The Irish standard., 1918-08-31

The following is the text of the
statement of the Mansion House Con-
ference in Dublin to President Wilson,
1t is understood it was delivered on
Independence Day: l.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNI
TED STATES:
Sir-When, century and half
ago, the American Colonies dared to
assert the ancient principle that the
subject should not be taxed without
the consent of his representatives,
England strove to crush them. To-
day England threatens to crush the
people of Ireland if they do not &C
cept a tax, not in money but in blood,
against the protest of their represen-
tatives.
During the American Revolution,
the champions of your liberties ap-
pealed to the Irish Parliament against
British aggression, and asked for a
sympathetic judgment of their action.
What the verdict was, history re-
cords. Today it is our turn to appeal
to the people of America. We seek
no more fitting prelude to that ap-
peal than the terms in which your
forefathers greeted ours.
American Congress to People of
ireland.
eve are DESTROYS of possessing
the good opinion of the virtuous and
humane. We are peculiarly desir-
Gus of furnishing you with the 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"
Irish Parliament Destroyed.
If the Irish race had been conscrip-
ted by England in the war against the
United Colonies, is it certain that
your Republic would today flourish
in the enjoyment OF it's noble Consti-
tuition?
Since the Irish Parliament haS been
destroyed, by methods described by
British statesmen as those of "black-
guardism and baseness." Ireland, de-
prived of it's protection and overborne
by more than six to one in the Brit
ish Lower House, and by more than a
hundred to one in the Upper House,
is summoned by England to submit
to hitherto unheard of decree against
her liberties.
In the fourth year of war, osten-
sibly, begun for the defence of small
nations, a law conscribing the man.
hood of Ireland has been passed, in
defiance of the wishes of our people.
The British Parliament, which enact
ed it, had long outrun it's course, be-
ing in the eighth year of an existence
constitutionally limited to five. To
warrant the coercive statute, no re-
course was had to the electorate of
Britain, much less to that Of ireland.
Yet the measure was forced through
within a week, despite the votes of
Irish representatives and under sys-
tenn of closure never applied to de-
bates which established CONSUMPTION
for Great Britain on milder basis.
Beclouding CaIumnies.
To repeI the caIumnies invented to
becIoud our action, we venture to adj
dress the successors Of the (Ameri-
CAM beIIigerents who once appealed
to Ireland.
The feelings which inspire America
deeply concern our race; so, in the
forefront of our remonstrance, we
feel bound to set forth that this Con-
scription Act involves for Irishmen
questions far larger than any affecting
mere internal politics. They raise a
sovereign principle between nation
that has never abandoned her indie
pendent rights and an adjacent nation
that has persistently sought to stran-
gle them.
Were Ireland to surrender that prin-
ciple she must submit to usurped
power, cOndOne the fraudulent prOstra-
ton of her Parliament in 1900, and
abandon all claim to distinct nation
ality. Deep-seated and far-reaching
are the problems remorselessly
aroused by the unthinking and violent
courses taken at Westminster.
Thus the sudden and unlooked-for
departure of British politicians from
their past military procedure towards
this island provokes acutely the fun
damental issue of Self-Determination
That issue will decide whether our
whole economic, social, and political
life must lie at the uncontrolled dis
position of another race whose title
to legislate for us rests on force and
fraud alone.
Under the Penal Code.
Ireland is nation more ancient