The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-02-05
IRISH TREATY WAS
FORCED BY LLOYD
GEORGE DEvALERA
Declares in Letter That Lloyd
George Rammed Treaty
Down Throat of Ireland
Under War Threat

NEW YORK. Feb. 4.-Eamon De
the Irish World made public today,
says that the greatest of all the
many crimes English statesmen have
committed against Ireland was that
committed by Lloyd George in De-
eember, 1921, when under the threat
| of immediate and terrible war he
compelled the signatures of our dele
gates to an Impossible treaty"
THE key to a proper understand
| ing of the situation in Ireland today
is realization of this fact" says the
| Irish republican leader The letter
! was dated January 10, and was writ
ten in his hiding place in Ireland.
The letter says, in part:
They tthe delegates) had gone
voluntarily to meet England's de-
mands to the farthest limit which
the national honor and the princi-
Piles for which we stood permitted.
BY infamous threats Lloyd George
forced the delegates beyond that
limit, and he, more than any other
single individual, is responsible for
the awful tragedy that is being en-
acted here today. His London
treaty has wrought the same con-
fusion and misery upon the people of
Ireland that the treaty of Versailles
has brought upon the peoples of the
continent of Europe. The root cause
is the same. Force, not right or JUS
t1ce, or reason, was made the guild
Ing principle. and those who set out
as the champions of right failed, like
President Wilson. and grew afraid in
the immediate presence of the task
to which they had set themselves.
Praises Griffith
THE high motives that probably
induced our delegates to give way
and to sign, | for one have always
been able to understand and been
ready to admit. l believe that Ar
thur Griffith truly and sincerely
loved Ireland and would have sac
rificed himself for her welfare But
what passes my understanding is how
any one who knew Ireland for the
past four or five years at all could
have failed to realize that the young
men who were fighting and daily
risking their lives to uphold the re-
public and had seen their comrades
die for 1t. would resist to the death
any attempt to disesta5lish it at
England's bidding. The dictated par
tltion of our country, it's forced in
clusion in the British empire, the
surrender of our sovereignty, the re-
pudiation of our declared indepen-
dence, the acceptance of England's
King and the pledge of fealty to him,
made civil war inevitable here sooner
or later.
Says Independence Surrendered
To defy Lloyd George and to face
renewal of the war and the perse-
cutlon winch he threatened, or to
surrender our independence and face
war which that surrender made in
evitable, was an awful choice for any
irish statesman and lover of his
country to have to make But still
there should have been no doubt as
to which alternative should have
been chosen. One meant. at worst
daring again with forces united and
on the whole better organized and
equipped and under better conditions
of world understanding and support.
which already had been dared not
unsuccessfully for four strenuous
years. The other meant not only
the abandonment of cherished ideals.
but certain disruption with ever in
creasing friction that would make re-
union and retracing of steps more
and more impossible as time went on.
Wants Peace of Mind -tf
England should be told plainly"
he wrote, that the price she has de-
manded for peace--civil warts a
price which no nation should be
called upon to pay.
Your readers will not be led away
by the pretenses that the aims of
republicans are anarchicaI and de-
structive. Our aim is essentially the
constructive one of restoring to Ire
land the peace of mind which she
has not known for NOTWITHSTANDING
her of the distraction of violent po-
litical agitation of England's claims
have made inevitable. but from which
Ireland has suffered more perhaps
than from direct prosecutions. Ire
land, unfree. can never be at rest
and in unrest Ireland can never
be more than the most distressful
country. Our aim is to lay the
foundations properly. When they are
laid. we shall have put Ireland on
the, way to be truly great and happy
and shall have made of England a
friend"