Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-03-24
president of Irish Republic Gives
Secret Interview in Home in
in Heart of Dublin.
in HIDING FOR MONTHS
Says If Britain Would Stop Aggres.
sions Peace Would Be Established
Flight Is For Freedom, No
"Rellslous WraneIe.'

Dublin-Eammon De Valera, leader
of the Republicans, and President Of
the Irish republic" gave a personal in
Dterview to the Associated Press cor
respondent. This is the first inter-
view he has accorded to any news
paper representative since his return
from the United States to Ireland.
If any proof of the extraordinary pre-.
cautions taken by his devoted follow
,ers to insure his protection were
needed, 1t was afforded by the extreme
care taken in escorting the c%orrespon.
dent to and from the presence of the
Irish leader. For an hour after leav-
ing Mr.. De Valera the correspondent
was under the closest surveillance, not
only from his escort but, as 1t seemed.
from everybody in Dublin.
mo Religious WrangIe."
In the course Of the conversation.
which lasted three-quarters Of an hour.
MIR. De Valera told of the impressions
he had brought back from America and
remarked:
"The saddest thing there to me was
to see the Irish question treated by SO
many people as If it were a religious
wrangle. 1t is not a religious question,
even insofar as the differences here be-
tween the North and South are con
ferned."
He spoke bitterly of the English
craftsmanship"
England" he said, sis trying to win
by playing on human weakness.
Touches on Executions.
LAS a matter of fact, though it does
not realize it, England is playing not
on the weakest but the strongest quail
jty Of the Irish people-their spiritual
quality. The young men Of ireland are
saying to themselves: AT best the
span of life is only 70 years. We must
all die; so why not now in circum-
stances like these? Never, perhaps, as
by dying in such a cause as Ireland's.
could we do so much for the world
England may try to contend that
men like those executed in Mount Joy
were murderers. She will find it much
harder than she imagines to get the
world to accept that view"
No st. Patrick's Message.
When he was asked il he intended to
issue a st. Patrick's day message, par
ticularly to the people of America, Mr..
De Valera said:
II think the people of America un-
Iderstand, and if the other people Of
the world have not yet realized that it
is might and right contending in this
awful STRUGGLED they are left cold
when it is SO evident that it is a great
principle at stake, for which millions
of the bravest of many countries lost
their lives in the late war-it would be
futile to endeavor to move them by
mere words.
Irish Ready For Peace.
Mr.. De Valera declared there was no
truth in the rumors of overtures for a
truce or peace or that the Dali Eireann
had laid down new conditions.
There can be peace tomorrow, il
England would simply refrain from her
aggressions,' he asserted. 1--WE had
established a peaceful constructive adj
ministration and were setting a noble
example to the world of a government
based upon consent, and developing
u trade and industries, when Mr..
Lloyd George loosed upon US his muir
der horde, blooded up by official insti-
cations and s%edulously infamed with
a regular weekly bulletin of calumny
and hate"