The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-01
RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF
 IRISH TROUBLE OUTLINED

H Washington. March 31.-ReItgious
 aspects of the troubles in Ireland are | dfscusSed in a report made public here today which supplements the 30, ,000- word findings of the Commission on, | of the Committee of One Hundred in 1 vestigating the Irish question. The supplementary report, made by the l Protestant members of the CommiS- son summarizes the evidence pre- sented at the hearings held here in | November, December and January, as 1 follows:
 |: Outside of part of Ulster, Ca and harmony and their political opin- ions are not primarily matter of re-
 igion.
 | Z. 'tEven in Ulster religious bigotry | is not by any means wholly sponta- | neous, but is artificia1ly stirred up by | those whose economic and political in
 terests are served by dividing the | people.
 3. While it obviously lies beyond our province to pass final judgment | upon the various aspects of the Ulster
 issue, we have not only a right but
 a duty as American Protestants to de-
 nounce +'hte degradation of religion by
 such pogroms as occurred last sum-
 mer. Upon this subject we owe it | to our fellow rehgionists both in America and in Ulster, to speak plain | 1y."
 1 All of the members of the commits
 sion. excepting United States Senator |
 were chosen by the committee to con- l duct the inquiry. are Protestants.
 These nembsers are Jane Addams.
 Hull House, Chicago; I. Hollings-
 worth Wood, lawyer, New York; Fred | erick c. Howe, former United States | Com missioner of Immigration, New
 York 4ar;oJa Ja1nss stsd d. H: Maurer, President
 Pennsylvania: Major Olive P. New
 man. formerly commissioner of the
 District of Columbia: United States Senator George W. Norris of Nebras-
 ka and Rev. Norman Thomas of New | York.
 ''No examination of the Irish situ- alton can ignore the religious issue" | says the report. '@It seemed peculi- arly appropriate ti1a, the Protestant | mem mbers should deal with the subject | in view of the overwhelming predom- l finance of Roman Catholics in Ireland and the charge sometimes heard in Protestant circles that Republic sen timent has its chief origin in ecclesi- asttcal agitation The only evidence before the com mission concerning serious religious controversy resulting in the destruc- tion of life and property. dealt with the Ulster riots of the summer of | 1920. the report says. Unable to obtain teStim ony from eye-witnesses or any member of societies "devot- ed to the cause of Protestant ascen- dency in UiSter,' the commission says it heard the testimony of three indi- vidual non-CathoHcs, two Of whom were American citizens and the third "a British citizen of Scotch Presby- terian stock As in the case of the major report the testimony of wit nesses taken before this committee was made public at the time it was given.
 Referring to the Belfast disorders beginning July 21, 1920, in which. by the end of August, 56 persons were killed, the commission observed that 'these riots between Protestants and Catholics in which Protestants were
 the aggreSsors, partook of the char Jews"
 One of the witnesses, Mrs. Annot Robinson, the report said} declared that in October, 1920, she visited Ul- expelled workers and their families were existing relief.'' Some of them, the report said, were expelled not only from their jobs but from tinued were predominantly Catholic, though among them were Protestants suspected of labor, socialist or Sim Fein sympathies.''
 The killing of District Comm ission CT Smyth in Cork, the election of 25 men who were not Orangemen' to the Belfast City Council, whose total membership is 50; the alleged expul- from the Belfast shipyards; and the destruction of the town of Lisburn, just outside of Belfast, were desig- mated as ian appalling record of a re- vival of religious strife.'
 The Ulster pogTomS," the report continued, were not primarily due to a spontaneous flare-up of smo1- dering bigotry but were rather pro- noted by those whose econ omic and political interests weA.o opposed both to strong labor unioniSm and to Irish Repub licaniSm Certain manufac- turers and unionist politicians, it was alleged. had taken alarm at the sol idarity of labor, Protestant and Ca tholic, shown in the great shipyard strike of 1919."
 A large Belfast manufacture was | quoted as having said:
 -+I know and all the manufacturers | in this city know, that the trouble | is not a religious trouble except as | it has been fostered by them to serve their political and their economic in- l .terests I warned them a long | time ago that they were rousing up a | monster they could not control and | which some day might turn upon | them" Politicians and manufactur- | CTS opposed to Sim Fsein, the com- mission says it found, have had "the aid of a large section of the press and of the clergy"
 As regards the rest of Ireland out side the region immediately about Belfast the commission says it was Impressed by the evidence of lack of any religious strife" It also charged that Sir Edward Carson. for mer leader in Ulster, would seem to have accepted a Home Rule Act which gives his party practically