The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-04
EMPIRE ITSELF MAY HANG ON
 IRISH PEACE

Wilson In Address to
 Mems League of Blessed
 Sacrament.
 An address by Lynn w. Wilson. edi- ture of a varied and attractive pro- gram at the meeting of the Mems League of the Blessed Sacrament church in the parish hall last night introduced MT. Wilson, who spoke mainly on conditions in Ireland. touching on European conditions in general at the outset of his address, because as he stated it: '"The Irish question doesn't stand alone. As you have been taught by your good pastor, this is Gods world, in which every thing is related in some degree to man in the head in Ireland without it having it's effect in America"
 Continuing, the speaker said: :: What is happening in Ireland could not be brought about by force alone. There are not so many men in arms in Ireland, and they are not so very we'll armed. What they do in the way of exercise of force. they do un- der difficulties that you and can scarcely conceive. The bright hope for the granting of independence to Ireland has been brought about by the moral forces of mankind which have come into being during the eighteen centuries in which the reli- zion of Jesus has been taught It is the suffering of the great war that has brought a large part of mankind to the support of the Irish people in their struggle for liberty.
 Mot only that but I have been as sured that the forces of liberty stiIn- u1ated by a well-managed propasanda of the republic of Ireland, have spread to India, to Egypt. to Ceylon t0 Africa h
 Mir Wilson quoted Englishmen with whom he had talked as stating that the Empire itself was in danger if the Irish question is not settled ana added that with 22N per cent of the vote in Australia Irish and with large proportions of Irish in all of the do- minionS, there was a. potent influence working within the empire for Irlsn !, aspirations. ''In Great Britain itself, Mir Wilson said, ''there are as many Irishmenf relatively as there are m America, some of them members or the labor groups that dominate clt1es like Liverpool and others constituting some of the best families on the Eng fish side of the channel, and even ln parliament itself.
 The speaker asserted that in the found the largest element in the British empire which seeks to bind the Irish people. He read a descr1p- ton of the tory element from "Joa n d adding: "Mr. Wells is an EngEshman who knows his England better than any living man, and he says that as long ago as the beginning of the great war, the tories Of England were oe- manding the shedding of blood In order to stop the progress of man kind that they were demanding the sacrifice of Ireland. because if Ire land secured liberty, the tory ascen. dancy in England would be gone" The quotation from MT. Wells in cluded a. comparison of the motives and purposes actuatlng Kaiser Will helm in bringing on the great war and the motives of the English tories and their mouthpiece, Sir Edward Carson, in arning their adherents in Ulster to resist the home rule act, In which the author declared that there was no essential difference between the two groups, both believing that only by shedding blood could they re- tain power.
 Continuing, MT. Wilson said: There is an element in England that has a very strong sympathy to the Irish cause, the conservative labor element. The bo1shevist labor element in England, as everywhere, doesn't care about anything else but destruc- ton of civilization. Just before I came home the British Labor Con- gress was meeting in Card1f, Wales. It represents 6,300,000 men. Every man in that congress I talked to with one exception. and he was delegate from Ulster. was delegate from Ulster, was on the side of the Irish aspiration for independence. That congress did a concrete service. Lloyd George had invited DeValera to meet him. De Valera was refusing to come into conference, except under his own conditions, or at least without any conditions.
 That labor congress adopted a resolution the crux of which was a demand from labor that the British government meet the Irish with out conditions. The result is that Lloyd tives of the Irish people to a confer ence without conditions and those representatives have acepted-
 ''I have strong reasons for beIiev- ing that out of that conference will come a settlement satisfactory to the Irish republican government"
 MT. Wilson stated that the finan- cial burdens laid on the countries of Europe by the great war constituted an element working in favor of Ire land, the taxation being so heavy in Great Britain that the people were murmuring against expenditures for military enterprises in India. in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and for the settle ment of the Irish question because the empire was facing bankruptcy. He referred to. Ireland as an essential part of the European trade system and asserted that with the 5,000,000 people of Ireland at war, the trade of every countrX in Europe was affected, and they we're all clamoring for set clement of the Irish question.
 Continuing in this vein, the speaker said: "A11 of that bankruptcy and