiction, when trying a person charged with a crime or with an offense against the regulations or when hearing and determining any application with respect to a recognizance, shall, except in the Dublin Metropohtan police district, be constituted of two or more resident magistrates, and that a court of quarter sessions, when hearing and determining an appeal against a conviction of a court of summary jurisdiction for any such crime or offence, or against an order made on any such application shall be constituted of the recorder or county court judge sitting alone; [91] (b) Confer on a court-martial the powers and j urisdiction exerciseable by justices or any other civil court for binding persons to keep the peace or be of good behavior, for estreating and enforcing recognizances, and for compelling persons to give evidence and to produce documents before the court; (c) Confer on persons authorized to summon witnesses before a court-martiai the power of issuing warrants for compelling persons to attend as witnesses, and any warrant so issued shall have the like effect and be executed in a like manner as if issued by a justice or court of surnmary jurisdiction having jurisdiction in the place in which it is executed; (d) Authorize the imposition by courts-martial of fines in addition to or in substitution for any other punishments for offences against the regulations as well as for crimes, and provide for the manner in which such fines are to be en- forced; (e) Authorize the conveyance to and detention in any of BQs Majesty's prisons in any part of the United Kingdom of any persons upon whom a sentence of imprisonment has been passed in Ireland, whether before or after the passing of this Act; (/) Provide for any of the duties of a coroner and coroner's jury being per- formed by a court of inquiry constituted under the Army Act instead of by the coroner and jury; (g) Provide that where the Court house or other building in which any court is usually held, has been destroyed or rendered unfit or is otherwise unavailable for the purpose, the court may be held in such other court house or building as may be directed by the Lord Lieutenant; (/«) Authorize the trial without a jury of any action, counter claim, civil bill issue, cause or matter in the High Court or a county Court in Ireland which, apart from this provision, would be triable with a jury; (j) Provide for the retention of sums payable to any local authority from the Local Taxation (Ireland) Account, or from any Parliamentary grant, or from any fund administered by any Government department or pubUc body where the local authority has in any respect refused or failed to perform its duties, or for the purpose of discharging amounts awarded against the local authority in respect of compensation for criminal injuries or other liabilities of the local authority and for the application of the sums so retained in or towards the purpose aforesaid. (4) Any such regulations may apply either generally to the whole of Ireland or to any part thereof, and may be issued at any time, whether before or after the termina- tion of the present war, and the principal Act shall continue in force so far as may be necessary for that purpose, and the regulations may contain such incidental, supple- mental, and consequential provisions as may be necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act, and shall have effect as if enacted in this Act. (5) Section two of the Defence of the Realm (Amendment) Act, 1915, shall apply to proceedings before a court-martial in respect of a crime or an offence against the regulations, but save as aforesaid that Act shall not apply. (6) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires: The expression "crime" means any treason, treason-felony, felony, mis- demeanor, or other offence punishable, whether on indictment or on summary conviction by imprisonment or by any greater punishment other than offences against the Defence of the Realm Regulations: The expression "person committed for trial" shall include a person who has entered into a recognizance conditioned to appear and plead to an indictment or to take his trial upon any criminal charge, or who has been committed to prison there to await his trial for any crime. 2. This Act may be cited as the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, 1920. [92] This most recent act of coercion is but an intensified form of earlier acts in suppression of public and personal liberty. A partial list follows: Date. Title of Act. Chap. Alleged Purpose of Act. Remarks. 1801 41 Geo. Ill 61 Suppression of Rebellion do. This was the in- 1801 41 Geo. Ill 104 auguration of 1802-3 43 Geo. III... 116 Suspension of the Habeas Corpus* the Union. 1802-3 43 Geo. III...... 117 Suppression of Rebellion. 1803-4 44 Geo. III. 8 Suspension of the Habeas Corpus. Suppression of Rebellion. Peace Preservation Act 1803-4 44 Geo. III... , 9 1803-4 44 Geo. Ill '90 To restrict the possession of 1805 45 Geo. Ill 4 Suspension of Habeas Corpus. Peace Preservation Act. arms. 1806-7 47 Geo. Ill . 8 To restrict pos- session of arms 1807 47 Geo. Ill 50 Geo. Ill 54 109 91 78 33 do 1810 do do. 1812 52 Geo. Ill do do. 1813 53 Geo. Ill 54 Geo. Ill do do. 1813-14 Peace Preservation Act. 1813-14 54 Geo. III... 180 To prevent unlawful combinations 1813-14 54 Geo. Ill 181 To prevent aggravated assaults, do. 1814-15 55 Geo. Ill 88 1817 57 Geo. Ill . - 50 Peace Preservation Act Castlereagh legis- lation . 1820 1 Geo. IV 47 To restrict the use or possession of arms. 1821 3 Geo. IV 4 14 58 do. do. ^ To deal with insurrections, etc. 1829 do. 1823 4 Geo. i'V 1824 5 Geo. IV 105 1 do. To deal with dangerous assemblies. 1829 11 Geo. IV 1830 11 Geo. IV 44 To restrict the use of firearms. 1831 1 and 2 Wm. IV.. .... 47 do. 1831-2 2 and 3 Wm. IV 70 do. 1833 3 and 4 Wm. IV 4 To deal with local disturbances. . This was to deal 1835 5 and 6 Wm. IV 48 Peace Preservation Act. with the dis- 1836 6 and 7 Wm. IV. .. ... 39 Arms and gunpowder restrictions. tmbances aris- 1837-8 1 and 2 Victoria 71 do. ing out of the 7 1839 2 and 3 Victoria .... 74 To deal with unlawful societies. years' tithe war 1839 2 and 3 Victoria .... 77 To deal with aggravated assaults. 1841 4 and 5 Victoria .... 25 To prohibit importation of arms. See further ob- 1843 6 and 7 Victoria 23 To deal with aggravated assaults. servations ap- 1847-8 11 and 12 Victoria .. 2 Prevention of crime. pended. 1847-8 do 35 89 38 Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act. Unlawful combinations. Dealing with aggravated assaults. 1847-8 do 1849 12 and 13 Victoria .. 1850 13 and 14 Victoria . 106 Crime and outrage Act. 1852 15 and 16 Victoria . 66 do. 1852-3 16 and 17 Victoria . 72 do. 1854 17 and 18 Victoria . 92 do. 1854-5 18 and 19 Victoria . 112 do. 1856 19 and 20 Victoria . 36 Peace Preservation Act. 1857-8 21 and 22 Victoria . 28 do. 1860 23 and 24 Victoria . 138 do. 1862 25 and 26 Victoria . 24 do. 1865 28 and 29 Victoria . 118 do. 1866 29 and 30 Victoria . 119 Habeas Corpus Suspension. 1867 30 and 31 Victoria . 1 do. 1861 do 25 9 do. Peace Preservation Act. 1870 33 and 34 Victoria .. 1873 36 and 37 Victoria .. 24 do. 1875 38 and 39 Victoria .. 14 do. 1881 44 and 45 Victoria .. 14 Habeas Corpus Suspension. 1882 45 and 46 Victoria .. 25 Prevention of crime. 1883 46 and 47 Victoria . 12 Peace Preservation Act. 1887 50 and 51 Victoria . 20 Criminal Law and Procedure Act. [93] This Act of 1887 was a Perpetual Coercion act. The various coercion acts subsequent to 1887 until the beginning of the war have been merely supplementary to it, and are not included here.* These Acts of Coercion have been condemned by public opinion the world over. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton in the British Parliament, speak- ing against the passage of the Bill of 1833 said: "It is proposed, to pacify Ireland by domiciUary visits, courts- martial, by — Oh! Rare pacification I * * * You would pacify a country by maddening its people. * * * if y^^ suspend the constitution, you suspend it for all alike; you make no exception from the dread ban of general excommunication. You subject the innocent and guilty alike to spies and informers ; to the arbitrary perils of suspicion ; to those dark uncertainties of terror in which every man stands in fear of his neighbours. You give temptation to the accusa- tion of private revenge; you give a field to all the mercenary, all the malignant, all the individual motives which are ever brought into operation by the suspension of law and the insecurity of political freedom. * * * When this law was in force before, men turned it to the most fearful purposes. It was not the peasant who was invaded in his own person ; he was outraged in that of his sister or his wife. It was a law that benefited not the trembling landlord, but the daring violators; it had operated, not in behalf of the security of property, but against rights still more sacred than even property itself. * * *" "We take the time for exercising new coercions at the very moment when by our new experiment of conciliation we have veritably declared that seven centuries of coercion have been unavailing. * * * j ^jjj sure that no people on the face of the earth can be governed by the system His Majesty's Ministers propose. Today coercion, tomorrow concession. * * * tl^ig coaxing with the hand and spurring with the heel — this system — at once feeble and exasperating— of allowing the justice of complaint, and yet stifling its voice — of holding out hopes and fears, terror and conciliation, all in a breath — is a system that renders animals and human beings alike, not tame but savage, it is a system that would make the most credulous people dis- trustful, and the mildest people ferocious. * * * But you flatter yourself that under the shelter of those laws you will be able with effect to apply your remedial measures; it is just the reverse; they will blight all your remedies, and throw their withering shadow over all your concessions. I do not fear an open rebellion against the armed force and discipline of England ; but if you madden people it is impossible to calculate the strength of insanity. Indeed, I think an open rebellion is the least evil to be feared. I fear more, a sullen, bitter, unforgiving recollection, which will distrust all our kind- ness and misinterpret all our intentions ; which will take all grace from *Note: The Act of 1882 contained a provision empowering three judges sitting wiih- oul^a jury to try persons charged with the commission of murder and other felonies. The best comment on this ferocious measure was supplied by the Irish judges themselves who, at a special meeting convened to consider the position, passed a resolution declaring their unanimous opinion "that the Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act of 1882 would seriously impair pubUc confidence in the judicial office, and thereby permantly impair the adminis- tration of justice in Ireland." One of their body, the late Baron Fitzgerald of the Court of Exchequer, resigned his office, and publicly declared that he did so because be considered the new duties cast upon himself and his colleagues were unconstitutional. In consequence of these protests the provision of trial by three judges without a jury was never enforced f941 our gifts ; which will ripen a partial into a general desire for a separate Legislature, by a settled conviction of the injustice of this, so that at last the English people themselves, worn out with unavailing experi- ments, wearied with an expensive and thankless charge, and dis- satisfied with a companionship which gives them nothing but the conta- gion of its diseases, will be the first to ask for that very dismemberment of the empire which we are now attempting to prevent." [VI] (c) ENGLISH RUTHLESSNESS IN IRELAND IN PAST CENTURIES English savagery in Ireland is not of Twentieth-Century growth. "Centuries of brutal and often ruthless injustice, and what is worse * * * centuries of insolence and insult have driven hatred of British rule into the very marrow of the Irish race. The long records of oppression, proscription and expatriation have formed the greatest blot on the British fame of equity and eminence in the realm of govern- ment." — Lloyd George in British Parliament, March 7, 1917. As indicated in this Parliamentary address of Lloyd George, English attempts to subdue Ireland have been accompanied by barbarities of an infinite variety, and prompted by a purpose as uniform as it has been futile. From the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries English invasions, mas- sacres and confiscations alternated with subtler methods of intrigue and penetration — ^all failing in the fell purpose of conquest. MASSACRE AND FAMINE IN ELIZABETHIAN ERA The character of the campaigns by which Elizabeth's officers strove to establish English rule is described by Edmund Spencer, the author of the "Faerie Queen": "Notwithstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corne and cattel, yet, ere one year and a half, they were brought to such wretchedness as thet any stony heart would rue the same." Lord Essex in 1599 wrote in a letter to the Queen: "'Twere as well for our credit that we alone had the exposition of our quarrel with this people, and not they also," And another Lord Deputy writing shortly after 1607 described his activi- ties as follows: "Hunger would be a better, because a speedier weapon to employ against them than the sword. * * * I burned all along the Lough (Neagh) within four miles of Dungannon, and killed a hundred people, sparing none, of what quality, age or sex soever, besides many burned to death; — killed man, woman and child; horse, beast, and whatsoever we could find." 195] Of this period the historian Lecky said : "The suppression of the native race, was carried on with a ferocity which surpassed that of Alva in the Netherlands and has seldom been exceeded in the pages of history. "The war was literally a war of extermination. The slaughter of Irishmen was looked upon as literally the slaughter of wild beasts. Not only the men but even the women and children who fell into the hands of the English, were deliberately and systematically butchered." Those who escaped the sword died of famine, and the Lord Deputy Mountjoy reported: "We have seen no one man in all Tyrone of late but dead carcasses merely hunger starved. * * * No spectacle was more frequent in the ditches of towns and especially in wasted countries, than to see multitudes of these poor people dead, with their mouths all colored green by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could rend up above the ground. IN CROMWELLIAN PERIOD To the massacres of Elizabeth and James there succeeded those of Strafford and Cromwell. In the latter it is estimated that over one million Irish were killed within a comparatively short period. Sir William Petty, an Englishman, writing in "Political Anatomy of Ireland," 1691, puts the figure at 669,000. Some thirty thousand men, women and children were massacred at Drogheda; a similar fate overtook the inhabitants of Wexford, Dundalk, Newry and many other cities. Cromwell's official report to Parliament stated: "It has pleased God to bless our endeavors at Drogheda — I wish that all honest hearts may give glory of this to God alone — I do not think thirty of the whole number escaped with their lives; those that did, are in safe custody for the Barbadoes." The last words refer to the organized slave-traffic then inaugurated, of which Prendergast wrote : "In the course of four years they had seized and shipped 6400 Irish men and women, boys and maidens * * * When they began to seize the daughters and children of the English themselves— then indeed the orders at the end of four years, were revoked." PENAL CODE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY In the eighteenth century was perfected the famous Penal Code de- scribed by Edmund Burke as "The worst species of tyranny that the insolence and perverseness of mankind ever dared exercise. It was a complete system, well digested and well composed in all its parts. It was a machine of wise and elab- orate contrivance; and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverish- ment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man."— (Works of Edmund Burke, Vol. 2, p. 64-84.) [96] The Unionist historian Lecky wrote of the Irish Penal Code, that it had a character entirely distinctive: "It was directed not against the few, but against the many. It was not the persecution of a sect, but the degradation of a nation * * * it may be justly regarded as one of the blackest pages in the history of persecution." The Penal Laws were only on the surface of religious origin. Even at the time of their enforcement their true character was recognized by many as the political and econondic tyranny of one nation over another. Samuel Johnson is reported to have said, as stated in Boswell's Life (p. 29) : "The Irish are in a most unnatural state, for we there see the minority prevailing over the majority. There is no instance even in the Ten Persecutions of such severity." During the eighteenth century, besides enduring legal slavery, the Irish suffered from perpetual famine and were too exhausted to maintain an effective resistance. The relief obtained in 1782 was short-iived and the closing years of the century witnessed the organized campaign of exaspera- *tion which ultimately provoked the rebellion of 1798. During that and the succeeding year it is estimated that between fifty and eighty thousand Irish were butchered and innumerable tortures inflicted. Mr. Sampson, accepted as a reliable witness, gives the following de- scription of the conditions existing at that time: "I remained in Dublin until the 16th of April, when the terror became so atrocious that humanity could "no longer endure it. In every quarter of the metropolis, the shrieks and groans of the tortured were to be heard, and that through aU hours of the day and night. Men were taken at randon without process or accusation, and tortured at the pleasure of the lowest dregs of the community. Bloody theatres were opened and new and unheard of machines were invented for their diabolical purpose. "The tortures administered during the reign of terror cannot be surpassed, perhaps not paralleled in the annals of human suffering and crime. * * * Half-hanging was a common means of extorting confession. Wives, children, parents, sisters were brought to see these tortures inflicted on their nearest relatives. * * * These tortures, be it remembered, were inflicted not as a punishment for guilt, but as a means of acquiring information." Another contemporary account by Charles Hamilton Teeling in his book "Personal Narrative of the Irish Rebellion," (p. 130) contains the fol- lowing: "Numbers perished under the lash, many were shot at their peace- ful avocations, in the very bosom of their families, for the wanton amusement of the brutal soldiery. The torture of the pitch-cap was a subject of amusement both to officers and men. * * * The torture practiced in those days of Ireland's misery has not been equalled in the annals of the most barbarous nation. * * * But the Government had obtained the object desired. Ireland was goaded to resistance and security was sought for in the tented field.'' [97] COERCION, FAiMINE AND EMIGRATION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY During the nineteenth century English rule in Ireland was marked hy perpetual coercion, wholesale eviction, famine, emigration and general depopulation. The "legal" persecution of the people was carried on by the passing of over ninety Coercion Acts whereby the ordinary course of law was suspended. Lord Brougham (Speeches, Vol. IV), said: "It is in these enactments alone that we have ever shown our liberality to Ireland! She has received Penal Laws from England almost as plentifully as she has received blessings from the hands of Providence." Writing in 1887, J. A. Fox showed that already eighty-seven Coercion Acts had been passed since the Union. He wrote: "These Coercion enactments, in fact, have been so numerous and' have been in force so continuously for the last eighty-five years in Ireland, that for that period what is called 'ordinary law' has been the exception in that country and extraordinary legislation, utterly sub- versive of the ordinary law has been the rule. That is to say 'Main- taining the undisputed supremacy of the law' has meant in the course of the past eighty-five years the passage of eighty-seven Coercion Acts, either new or contiauations of old ones; the existence, amost con- tinuously ever since the first year of the Union of one or two Coercion Codes which, as we shall see, outrage the most cherished principles of public and personal liberty; the all -but complete and continuous supercession during that period of the ordinary law, as it is known in England and Scotland." For the most of the century, the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended in Ireland and even during the years of the Great Famine eight special Coer- cion Acts were imposed upon the stricken population. Eviction was the grim attendant of coercion throughout the century. It is estimated that nearly two million people were driven from their holdings during the first half of the century, and, over a million in the second half — in order to make room for cattle. "Blue Book No. 1089" which comprised an account of Captain Ken- nedy's Report to the British Parliament on the Evictions in the Kilrush Union describes the process in the case of a typical Irish parish. The following are extracts from the Report : "April 13, 1848.-— Thirty or forty cabins are levelled in a single day; the inmates crowd into neighboring ones till disease is generated. ".June 1848. — Wretched hovels have been pulled down where the inmates were in a helpless state of fever and nakedness and left by the roadside for days. As many as 300 souls, creatures of the most help- less class, have been left houseless in one day." [98] "May 7, 1849. — Notwithstanding that fearful, and I believe un- paralleled, numbers have been unhoused in this union within the year (probably 15,000), it seems hardly credible that 1,200 more have had their dwellings levelled within a fortnight — these ruthless acts of bar- barity are submitted to with an unresisting patience hardly credible." Referring to this official report, Sir Robert Peel stated: "I do not think ^hat the records of any country, civilized or bar- barous, present materials for such a picture. "( — Hansard June 8, 1879). And writing on the same subject, Joseph Kay, in his work "Social Conditions of the People" Vol. I, observes: "We have made Ireland — I speak it deliberately — we have made it the most degraded and the most miserable country in the world — all the world is crying shame upon us." That the great criminal responsibility for the Irish evictions did not rest solely on the landlords but also on the English Government, was admitted by Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons. He said : "The deeds of the Irish landlords are to a great extent our deeds. We are participes criminis; we with power in our hands looked on; we not only looked on but we encouraged and sustained." Famine in various degrees was almost continuous. The more serious ones occurred in 1819, 1823, 1830, 1847-49, and 1879-80. The Duke of Wellington admitted in Parliament in 1838 that ever since he had been Chief Secretary there had hardly been a single year in which the Irish were not threatened with famine. On October 25, 1839, "The Times" stated that "more misery is crowded into a single province of Ireland than can be found in all the rest of Europe put together — the well-being of millions is disregarded, famine and misery stalk through the land." Thackeray paid a visit to Ireland in 1843 and wrote an account of it in his "Irish Sketch Rook," in which we find the following: "The traveler has before him the spectacle of a people dying of hunger, and in the very richest counties men are suffering and starving by millions." That the Great Famine was artificial was explicitly stated by "The Times" on June 26, 1845: "The people have not enough to eat. They are suffering a real though an artificial famine. Nature does her duty; the land is fruitful enough, nor can it be fairly said that man is wanting. The Irishman is disposed to work, in fact man and nature together do produce abun- dantly. The island is full and overflowing with human food. Rut something ever intervenes between the hungry mouth and the ample banquet." [99] Lord John Russell, British Premier, also admitted that in 1847 the wheat crop, for instance, was above the average, and cattle there were in abundance; but these two commodities were borne away from the Irish ports daily, in sight of a starving people to pay the rack-rents of absentee landlords. Although over a million people died of famine during the ten years following 1845, this was by no means the last visitation of an evil which remained "endemic in the country during the rest of the century; and in November 1880 General Gordon, the hero of Khartoum, wrote to the "Times" from County Cork that: "From all acounts and from my own observation, the state of our fellow-countrymen in the parts I have named is worse than that of any people in the world, let alone Europe." Coercion, eviction and famine combined to produce enormous emigra- tion from the shores of Ireland during the second half of the nineteenth century, although the question engaged the attention of the world long before 1845. Already in 1835 a Parliamentary Commission stated that in Ireland there were 2,380,000 persons liable to die of hunger, and in the fifteen years which preceded the Great Famine 800,000 emigrated from Ireland, while only 370,000 left from Great Britain, During the thirty years from 1831 to 1861, three million emigrated from Ireland and one and one-half million from Great Britain. — (Thorn's Official Directory, 1852 and 1861). Speaking in the House of Commons on July 6, 1854, Mr. Bright said that no man could travel in Ireland "without feeling that some enormous crime has been committed by the Government under which that people live" : and we read in the "Principles of Political Economy" by John Stewart Mill: "The land of Ireland like the land of every other country belongs to the people which inhabit jt * * * and when the inhabitants of a country leave it 'en masse' because a Government does not leave them room to live, that Government is already judged and con- demned." According to the official Census the total population was reduced in sixty years from 8,250,000 in 1841 to 4,390,000 in 1911 — an appalling record of depopulation that has a parallel nowhere in the civilized world. The following table indicates (1) the natural growth of Ireland's population during a comparatively peaceful period, although one marked by increasing emigration — and (2) the striking depopulation of a later period signalized by famines, eviction and intensive emigration: flOO] Comparative Statistical Tables of Populations (From British Official Returns) Year 1801 1841 1871 1911 England and Wales 8,892,536 15,914,148 22,712,266 36,070,492 Increase 1,608,420 2,620,184 3,360,018 4,760,904 Ireland 5,395,456 8,175,124 5,412,377 4,390,219 Change in Period 1801-1911 Increase 27,177,956 Increase 3,152,484 Decrease 1,005,237 Density of Population by Square Mile 1801 1841 1871 1911 England and Wales 152 272 392 618 Scotland 54 88 113 160 Ireland 166 251 167 135 Change in Period 1801-1911 Increase per sq. mile 466 Increase per sq. mile 106 Decrease per sq. mile 31 The Population of England and Wales in 1911 was over four (4) times larger than it was in 1801. The population of Scotland in 1911 was, approximately, three (3) times larger than it was in 1801. The population of Ireland in 1911 had declined by one-fifth (1-5) of that of 1801. England and Wales in 1911 had a population two and one-third (2 1-3) times greater than that in 1841. Scotland in 1911 had a population one and three-fourths (1^) times greater than it had in 1841. The population of Ireland in 1911 was less by one-half (14) than that recorded in 1841. These figures form a record of national loss unparalleled in the civilized world. The decline in population was not due to natural causes. The Irish race is not decadent. With the exception of HoUand, the birth-rate in Ireland is the highest in Europe.* The fertility of the Irish people "is almost the greatest in Europe," and "Ireland * * * among all countries from which figures can be obtained, shows an increased fertility. "f *Inquiry into European Birth-rates by Statistical Department of the Government of Bavaria, 1910. fProceedings of the London Statistical Society, 1906. [101] Comparative Statistical Tables of Population of Ireland- AND Other Small Nations {Formerly held under Alien Rule) Bohemia Ireland 1831 1913 3,900.000 6,860,029 Increased 75% 7,767,401 4,379,076 Decreased 43% Finland Ireland 1850 1914 1,636,915 3,269,401 Increased 99% 6,877,849 4,381,398 Decreased 36% Esthonia Ireland 1856 1915 293,559 512,500 Increased 54% 5,972,851 8,337,000 Decreased 27% Russian Poland Ireland 1871 1915 6,193,710 12,247,600 Increased 97% 5,398,179 4,337,000 Decreased 19.7% Prussian Poland Ireland 1855 1910 1,392.636 2,099,831 Increased 50% 6,014,665 4,385,421 Decreased 27% Austrian Poland Ireland 1846 1913 4,461,400 8,211,770 Increased 84% 8,287,848 4,379,076 Decreased 47% Comparative Analysis of Foregoing Tables Ireland-Bohemia: Had Ireland's population, from 1831 to 1913 increased at the same rate as Bohemia's, the population of Ireland in 1913 would have been 13,592,951 instead of 4,379,076. Had Bohemia's population decreased proportionately to that of Ireland in the same period, Bohemia would have had in 1913 but 2,223,000, instead of 6,860,029. 1.102] Ireland-Finland: Had Ireland's population, from 1850 to 1914, increased at the same rate as Finland's, the population of Ireland in 1914 would have been 13,067,913 instead of 4,381,398. Had Finland's population decreased as had Ireland's in the same period Finland v/ould have had in 1914 but 1,047,626 instead of 3,269,401. Ireland-Esthon ia : Had Ireland, from 18^6 to 1915, increased in population as Esthonia did, Ireland's population in 1915 would have been 9,198,190, instead of 4,337,000. Ireland-Russian Poland: Had Ireland increased in population as Russian Poland did from 1871 onv/ard, Ireland in 1915 would have had 10,634,412 people instead of 4,337,000. Ireland-Prussian Poland: Had Ireland increased in population from 1855 to 1910 as Prussian Poland did, it would in 1910 have had 9,021,997 people instead of 4,385,000. Ireland- Austrian Poland: Had Ireland increased in population as Austrian Poland had from 1846 to 1913, Ireland would in 1913 have had 15,251,640 people instead of 4,379,000. Had normal conditions of government prevailed, the natural increase in the population of Ireland between 1841 and 1911 (latest Census year) would have given the country today a population of at least 12,000,000, and not the 4,350,000 persons as recorded by the British authorities. The causes for Ireland's appalling depopulation in the past century have been written in tlie blood and tears of the Irish Nation — as Coercion, Eviction, Famine, and Emigrationl This record is without parallel in the world's history. It is in itself a comprehensive indictment and condem- nation of England's prolonged attempt to rule the Irish people against their will. [103] [VII] THE COMMERCIAL RUIN OF IRELAND "To prohibit a great nation from making all that they can of their own produce, or from employing their stock and industry in the way that they judge most advantageous to themselves, is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind." — Adam Smith: Wealth of Nations. British policy applied to Ireland has been influenced by economic as well as by political considerations. The history of the relations of the two countries shows that England deliberately set herself to repress Irish in- dustry and to annihilate Irish commerce. In this policy the Government of England was supported by the manufacturers and merchants of that country. The inevitable disastrous results of the application of this immoral policy are tragically visible in the political and economic life of present-day Ireland. It was the wealth and commerce of Ireland that, first, attracted the Danes, and, later, the Normans, and occasioned invasions of Ireland, at different periods, by both these peoples. The Danish attempt to subdue the country was utterly defeated at Clontarf (Dublin) in 1014; the Norman (Anglo-Saxon) attempt (1172) has proceeded with varying fortunes down to the present day. The industry and trade of Ireland suffered in the general devastation consequent on these invasions. SIXTEENTH CENTURY "Along the track of Elizabeth's soldiers, houses, cornfields, orchards fences, every token of a people's industry were laid 'handsmooth.'" — Mrs. Green: Making of Ireland and its Undoing.) "The (English) Lord President of Munster burnt all the houses and corn, taking great preys * * * and harassing the country, not leaving behind him man or beast, corn or cattel." — (Pacata Hiber- nia, pp. 189-90.) "The land itself which before these wars was populous, well in- habited, and rich in all the good blessing of God — being plenteous of corn, full of cattle, well stored with fish and other good commodities — is now become so barren both of man and beast that, whoever did travel from one end of all Munster, even from Waterford to the Head of Smerwick, would not meet any man, woman or child, save in towns or cities; nor yet see any beasts but the very wolves, foxes, and the other like ravening beasts." — (Holinshead, vol. VI., p. 459.) "From the Dingle to the Rock of Cashel," wrote the Four Masters, "not the lowing of a cow nor the voice of the ploughman was that year (1582) to be heard." SEVENTEENTH CENTURY The aim of the English statesmen in the 17th century was to put a stop to Irish industry and prosperity and to transfer the markets and commerce of the country to English merchants. In this century the Pai'liament of England waged a bitter and protracted war against the economic activities of the Irish people. [104] Writing in 1634, the (English) Lord Lieutenant Strafford said: "To serve your majesty completely well in Ireland, we must * * * make sure still to hold them (the Irish people) dependent upon the crown, and not able to subsist without us, which will be effected by wholly laying aside the manufacture of wools into cloth stuff there, and by furnishing them from this kingdom (England), and then making your majesty sole merchant of all salts on that side (Ireland), for thus shall they not only have their clothing, the improve- ment of all their native commodities (which are principally preserved by salt) and their victual itself from hence ; (strong ties and enforcements upon their allegiance and obedience to your majesty.)" "Besides, in reason of state, so long as they did not indrape their own wools, they must of necessity fetch their clothing from us, and consequently in a sort depend upon us for their livelihood, and thereby become so dependent upon this crown, as they would not depart from us without nakedness to themselves and children."— (Straffords' Letters, Dublin, 1740). Under the "Navigation Acts" (1637-60-63-96) the English Parliament forbade, under severe penalties, all trade between Ireland and the Continent of Europe and the British colonies. These enactments stopped the external trade of Ireland, left Irish products without a market, other than that of England, and removed from the Irish people the means to purchase even the necessaries of life. Cromwell prohibited the shipping of Irish cattle to England in 1680, and from that year to 1757, not only live stock but meats of all kind, butter and cheese, of Irish production were rigorously excluded from the English markets. At the same period, the export of Irish-tanned leather was for- bidden by English statute. In 1670 England forbad, through parliamentary enactment, the expor- tation to Ireland of sugar, tobacco, cotton- wool, indigo, ginger, fustic or other dyeing wood, the produce of English over-sea plantations. At the same period, England placed restrictions on the glass trade, on silk, on hops, beer and malt, and on other branches of Irish industry. Enghsh Mstorians of the period have recorded the disastrous results of this interference by the English Parliament on the economic activities of the Irish people. Arthur Young says: "Of all the restrictions which England has at different times most implicitly laid upon the trade of Ireland, there is none more obnoxious than the embargoes on their provision trade. The prohibitions of the export of woollens, and various other articles, have this pretence at least in their favor, that they are advantageous to similar manufactures in England; and Ireland has long been trained to the sacrifice of her national advantage as a dependent country; but in respect to embargoes even this shallow pretence is wanting; a whole kingdom is sacrificed and plundered, not to enrich England, but three or four London con- tractors!" The historian Carte, in his Life of Ormond, writes: "The people had no money to pay the subsidies granted by Parlia- ment, and their cattle was grown such a drug that horses that used to be sold' for thirty shillings were now sold for dogs' meat at twelvepence apiece, and beeves that brought before fifty shillings were now sold for ten." [105] In 1673 the English Viceroy in Ireland publicly proposed that the woollen industry should be abandoned in that country as it interfered prejudicially with that of England. In 1698 the EngHsh House of Lords, acting conjointly with the House of Commons, addressed the English King William on the subject of the Irish woolen industry. The Lords represented that : "The growing manufacture of cloth in Ireland, both by the cheap- ness of all sorts of necessaries of life, and the goodness of material for making all manner of cloth," having made the King's loyal subjects in England very apprehensive that the further growth of it would greatly prejudice the said manufacture here (in England), and lessen the value of lands; they, the Lords, besought his most sacred majesty to be pleased "in the most public and effectual way that may be to declare to all his subjects of Ireland, that the growth and increase of the woolen manu- facture there (in Ireland) hath long been and will ever be looked upon with great jealousy by all his subjects of the kingdom of England." The Commons of England resolved : "Being very sensible that the wealth and power of this kingdom do, in a great measure, depend on the preservation of the woollen manufacture as much as possible entire to this realm," conceived them that it became them to be jealous of the establishment and increase of the industry elsewhere. "They cannot without trouble observe that Ireland should of late apply itself to the woollen manufacture to the great prejudice of the trade of England * * * Parliament will be necessitated to interfere to prevent the mischief that threatens. His majesty's protection and favor in this matter is most humbly implored * * * " To these addresses the English monarch replied briefly to the effect that the wish of Parliament should be carried out. Accordingly it was enacted, under penalty of the forfeiture of both goods and ship, and a penalty of five hundred pounds (£500) "for every such offence," that the exportation of either the raw material or the manufactured woollen stuffs, from Ireland, was prohibited. Thus was Ireland's (at that time) greatest industry sacri- ficed to appease the commercial jealousy of England. , Edmund Burke, in 1778, asked: "Do they forget that the whole woollen manufacture of Ireland, the most extensive and profitable of any, and the natural staple of that kingdom, has been in a manner so destroyed by restrictive laws * * * that in a few years it is probable the Irish will not be able to wear a coat of their own fabric .^* Is this equality?" Luke Gardiner, speaking in the Irish ParUament, on these restraints of commerce and industry, said : "When King William came to the throne * * * he laid several unjust and pernicious restrictions on the trade of Ireland, in order to gratify England, which began to grow jealous of our prosperity * * * Let us mark the consequences. The manufacturers, no longer able to find subsistence at home, emigrated, where they were received with open arms. The French, notwithstanding every exertion, [106] had been unable to establish the woollen manufactures, until they pro- cured Irish wool to mix with their own, and Irish men to weave it. They then, conscious of the advantages of protecting their trade, laid additional duties on the importation of English cloths. The event soon confirmed with what propriety they adopted these protective duties; they in a short time manufactured enough for the home market, and * * * are enabled not only to rival Great Britain, but to under- sell her in every market in Europe." Barlow states: / "Deprived of the means of subsistence at home, thousands of Irish manufacturers emigrated to France and other countries, where they assisted the inhabitants in the augmentation of the quantity and im- provements of the quality of their woollen cloths and established cor- respondents by which vast quantities of Irish wool, whose exportation, except to England, was prohibited, were carried clandestinely to other countries." The industry of ship-building was likewise assailed and destroyed. Legislation was passed prohibiting Irish merchants from using any ships but those built in England for the carrying of their external trade. And the better to secure this, it was also enacted that Ireland could not carry on direct commerce with the English colonies, save only through English ports, and employing English shipping for the transportation of such commerce. In 1698 deep-sea fishing off the Irish coast was prohibited, except carried on in English-built boats. Irish fishermen were, also, forbidden to fish on the Newfoundland banks, to prevent competition with English fishermen. Thus one by one Ireland's industries were strangled by restrictive legislation enacted by England with the deliberate purpose of keeping the Irish Nation in subjection. The English historian, Froude, writing of this period, said: "The English deliberately determined to keep Ireland poor and miserable, as the readiest means to prevent it being troublesome. They destroyed Irish trade and shipping by navigation laws. They extin- •quished Irish manufactures by preferential duties. They laid dis- abilities even on its wretched agriculture, for fear that Irish importa- tions might injure the English farmer." "With their shipping destroyed by the Navigation Act, their woollen manufactures taken from them, their trade in all its branches crippled and confined, the single resource left to those of the Irish who still nourished dreams of improving their unfortunate country was agriculture. The soil was at least their own. * * * Here was employment for a population three times more numerous than as yet existed. Here was a prospect, if not of commercial wealth, yet of substantial comfort and material abundance. * * * The tenants were forbidden in their leases to break or plough the soil. The people no longer employed were driven away into holes and corners, and eked out a wretched subsistence by potato gardens, or by keeping starving cattle of their own on the neglected bogs. * * * the (Irish) House of Commons in 1776, resolved unanimously to make an effort for a general change of system. * * * They passed a vote that covenants which prohibited the breaking of soil with the plough were impolitic [107] and should have no binding force. '<•**■ They passed heads of a Bill, which they recommended * * * to the English Council, enjoining * * * that a trifling bounty should be granted by the Government on corn grown for exportation. "And what did England answer .^* * * * The Privy Council (of England) rejected a Bill which they ought rather have thrust of their own accord on Irish acceptance. The real motive was probably the same — the detestable opinion that to govern Ireland conveniently, Ireland must be kept weak. * * *" "The Irish were not to be blamed if they looked to Spain, to France, to any friend on earth, or in heaven, to deliver them from a power which discharged no single duty that rulers owe to subjects." The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, Governor-General of India, in 1867, summarized the commercial restraints imposed by England upon Ireland, as follows: "From Queen Elizabeth's reign until the Union the various com- mercial confraternites of Great Britain never for a moment relaxed their relentless grip on the trades of Ireland. One by one, each of our nascent industries was either strangled in its birth, or handed over, gagged and bound, to the jealous custody of the rival interest in Eng- land, until at last every fountain of wealth was hermetically sealed, and even the traditions of commercial enterprise have perished through disuetude. The owners of England's pastures had the honour of open- ing the campaign. As early as the commencement of the sixteenth century the beeves of Roscommon, Tipperary, and Queen's County undersold the produce of the English grass counties in their own market. By an Act [of Parliament] Irish cattle were declared 'a nuisance,' and their importation prohibited. Forbidden to send our beasts alive across the Channel, we killed them at home, and began to supply the sister country with cured provisions. A second Act of Parliament imposed prohibitory duties on salted meats. The hides of the animals still remained; but the same influence put a stop to the importation of leather. Our cattle trade abolished, we tried sheep-farming. The sheep-breeders of England immediately took alarm, and Irish wool was declared contraband [by Parliament]. Headed in this direction, we tried to work up the raw material at home; but this created the greatest outcry of all. Every maker of fustian, flannel, and broadcloth in the country rose up in arms, and by an Act of William III. the woollen industry of Ireland was extinguished, and 20,000 manufacturers left the island. The easiness of the Irish labour market, and the cheapness of provisions still giving us an advantage, even though we had to im- port our materials, we next made a dash at the silk business; but the English silk manufacturer, the sugar refiner, the soap and candle maker (who especially dreaded the abundance of our kelp), and every other trade or interest that thought it worth its while to petition, was re- ceived by Parliament with the same partial cordiality, until the most searching scrutiny failed to detect a single vent through which it was possible for the hated industry of Ireland to respire. But although excluded from the markets of Great Britain, a hundred harbours gave her access to tne universal sea. Alas! A rival commerce on her own element was still less welcome to England, and as early as the reign of Charles 11. the Levant, the ports of Europe, and the oceans beyond the [108] Cape of Good Hope were forbidden to the flag of Ireland. The Colonial trade alone was in a manner open, if that can be called an open trade which for a long time precluded all exports whatever, and excluded from direct importation to Ireland, such important articles as sugar, cotton, and tobacco. What has been the consequence of such a system, pursued with relentless pertinacity for 250 years? This — that, debarred from every other trade and industry, the entire nation flung itself back upon the land, with as fatal kn impulse as when a river whose current is suddenly impeded rolls back and drowns the valley it once fertilized." To the present day the Irish people have not recovered from the evil effects following such repression. Mr. Hutchison, in his History of Commercial Restraints, truly remarked: "A country will sooner recover from the miseries and devastation occasioned by war, invasions, rebellion, and massacre, than from laws restraining commerce, discouraging the manufactures, fettering the industry, and above all, breaking the spirits of the people." It was this policy that (according to J. R. Green, English Historian): ^Hurned the country into a hell.'' [109] [VIII] THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS' ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND From the Delegates appointed by the United Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, The Lower Counties on Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina in General Congress at Phila- delphia, July 28, 1775. Friends and Fellow-Subjects: As the important contest, into which we have been driven, is now become interesting to every European State, and particularly affects the members of the British Empire, we think it our duty to address you on the subject. We are desirous, as is natural to injured innocence, of possessing the good opinion of the virtuous and humane. We are particularly desirous of furnishing you with a true state of our motives and objects, the better to enable you to judge of our conduct with accuracy, and determine the merits of the controversy with impartiality and precision. However incredible it may appear, that, at this enlightened period, the leaders of a nation, which in every age has sacrificed hecatombs of her bravest patriots on the altar of liberty, should presume gravely to assert, and, by force of arms, attempt to establish an arbitrary sway over the lives, liberties and property of their fellow subjects in America, it is, nevertheless, a most deplorable and indisputable truth. These colonies have, from the time of their first settlement, for near two centuries, peaceably enjoyed those very rights, of which the Ministry have, for ten years past, endeavored by fraud and by violence, to deprive them. At the conclusion of the last war, the genius of England and the spirit of wisdom, as if offended at the ungrateful treatment of their sons, withdrew from the British councils, and left that nation a prey to a race of ministers, with whom ancient English honesty and benevolence disdained to dwell. From that period, jealousy, discontent, oppression and discord have raged among all his Majesty's subjects, and filled every part of his dominions with distress and complaint. Not content with our purchasing of Britain, at her own price, clothing and a thousand other articles used by near three million of people on this vast Continent; not satisfied with amazing profits arising from the monopoly of our trade, without giving us either time to breathe after a long, though glorious war, or the least credit for the blood and treasure we have expended in it; notwithstanding the zeal we had manifested for the service of our Sovereign, and the warmest attachment to the constitution of Britain and the people of England, a black and horrid design was formed to convert us from freemen into slaves, from subjects into vassals, and from friends into enemies. [110] Taxes, for the first time since we landed on the American shores, were, without our consent, imposed upon us; an unconstitutional edict to compel us to furnish necessaries for a standing army, that we wished to see dis- banded, was issued; and the legislature of New York suspended for refusing to comply with it. Our ancient and inestimable right of trial by jury was, in many instances, abolished; and the common law of the land made to give place to Admiralty jurisdictions. Judges were rendered, by the tenure of their commissions, entirely dependent on the will of a Minister. New crimes were arbitrarily created, and new courts, unknown to the constitu- tion, instituted. Wicked and insidious Governors have been set over us; and dutiful petition, for the removal of even the notoriously infamous Governor Hutchinson, were branded with the approbrious appellation of scandalous and defamatory. Hardy attempts have been made, under colour of Parlia- mentary authority, to seize Americans and carry them to Great Britain to be tried for offences committed in the Colonies. Ancient charters have no longer remained sacred; that of the Massachusetts Bay was violated, and their form of government essentially mutilated and transformed. On pretence of punishing a violation of some private property, committed by a few disguised individuals, the populous and flourishing town of Boston was surrounded by fleets and armies; its trade destroyed; its port blocked up; and thirty thousand citizens subjected to all the miseries attending so sudden a convulsion in their commerical metropolis and to remove every obstacle to the rigorous execution of this system of oppression, an Act of Parliament was passed evidently calculated to indemnify those, who might, in the prosecution of it, even embrue their hands in the blood of the inhabi- tants. Though pressed by such an accumulation of undeserved injuries, America still remembered her duties to her Sovereign. A Congress, consisting of Deputies from Twelve United Colonies, assembled. They, in the most respectful terms, laid their grievances at the foot of the throne; and im- plored his Majesty's interposition in their behalf. They also agreed to suspend all trade with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies ; hoping, by this peaceable mode of opposition, to obtain that justice from the British Ministry which had been so long solicited in vain. And here permit us to assure you, that it was with the utmost reluctance we could prevail upon ourselves, to cease our commercial connection with your island. Your Parliament had done us no wrong. You had ever been friendly to the rights of mankind; and we acknowledge, with pleasure and gratitude, that your nation has produced patriots, who have nobly distinguished themselves in the cause of humanity and America. On the other hand, we were not ignorant that the labor and manufacturers of Ireland, like those of the silkworm, were of little moment to herself; but served only to give luxury to those who neither toil nor spin. We perceived that if we continued our commerce with you, our agreement not to import from Britain would be fruitless, and were, therefore, compelled to adopt a measure, to which nothing but absolute necessity would have reconciled us. It gave us, however, some consolation to reflect that should it occasion much distress, the fertile regions of America would afford you a safe asylum from poverty, and in time, from oppression also; an asylum, in which many thousand of your countrymen have found hospitality, peace, and affluence, and become united to us by all the ties of consanguinity, mutual interest and affection. Nor did the Congress here, flattered by a pleasing expectation, that the justice and humanity which had so long characterized the English nation, would, on proper application, afford us relief, they represented their grievances in an affectionate address [111] to their brethren in Great Britain, and intreated their aid and interposition in behalf of these Colonies. The more fully to evince their respect for their Sovereign, the unhappy people of Boston were requested by the Congress to submit with patience to their fate; and all America united in a resolution to abstain from every species of violence. During this period, that devoted town suffered unspeak- ably. Its inhabitants were insulted and their property violated. Still relying on the clemency and justice of his Majesty and the nation, they per- mitted a few regiments to take possession of their town, to surround it with fortifications; and to cut off all intercourse between them and their friends in the country. With anxious expectation did all America wait the event of their peti- tion. All America laments its fate. Their Prince was deaf to their com- plaints; And vain were all attempts to impress him with a sense of the suffer- ings of his American subjects, of the cruelty of their Task Masters, and of the many Plagues which impended over his dominions. Instead of direc- tions for a candid inquiry into our grievances, insult was added to oppres- sion; and our long forbearance rewarded with the imputation of cowardice. Our trade with foreign States prohibited ; and an Act of Parliament passed to prevent our even fishing on our own coast. Our peaceable assemblies, for the purpose of consulting the common safety, were declared seditious; and our asserting the very rights which placed the Crown of Great Britcdn on the heads of the three successive Princes of the House of Hanover, styled rebellion. Orders were given to reinforce the troops in America. The wild and barbarous savages of the wilderness have been solicited, by gifts, to take up the hatchet against us; and instigated to deluge our settle- ments with the blood of innocent and defenceless women and children. The whole country was, moreover, alarmed with the expected horrors of domestic insurrections. Refinements in parental cruelty, at which the genius of Britain must blush ! Refinements which admit not of being even recited without horror, or practised without infamy! We should be happy, were these dark machinations the mere suggestions of suspicion. We are sorry to declare that we are possessed of the most authentic and indubitable evidence of the reality. The Ministry, bent on pulling down the pillars of the constitution, endeavored to erect the standard of despotism in America; and if successful, Britain and Ireland may shudder at the consequences! Three of their most experienced Generals are sent to wage war with their fellow subjects; and America is amazed to find the name of Howe in the catalogue of her enemies. She loved his brother. Despairing of driving the Colonists to resistance by any other means than actual hostility, a detachment of the army at Boston marched into the country in all the array of war; and, unprovoked, fired upon, and killed several of the inhabitants. The neighboring farmers suddenly assembled, and repelled the attack. From this, all communication between the town and the country was intercepted. The citizens petitioned the General for permission to leave the town, and he promised, on surrendering their arms, to permit them to depart with their other effects. They accordingly sur- rendered their arms, and the General violated his faith. Under various pretences, passports were delayed and denied; and many thousands of the inhabitants are, at this day, confined in the town, in the utmost wretched- ness and want. The lame, the blind, and the sick, have indeed been turned out into the neighboring fields; and some eluding the vigilance of the sentries, have escaped from the town, by swimming to the adjacent shores. [112] The war having thus begun on the part of General Gage's troops, the country armed and embodied. The reinforcements from Ireland soon after arrived; a vigorous attack was then made upon the provincials. In their march the troops surrounded the town of Charlestown, consisting of about four hundred houses, then recently abandoned to escape the fury of a relent- less soldiery. Having plundered the houses, they set fire to the town, and reduced it to ashes. To this wanton waste of property, unknown to civilized nations, they were prompted the better to conceal their approach under cover of the smoke. A shocking mixture of cowardice and cruelty, which then first tarnished the lu'stre of the British arms, when aimed at a brother's breast 1 But, blessed be God, they were restrained from committing further ravages, by the loss of a very considerable part of their army, including many of their most experienced officers. The loss of the inhabitants was inconsiderable. Compelled, therefore, to behold the thousands of our countrymen imprisoned, and men, women and children involved in promiscuous and unmerited misery! When we find all faith at an end, and sacred treaties turned into tricks of State ; when we perceive our friends and kinsmen mas- sacred, our habitations plundered, our houses in flames, and their once happy inhabitants fed only by the hand of charity; who can blame us for endeavouring to restrain the progress of desolation? Who can censure our repelling the attacks of such a barbarous band? Who, in such circumstances would not obey the great, the universal, the divine law of self-preservation? Though vilified as wanting spirit, we are determined to behave like men. Though insulted and abused, we wish for reconciliation. Though defamed as seditious, we are ready to obey the laws. And though charged with rebellion, will cheerfully bleed in defence of our Sovereign in a righteous cause. What more can we say? What more can we offer? But we forbear to trouble you with a tedious detail of the various and fruitless offers and applications we have repeatedly made, not for pensions, wealth, or for honors, but for the humble boon of being permitted to possess the fruits of honest industry, and to enjoy that degree of Liberty, to which God and the Constitution have given us an undoubted right. Blessed with indissoluble union, with a variety of internal resources, and with a firm reliance on the justice of the Supreme Disposer of all human events, we have no doubt of rising superior to all the machinations of evil and abandoned Ministers. We already anticipate the golden period, when Liberty, with all the gentle arts of peace and humanity, shall establish her mild dominion in this western world, and erect eternal monuments to the memory of those virtuous patriots and martyrs, who shall have fought and bled and suffered in her cause. Accept our most grateful acknowledgement for the friendly disposition you have always shown towards us. We know that you are not without your grievances. We sympathize with you in your distress, and are pleased to find that the design of subjugating us, has persuaded administration to dispense to Ireland, some vagrant rays of ministerial sunshine. Even the tender mercies of government have long been cruel towards you. In the rich pastures of Ireland, many hungry parricides have fed, and grown strong to labour in its destruction. We hope the patient abiding of the meek may not always be forgotten; and God grant that the iniquitous schemes of extirpating liberty from the British Empire may soon be defeated. But we should be wanting to ourselves— we should be perfidious to posterity — we should be unworthy that ancestry from which we derive our descent, should we submit, with folded arms, to military butchery and depredation, [113] to gratify the lordly ambition, or sate the avarice of a British Ministry. In defence of our persons and properties, under actual violation, we have taken up arms; when that violence shall be removed, and hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, they shall cease on our part also. For the achievement of this happy event, we confide in the good offices of our fellow-subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly disposition, we do not yet despond; aware, as they must be, that they have nothing more to expect from the same common enemy, than the humble favour of being last devoured. By Order of the Congress, John Hancock, President. Ml EXHIBITS EXHIBITS TABLE OF CONTENTS A. Irish Republican Leaders Address to the President and Congress, U.S.A. B. Gaelic Text of Sinn Fein Election Manifesto (1918). C. English Translation of (B). D. Proclamation to Citizens of the Republic of Ireland resident in America. E. Ireland's Declaration of Independence by Dail Eireann. F. Ireland's Message to the Nations. G. Ireland's Democratic Program. H. Ireland Claims Admission as Constituent Member of a League of Nations. I. Ireland's position under Article X of the Covenant of the League of Nations. J. Irish Government Expresses Readiness to Participate in a World League of Nations. K. Presidential Statement of Governmental Policy. L.. Ireland Repudiates Britain's Claim to Speak or Act in the Name of the Irish Nation. M. Ireland's Delegates to Peace Conference Formally Intimate their Readi- ness to Participate in Discussions Relative to the Foundation of a World League. N. Ireland's Delegates Submit Claim for Recognition of Ireland as Inde- pendent Sovereign State. 0. Ireland's Case for Independence Submitted to the Peace Conference. P. The Irish Congress Votes Thanks to the Senate of the U. S. (Gaelic text). Q. English Translation of (P). R. The Irish President Repudiates British Ambassador's Claim to Repre- sent Ireland in the U. S. S. The Irish Envoy Protests the Atrocities of the British in Ireland. [116] [Exhibit A] Address from Irish Republican Leaders To the President and Congress of the United States Dublin, Ireland, June 18, 1917. Gentlemen : i ^We, the undersigned, who have been held in English prisons and have been dragged from dungeon to dungeon, in heavy chains, cut ofT, since Easter Week, 1916, from all intercourse with the outside world, have just had an opportunity of seeing the printed text of the message of the United States of America to the Provisional Government of Russia. We see that the President accepts as the aim of both countries "the carrying of the present struggle for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation." We, also, see that the object of President Wilson's own government is "the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force." "We are fighting," writes the President to the Government of Russia, "for the liberty, self-government, and undictated development of all peoples, and every feature of the settlement that concludes this war must be conceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first be righted, and then adequate safeguards must be created to prevent their being committed again. Remedies must be found as well as statements of principle that wiU have a pleasing and sonorous sound * * * jnj^q people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live." We trust that such remedies — in preference to any governmental professions whatsoever — will be held to include the right of each people, not merely to rely on other peoples to support their claim to national liberty, but Avhat the Governments and peoples of other nations will, we trust, regard as even more sacred, the right of each people to defend itself against external aggression, external interference and external control. It is this particular right that we claim for the Irish people, and not content with statements of principle, though these themselves may be made a pretext for our oppression, we are engaged and mean to engage ourselves in practical means for establishing this right. Without awaiting the issue of the war or the settlement that may conclude the war, we ask of the Government of the United States of America, and the Governments of the free peoples of the world, to take immediate measures to inform themselves accurately and on the spot about the extent of liberty or attempted repression which we may encounter. We, the undersigned, are officers (just released from English prisons) of forces formed independently in Ireland to secure the complete liberation of the Irish Nation. (Signed) Eamon de Valera; Eoin MacNeill; Denis O'Callaghan; James Lawless; Robert Brennan; M. D. DeLacy; Finian Lynch; Francis Fahy; Thomas Hunter; John R. Etchingham; Richard F. King; John McEntee; Richard Hayes; James Doyle; Peter Galligan; Thomas Ashe; Jeremiah C. Lynch; Richard Coleman; George Irvine; Con. Collins; Austin Stack; John McGarry; T. Desmond Fitzgerald; Francis Thornton; Frank Lawless; James J. Walsh. (The above letter to President Wilson was signed by the officers whose names are appended thereto on the day of their arrival in Ireland, following release from English prisons in which they had been incarcerated since Easter Week, 1916. It was brought to the United States by Dr. Patrick McCartan, Envoy of the Irish Republic, and was publicly received at the Capitol by Secretary Tumulty). [117] (Exhibit B] [Photographic reproduction of original Election ^Manifesto] An mon^coJAt) peismi A 6airm$coile do n^hutntir na l)€lreanti, t1 CO5A mOU peiSinf jt"! Le ct-.iCc Oeit.jn CeifC fP" U n«i*i;eje <1E muincip" iKl^ hSiiieinn , an coil leO .1 -oclp « beit ip bejue l..^ r.'oippe no i Bei't ip rupc ga tjoO ;>s impipejic Otoon tM\\ v£ Ui6c " Sltltl (rettV -oo ti*limClR tU^ l^eyle^Mlll Oiin flO n.^ cipe T>0 rop.'inc Jjiip If ip BcJla* 4 l-eapi, ap I5eav5 Riagalcap Sapaiia n.* as tin t?i*talcap lapatca eile TiUgte -do tit'anaiii to ttlumcfp na h(5ipeann agup tup nia gcoinnitt -c^ p6ip. 2. JaC aip agup peipc ajup plije oibpc -oap piii-oip a Cup 1 bpeiOtn diin coraaCc Sapana tjo Cope ap gipe Cimea-o v* pmaic le n^igean a.pm nO ap aon cplige eile. 3. DaiL TJO eup ap bUTi tie topcaipi a tojpai<) na ceanncjip p^pUimenceaCa 1 nfiipinn : e taUaipc tj'iiSoap^p tio'ii 'OiiL u-o. tap em tipeam Ve I46aipc 1 n-«inm an naipiOln ajup beapca tieunam -oi pSip , ajup, e diip tie tupam ap an nX)ii\. ut> flluincip na hSipoann 00 Cup ap a leap 1 jcispral poilicloclca, ciUpcail, maoine, ajup snaCfaoJal na ntiaoine. 4. ^ileam ap an sCorinSxSil SlotCina nilprun neamppleatai a tieunam ti'(}ipuin. Socpflpap. pa Corfitiia pin, cat> e an paoSai aca 1 nvin no nalpunal^ an -Doitiaui -do pSip na buncuaipme peo, t. jupb 6 ceati na ntiaoine ip buniip le Uiagalcap ap jbit. lapppaimro oppa an tsun'cuaipim pni -do Cup 1 nsntom 1 ■ocaoti na liftpeann • ajup nl nemniti nua -oo Cuic amaC pa,to5ari ip cflip Leip an lappacap pan. Ip p'* -"^^ ^'fe -iS l-opE na paoippe ni popidOp na n-Sipiun aci r'^ cporo anoip— n6 i«t) go leip b'p^i-oip. SiliSmm an cpaoippe oppa coipc a illpe ClaoiOmap le nap niipiuncacc 1 scortinuite piarii ; coipc 0 Bamc aniaC ; agup ag t)ul 1 n-uppu«aip aip go bpaSati gaC fiipeannoiS caip agup cotpom ■DliSeO'n Saop-Riagatcap. na hSipeannn ap a xicuaijiim.pipinneaC ap Saotppe na hGipeann no Cup i n.urfiail nJipiuin, ci rooal|i as luCc Sinn fein tup 1 goomniB gaC iooaip Fe'Pfe "^ gUcpart nil ceapc na caipBe ag bamc leip ai\ oBaip ac+o3 -vui'-i^ivj^ -^»W-Vwwe«-« ^ViM, '>yfej*tAiWVt5 H.VCVVJ C-»A>i4 ^SiCi^td,- ,a ~i?^XWV«v»-vJ -Cu* [133] [Exhibit Q] The Irish Congress Thanks the U. S. Senate [Translation from Gaelic text] Ulh July, 1919. To the President of the Senate of the United States: Washington, D. C. Sir: We have the honor to inform you that the subjoined resolution was unanimously adopted by the Dail Eireann in session assembled in the Mansion House, Dublin, oii llih June, 1919. Accept, sir, the assurance of our high esteem. Arthur Griffith, Acting President. Sean O'Ceallaigh, Speaker. "The duly elected representatives of Ireland assembled in legislative session in Dublin, this 17th day of June, 1919, before taking up the business of the day, desire to record their appreciation of the action of the Congress of the United States Tin behalf of Ireland, and in particular, of the following resolutions adopted by the Senate of the United States: "'That the Senate of the United States earnestly requests the American Peace Commission at Versailles to endeavor to secure for Eamon de Valera, Arthur Griffith and George Noble Count Plunkett, a hearing before the Peace Conference in order that they may present the case of Ireland, 'And, further, the Senate of the United States expresses its sympathy with the aspirations of the Irish people for a government of their own choice.' "It is therefore resolved. "That the elected Government of Ireland be and is hereby directed lo convey the thanks of the Irish Nation to the Congress of the United States, to declare that the people of Ireland cherish no designs upon the rights or territories of other nations, but ardently seek to live in cordial peace with, and as one of, the Free Nations of the world; and to assure the people of America that the ties of blood and friendship which subsisted between both nations in the days of their subjection to one common oppressor have endured and are in- dissoluble." [Exhibit R] The President of the Irish RepubHc Repudiates the Claim of the British Ambassador to Represent Ireland in the U. S. A. The Honorable, May 5, 1920. The Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Sir: I am instructed by the President of the Elected Government of the Republic of Ireland to write you to confirm the telegram sent by him to ihe Honorable Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, from Augusta, Georgia, on the night of April 28, 1920, which read as follows : "His Excellency, The President of the United States, Washington, D. C. "The announcement in this morning's press that Sir Auckland Geddesistobegiven an audience by Your Excellency makes it an urgent duty for me to enter a formal protest on behalf of the Irish people against recognition of the British Ambassador as a representative of Ireland or an organ of its Government. "As Your Excellency knows, the Irish Nation, through its representatives elected for the purpose, has declared its absolute independence of Britain, has established itself as a Republic and has chosen its own Government. The appointee of this Govern- ment, the Honorable Doctor Patrick McCartan, member of the Irish Congress, is the only Ambassador accredited by Ireland to the United States. [134] "A foreign government's arbitrary naming of him does not give Sir Auckland Geddes the right to represent the Irish people. "If the world is at all to be made safe for democracy, if the doctrine that might makes right is not to be affirmed by the United States at the moment when that doc- trine ought especially to be repudiated, it is essential that the British Ambassador be expressly denied recognition by you as Ambassador from Ireland. To recognize him is to do an act of positive injustice to the Irish people. It is to give the moral sanction of this great American Nation to Britain's manifest usurpation and cruel tyranny in Ireland. "The Irish people recognize no such political entity as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and if there is to be peace intergovernmental practice must conform to the will of the people affected and international law must be made square with the natural human conceptions of right and justice. "During the war Your Excellency was the inspired interpreter of the hearts of the plain people of the world. Upon you of all men it is not necessary to urge the bearing of the decision we seek upon the ideals of the plain people. "In the Peace Conference these ideals were thrust aside. There Your Excellency had to struggle against the powerful interests of European states and the selfish am- bitions of European statesmen. Here you are in your own proper domain. Here it is a question of America alone. Here your own will is final. Action in consonance with the war aims of the United States as proclaimed by you will bring back hope to a Avorld almost in despair. "I feel that Your Excellency will realize that the question to be decided is none other than your own: — "'Shall the military power of any nation or group of nations be suffered to deter- mine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the right of force.^' "'Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and make them subject to their purpose and interest?' "'Shall peoples be ruled and dominated even in their own internal affairs by arbitrary and irresponsible force or by their own will and choice? '"Shall there be a common standard of right and privileges for all peoples and nations or shall the strong do as they will and the weak suffer without redress?' (Signed) Eamon de Valera, President of the Elected Government of the Republic of Ireland. The President of the Republic of Ireland furthermore avails of this occasion to request that you convey to President Wilson the profound assurance of his esteem. I am. Sir, for the President of Ireland, Respectfully yours, (Signed) H. Boland, Secretary. [Exhibit SJ British Atrocities in Ireland Protest Lodged with the State Department, Washington, D. C, by the Envoy of The Republic of Ireland Washington, D. C, His Excellency, " October 1^, 4920. The Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. Your Excellency: I am instructed by my Government to protest formally and emphatically against acts now being committed by the British armed forces in the territory of the Republic of Ireland. These acts which have been described in the public press of the world, and which are uni- versally notorious, include the murder of unarmed civilians, the sacking of towns, and the destruction of creameries. From January 1, 1919, to October 12, 1920, seventy-seven unarmed civihans, including women and children, have been brutally murdered by British soldiers. This of course does not include Irishmen who lost their lives in armed conflict with the British forces, or [135] those citizens who met death in Derry and Belfast during the British official pogroms. During the same period one hundred and two towns have been sacked and burned; thirty creameries razed to the ground; one thousand six hundred and four armed assaults com- mitted on unarmed civihans; thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty homes have been broken into and looted, and four thousand, nine hundred and eight-two citizens have been seized and imprisoned. The last few weeks have witnessed a marked increase both in the frequency with which these outrages have been perpetuated and in the horror of their attendant circumstances. On no theory, either of war or peace, can these acts be defended. Granting, as Premier Lloyd George intimated on October Ninth, that a state of war exists, these acts are in violation of Articles 25, 47, and 50 of the Hague Convention. War between civilized nations demands discipUne in the forces of the belligerents and rules out wanton and un- necessary violence against the civil population. The destruction of Irish towns, such as Balbriggan and Mallow, is of no more military advantage to the British now than the burn- ing of "every village and hamlet on the New York side of the Niagara" was in 1813. The destruction of Cork City Hall on October Ninth furthers the conquest of Ireland no more than the burning of the Capitol in Washington on August 24, 1814, was calculated to further the reconquest of America. The British Government, immediately after being advised of the conflagration (at Washington) publicly thanked the officers concerned in it. The British Government of today has not indeed publicly thanked the officers responsible for the atrocities in Ireland, but Premier Lloyd George, on October Ninth, pubUcly condoned these acts. The British Prime Minister is reported to have said that "if as was contended, there was war in Ireland, then the war must be waged on both sides." We submit that the drag- ging from their beds and murder of unarmed civilians, as occurred in Balbriggan and else- where, the committment of captives such as Lord Mayor MacSwiney to convict prisons, and the destruction of creameries, is not sanctioned by the laws of war, and hence cannot be defended even on Mr. Lloyd George's own conditions relative to a state of war. He would deny to the civil population of Ireland the protection that is denied by barbarous armies only. He not only condones, but actually Lustigates the very acts which, for example, the United States specifically instructs its armies in the field to avoid. Atrocities in any part of the world concern all humanity as individuals, and especially all States which are not barbarous. No civilized nation, representing in its government the sum of the humanitarian aspirations of its nationals, can afford to ignore such horrors as are now being committed with governmental sanction by the British soldiery in Ireland. No humanitarian appeal of this kind has ever been made in vain to the United States. Indeed appeal has ever been unnecessary. The mere existence of an atrocious state of affairs in any part of the world has ever stirred the heart of the American people and of the Government which represents them. My Government confidently looks to the Government of the United States to enter a protest with Great Britain now as it did with other states imder similar circumstances in the past, such as the successful protest against the arrest and deportation of the Bm-go- master of Brussels. The United States heretofore used its influence in Roumania, in Russia, in Poland,, in Turkey, in Greece, and elsewhere to save innocent people from barbarous maltreatment by oppressors. In Belgium and Cuba, armed intervention was not deemed too great a price to prevent inhuman treatment of innocent people. When, therefore, as Premier Lloyd Greorge admits, and as recent e^ ents in Ireland make manifest, an organized system of atrocities is inaugurated by the armed forces of an alien government, it is fitting that the United States should not fail to adhere to its traditional policy by protesting officially against, these acts of barbarism which shock the civilized world. I have the honor to be. Respectfully yours, (Signed) Patrick McCart.\?;, Envoy of the Republic of Ireland, 1361