New Britain herald., 1919-05-30
ELAND'S CLAIMS
 GIVEN IN DETAIL
Wants Place at Peace Table and 1 in New League

# pate in the peace conferepce and to "a join the league of nations, as free and # Independent, laid before theconference M in the form of a memorial presented # fo Premier Clemenceau by Sean T. # O' Ceallaigh, the Sim Fein delegate of "a the republic" in Paris:
 N Ireland is a nation which has ex M ercised the right of self-determination # in harmony with the principles for # mulated by President Wilson, and ac "a cepted by the belligerents as the only @ sure foundation for a world peacp " # read the memorial. Ut is not only in # the past that Ireland, generation after # generation, has strivon by force of M arms as well as by all pacific means N to regain her national freedom At ga the general election last December the issue, and the only issue placed # petore the Irish people was the inSs- # pendence of their country, and by Q @ majority of more than three to one # the representatives elected by the # constitutional machinery of the ballot box are pledged to the abolition of TN English rule in Ireland
 M Tn none of the small nationalities @Wlth which the Peace Conference has #hitherto occupied itself is the unan- #imity of the people so great in none # has the national desire for freedom been asserted so unmistakably and with so much emphasis
 M Following upon the general cleo k #tion, an Irish National Assembly has met; an Irish Republic has been con- #stituted and proclaimed to the world; a president has been appointed and Mwith him ministers to direct diff ferent departments of state;a program &of domestic policy has been issued; Mand an appeal has been addressed to Sthe. nations of the world to recognize the free Irish state that has thus been recalled to life.
 'HBut while the national will has #been declared and the mechanism of free government is ready, the former A#ts being stif1ed and the latter par 8alyzed by England's ruthless exercise of military power. The president is ##a fugitive; the Irish parliament is #forced to conduct it's business in se- &cret: the most elem entary civil rights are aibrogated; courts martial are sit &ting at every center; and the gaols
 are filled with prisoners, victims of
 every brutality and indignity whose
 only offense is that they have sought
 the freedom of their native land. It Wis in these circumstances that the #Irsh nation, through me, addresses
 the peace conference.
 Ireland manifestly comes within
 the scope of the principles that have
 been endorsed by civilized nations, #hnd it is for the application of these
 principles that the peace conference
 S now sitting. Ireland is weak; Eng
 and is strong. Ireland in every pos
 sible way has asserted her right to
 Freedom, which England, by sheer
 militarism is intent now as always in
 he past to destroy. It is only by the
 exercise of tyrannicaI power that Ire # #and's right to freedom can be denied Mlt is to the great principle of national
 Freedom, represented in the peace
 conference, that Ireland, exhausted by
 he cruelties of English rule, her pop #llation annihilated by One-half within
 wing memory, her industries destroy fed, her natural resources wasted, her tivil liberties ended, her chosen lead $ers prescribed and treated as felons,
 how makes her appeal
 'Article Ten of the draft covenant bf the League of Nations is framed No secure national independence
 against aggression of an external
 Bower. Its terms are as follows:
 The high contracting powers un-
 ertake to respect and preserve as
 gainst external aggression the ter
 itorial integrity and existing political 8ndep endence of all states members Bf the league. In case of any such
 aggression the executive council shall dV1se upon the means by which this
 Litigation shall be fulfilled
 uTeland. as nation that has de-
 Jared its independence and is pledged
 To the principles of freedom, justice
 nd peace, desires to subscribe to the
 covenant of the league and to claim
 IS against England the protection of
 Article Ten.
 I submit to the conference with pro-
 ound respect that Ireland's claim is
 lear and cannot with any shadow of
 ustice be refused. Should it be re-
 ected the consequences would be as
 ollows:
 I-1reIand henceforth must rely Mor her deIiverance wholly upon her Wn efforts. No such rule has been 8afd down with regard to any other Rf the smaller nationalities whose
 Emancipation has been made the care bf the conference.
 M "2-Nations which never have de- @ jed the right of Ireland to freedom # will deprive themselves for the future &f the power of countenancing her
 Iaim, and will in consequence be M ound, for the first time in history, to cave her unaided to her own re- W ources as indicated in the preceding M aragraph.
 M "3-Article ten will impose upon H Il nations, as a condition of member M hip of the league, the obligation to uarantee to Great Britain a title to he possession of Ireland and domin- M 0n over the Irish people,
 M Against the imposition of such M avery upon Ireland, and especially gainst the giving of such g. guarantee