The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-12
CLAIMS OF PROVISIONAL GOVT
 OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC

Paris, May .-(Correspondenc of The Associated Press)-Here are the claims of "The Provisional Gov ernment of the Irish Republic" to the right to participate in the Peace Conference and to join the League of Nations, as free and independent laid before the Conference in the form of a memorial presented to Premier Clemenceau by SSan T. O. Ceallaigh, the Sim Fein delegate of the Reptile in Paris:
 Ireland Is a nation which has ex ercised the right of selfsdetermina- ton in harmony with the principles formulated by President Wilson, and accepted by the belligerents as the only sure foundation for a world peace, read the memorial" Tt is not only in the past that Ireland, gen erattor after generation, has striven by force of arms as we'll as by all pacific means to regain her national freedom. At the general election last December, the issue, and the only is sue, placed before the Irish people was the independence of their coun- try, and by a majority of more than three to one the representatives elected by the constitutional ma chinery of the ballot box are pledged to the abolition of English rule in Ireland.
 "In none of the small nationaIties with which the Peace Conference has hitherto occupied itself is the unan- unity of the people so great; in none has the national desire for freedom been asserted so unmistakably and with so much emphasis
 Following upon the general cleo ton, an Irish National Assembly has met; an Irish Republic has been con- stituted and proclaimed to the world; a president has been appointed and with him ministers to direct different departments of state; a program of domestic policy has been issued; and an appeal has been addressed to the nations of the world to recognize the free Irish state that has thus been re- called to life
 But while the national will has been declared and the mechanism of free government is ready, the former is being stifled and the latter paralyz ed by EngIand's ruthless exercise of military power. The president is a fugitive; the Irish Parliament is forced to conduct its business in se- cret; the most elementary civil rights are abrogated; courts martial are sit ting at every center; and the goals are filled with prisoners. victims of every brutality and 1ndignity, whose only offense is that they have sought the freedom of their native land. It is in these circumstances that tEe Irish nation, through me, addresses the Peace Conference,
 Ireland manifestly comes within the scope of the principles that have been endorsed by civilized nations, and it is for the application of these principles that the Peace Conference land is strong. Ireland dn every pos land is strong. Ireland is every pos sible way has asserted her right to freedom, which England by sheer nilitarisrn, is intent now as always in the past to destroy. It is only bv the exercise of tyrannicaI power that IreIand's right to freedom can be de- nied. It is to the great principle of national freedom, represented in the Peace Conference, that Ireland, ex- hausted by the cruelties of English rule, her population annihiIated bv one half within living memory, her industries destroyed, her natural re- sources wasted, her civil liberties