The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1919-06-10
SENATE RESOLUTION ON
IRELAND

clally asked the American Peace
Commission sitting at Versailles
to obtain a hearing for the Irish
Cause before the Peace Confer
ence. The resolution embodying
this request reads as follows:
Resolved that the Senate of
the United States earnestly re-
quests the American Peace Com
mission at Versailles to endeav-
or to secure for Arthur Grit
fiths, Edward de Valera and
Count George Noble Plunkett a
hearing before the Peace Confer
ence in order that they may
present the cause of Ireland.
Resolved that the Senate Of
the United States express it's
sympathy with the aspiration of
the Irish people for a Govern
ment of it's own choice"
In his statement in support of
this resolution, Senator Lodge
said among other things that be-
fore the Peace Conference had
undertaken to regulate world
affairs, including the interpre-
tation of a strictly national pol
icy like the Monroe Doctrine,
such a resolution as that passed
by the Senate would have been
considered undue meddling with
a question which was not our
business. But that objection,
the Senator said, "can no longer
exist. The Peace Conference has
passed far beyond its primary
business of making peace with
Germany and making peace with
the world. It has entered into
the sphere of international rela-
tons the world over" =
! For this reason, the Senator
said, the resolution adopted by
the Senate was justified.
Perhaps no such justification
was needed. "Self-determina-
ton" has become an almost uni
versally accepted principle. 1t
has been accepted for Poles and
Jugoslavs, for Jews and Czecho-
slavs, for Arabians and Lithuan-
ians; perhaps it should be &C.
copied for Ireland, However,
the question involves grave diff
ficulties. For hundreds of years
British statesmen have wres-
tied with the Irish problem
from Cromwell to Lord Morley.
Ulster, aside, there can be no
question that Ireland wants her
independence and perhaps there
is no reason why she should not
present her claims before the
Peace Conference.
But for the Senate of the Uni
ted States to pass at this time,
and by almost unanimous vote,
a resolution of the character
above mentioned, is a matter
fraught with the gravest danger
not only to the fate of the pro-
posed League of Nations but to
the very peace Of the world. It
is utterly impossible to UNDER
stand how the United States
Senate, body which is usually
most careful and conservative in
all international matters, should
have taken: such extraordinary
and such utterly unprecedented
action as to suggest in effect the
acknowledgements of any nation
and particularly one with which
we are not only at peace but {
with which we are on the most
friendly terms imaginable. The !
situation is pregnant with limit
less dangerous possibilities that |
may conceivably mean the dis !
ruption of the Peace Conference,
the destruction of all of it's
work, or even the complete null
LITIGATION of the beneficial eff
fects of the victory of the allies. /
Whatever may be our personal or |
our national sympathies or de- !
Isires regarding the Irish prob
fem, the matter is unquestion-
ably a domestic question for
Great Britain and Ireland them
selves to solve; and we, as a ma
ton, have no more right to take |
the action that the Senate has |