The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-31
URGE COMPLETE REJECTION

| OhuE NOMTLE El IL AEJ EJ HUN l Outright rejection of the peace | treaty was asked by the Irish speakers who charged that under the covenant Great Britain would receive guaran- tee that no outside nation ever would help Ireland gain her independence. The ' domination of the British fleet over ] the seas also would be made so com | plete that it would be a menace to the United States.
 l At the Versailles conference, Walsh 1 Ryan and Dunne declared. President | Wilson's Ideals all had been brushed
 aside by the other powers. At the open session when the league covenant was approved, they said delegates in all parts of the hall tried to make pro 1 test but were siIenced by the steam roller methods of the controlling fig ures of the conferences.
 Of conditions in Ireland where the commission spent some time. the three speakers painted a gloomy picture Civil law has been suspended, they de- clared, and local officials were arrest ed and their homes searched without warrant while women and children were ground beneath "despotic" mili tary rule whose excesses they declar- ed the censorship had concealed from the United States.
 The three men said they had been re-
 
 to get a hearing with President Will son in Paris, and that later Secretary Lansing had written them that it would be useless to press their requests furth- CT since their utterances while in Ire land had offended British statesmen.
 ENGLAND'S MIGHTY GRIP
 Great Britain, the speakers said. had drawn the United States into the league to help guarantee such "outrages" as she was committing in Ireland At the same time, they asserted. England had been careful to preserve a sea power which gave her "a grip on every quart of salt water in the world" and which under present circumstances could be intended for use only against the United States.
 Although the committee originally had allotted only two hours to the hearing, when presentation of the Irish cause had been fairly launched it was voted to extend the time for as long as the speakers desired They took most of the day.
 A brief opposing the views expressed by the witnesses was filed with the committee by Albert E. Kelly, and five others. The brief protested against the attempt of representatives of a fac tion in Ireland, known as the Sim Feinn party. or of kindred organizations fav- bring their movement in the United States to bring the Irish question into discussion of the peace treaty
 ORDERED INTO RECORD The brief was not read, but was ordered put into the record of the hearing The slgners said they were of Irish birth and just plain, hard working American citizens with no axe to grind'
 The Sim Fein 'faction," the brief sets forth, has no right to take part in the discussion of the league of nations be- cause they failed to support the allies in the war. conducting propaganda hurful to the allied cause and giving "aid and comfort to the foe by creating strife and turmoil at home'
 Statements that Ireland has not self government were denied the brief say-t ing the Irish have the franchise, have a representative government and are sub ject to laws made by parliament in the same manner as for England. Scotland and Wales.
 Ireland is not suppressed religiously nor industrially. it was declared, and never has been one undivided nation, ap- preaching unity only under British rule.
 The hearing today attracted unusual attention, an extra detail of police be- ing necessary to keep the spectators from crowdng the committee room be- yond it's capacity
 In his address closing the argument for the Irish societies, Mir. Cochran, a native of Ireland, made an impassioned plea for rejection of the treaty. Although he had followed President Wilson politically and had believed profoundly in the Presi- dents ideals. he said. there could be no greater calamity than ratification of the treaty he neootiated at Versailles
 CAN'T DO JUSTICE
 Tracing the struggles of Ireland through many attempts by British rulers to exterminate her. he said the Irish people had kept alive against the greatest diversity their love of liberty md their aspirations for freedom His tory had demonstrated. he argued, that England could not do justice in Ireland she tried. and the point now had been reached when "the only alternative to is emancipation.,'
 Al your leagues of nations" he de.l dared. wont keep Ireland under thyl domination of this incubus All the pow ITS of the earth can't do that 'Is there in this treaty single word ,f which anyone can be proud? Does it l oring freedom to any single people ex- ;ept as an act of revenge against con | luered and dismembered foesc The 1 eague covenant is admitted by its | friends to be imperfect Shantung is an | Yet we are told we must
 tcontinued on Page Ten,