AMERICAN DELEGATES IN DUBLIN

New Zealand Tablet, 3 July 1919, Page 42

AMERICAN DELEGATES IN DUBLIN

■ SPEECHES AT \M FULL SESSION OF DAIL 6 ' l i~£i : EIREANN. .A special-public sitting of Dail Eireann, the Sinir Fein v Assembly; was held i;: on May '9 J in honor * of, the American delegates to Ireland. The visitors were accorded an enthusiastic reception (says the Irish Weekly): .... The session* was as only f on two previous occasions -r-rthe last being i almost a month P previously —open to; the public, and though the Dail was announced > to' assemble at 11 o'clock > a:-long': queue of people 'anxious to. be present on • the * interesting 1 ; 1 occasion had - lined up long! before the hour along the 1 * footpath in Dawson Street. The audience comprised many ; ladies, r and clergymen were also" very conspicuous. - Prominent; amongst the thousands'present"' were many khakiclad figures, Americans, Australians; and New Zealanders being seated here and there through the Assembly. n s Particular •< attention was «* riveted on : the presence of two British officers, who, with/Councillor John Ryan, occupied seats immediately behind" the part reserved for the members of the Dail. : :- ""■' .-. '""-\'"._'' ','"'. ■lt was exactly at noon when the American dele- ; gates. entered the Round Room. The Lord Mayor and Mr:; Dunne headed the party, Mr. W. T. Cosgrave and Mr. Walsh being next, and Mr. Joseph McGuinness and Mr. Ryan following. The Commissioners' Secretary, Mr. Lee, was also present.- The members of the delegation were accommodated with seats behind b the members of the Dail, and they received a most enthu-siastic-greeting. Almost immediately afterwards the members of the Dail entered the room. The entire audience -at once rose to their feet, and indulged in a great outburst of cheering, as the members walked up the aisle and took their seats. Mr. De Valera followed ilia carefully-prepared speech, in which he, as ''chief representative of the Irish nation," gave expression to the welcome accorded the American Commissioners. Mr. Arthur Griffith made a statement dealing with, the effect of British occupation on the population. Many figures were quoted, a number of members supporting those with statistics relating.to the reductions in population and homesteads in various centres. -;■ Mr. M. Collins and Professor John Mac Neill made statements respectively on financial relations and law in Ireland: Mr. J. J. 1 O'Kelly, on taking the chair, first spoke in Irish, and then, in English, asked the Clerk, to call the roll. There was a good response, some 45 or 46 members answering their names, the calling and replies being conducted in Irish. There were several letters of apology received: His Grace the Archbishop of Cashel, Most Rev. Dr. Harty, wrote:—"l am sorry that I cannoti be/in time for to-morrow's meeting • of Dail bEireanii,. but- I shall be;, at the Lord Mayors reception." - ' ; //''-- -'■ ' ■■_■_■" ■■ ..■_' . Mr. Mulcahy moved, and Mr. Joseph McGuinness seconded, : a motion for the suspension of the Standing Orders in order to admit the members of the American Commission to the House. Both gentlemen spoke -in Irish; The Deputy-Speaker said he thought the motion before the House; that they admit their friends to the floor of the House, would hardly need to be put formally to the Dail, and that it would be received by everybody there and carried with acclamation. v—l/ ? Mr. De Valera's; Welcome. " ; : '. V.,./: ?: In the course of his address, Mr. De Valera said :.. '-We greet them and salute them as 'a sign that; America will not regard * the official assurances of its responsible head merely as" scraps of papgr —(cheers)— that the principles of right and .justice are about to be started b" the massed strength of the greatest nation on the earth to-day—(cheers)— thatT,nation which the whole world, recognises, as, ; its. only head, that nation r on which * it will depend whether the principles of right and justice ' are to prevail or whether, as, formerly, vr might and might only is to be right. (Cheers.) The honor, we pay here * to-day to our visitors will, naturally, be associated with the honor paid formerly to Franklin, in this coun-

try, and the honor paid to Parnell and f to other distinguished Irishmen, as a one speaker has 4 pointed out, ; in America, and that it will be a notable link in the chain of { friendly relations that binds this nation to the great ; nation beyond;"- the Atlantic" He regretted that the stay of ' the visitors in Ireland,, would not be longer, ; in order that they " r may meet persons whose . political opinions were not those of the vast majority of the people; and it would also .be an instruction to <l come into contact with '} a certain other section whose views, if ; they did not'weigh with. the people of Ireland, carried conviction elsewhere. They would find that the whole. political situation ; was one of astonishing simplicity, and the experience . would t bring into j relief the relative importance of things in Ireland. A longer stay would convince the delegates that if it depended on the will of thel' people the Irish National form of government would be accepted by all except 'a"'". few Unionists. They would be convinced also that 'such,, as -'are,heard; to advocate Colonial Home Rule, etc., do so not because they consider it the best, not because they hanker after the English connection, but because they think that the militarist power which has kept Ireland within its grasp for centuries can never ,be. persuaded.": to , let her go, that the moral appeals of ■ justice and ;.right, despite the professions of English statesmen '.; during the war, will have as little influence on English selfishness now as in the past; and that, just as Cabinets and Chancellors remained deaf to the. appeals of the subject suffering nations of Europe until their own selfish advantage prompted them to listen, so will they remain deaf now, to our appeals; and suffer England to work J her will upon us. The Home Rule movement was an attempt by Irish political, leaders to bring about ah arrangement by which they hoped the two peoples might live side by side less in direct antagonism, less in the relations of master and slave.'"f These leaders/had, hoped that the result of the removal of England's irritating interference in the immediate domestic concerns of Ireland, by which the statesmen of England made these concerns subservient to England's interests, would be that a better'understanding" might be reached which would enable the two countries to live side by side in peace as equal constituents in something like a Commonwealth Federation. They "were willing to. accept the British Empire oh. the terms r of autonomy within it; but their efforts were met almost; uniformly by England with insult and treachery. The hand of Irishmen held out in good faith was spurned and spat upon. The purely conditional acceptance of the British connection was exploited to place us in a false position, to misrepresent our national claims, and to create division in our national forces. (Cheers.) In the name of "loyalty"as if the Federation were already in exist-, ence—England made demands for which a basis could only have 'been found . had Ireland's side of the proposed bargain been conceded, but which '.. were.unjust, and intolerable when the position was that,; England, wanted to gain the benefit which by the proposed bargain would accrue to her, whilst denying to Ireland the, freedom for "which the benefits .were the proposed price. (Hear, hear.) ../!,",'. ":.'■'■" "-1. ■'■.'. .'■■.■:',',. : ',,<.-.-. o, '- Delegates' Speeches. ",\Vf -;.,.-. ■?.*.■ Mr. Frank Walsh said the generous and hearty welcome given to the delegation by the people of Ireland had of course evoked a very deep sense of appreciation , : upon the part of the delegation. Impressive as ".it-.had been up to that moment the honor conferred upon them. by : that legislative body with '', the information ; obtained, in an official way Was even niore profoundly so, because after all the mandate that they bore, while political in a sense, was in a 'higher; sense a business mandate which had to do with a definite charge* : made not alone, they hoped, by the twenty millions of people of Irish. blood represented in ; the : Philadelphia Convention, but, as their President had so well said, by the great heart 'of America. (Cheers.)' \ L "''2~~ •'- r ,. ;_.r I "As we moved, : said • Mr. Walsh, "through your - fair land and through the city of J Dublin, vfJ I know that my colleagues as well as myself must have caught the Spirit of the great soul of you all. And as we pass

the historic 5 building 1 ' in; which, sat the historic Irish Parliament in ' the days of Ireland's glory, and the material upbuilding s for l a short time of Dublin and its surroundings, I saw again the figure of that great constructive ; statesman of . revolutionary days, our own Benjamin Franklin, coming as the ambassador of ..a struggling people seeking light, as you are to-day peeking -assistance : in spirit at least of the Irish people, through their ; regularly elected Parliament,.." and not seeking in vain—(cheers)— bringing back to his country the word-that the first country appealed to —the . Irish nation—had * ; responded to the cry of freedom of the American 1 coloniesf through its -. regularly constituted Parliament; ' ; and I '] think' again of /those,, days when Washington and his compatriots like others of this day we're 1 struggling with 'the intellectual problems involved: in ; the establishment of .a . nation ; spoken of to-day, but then : a struggling one,"as the strongest and most power-ful-One /upon the face of the earth. - ; "And ; so at this point," said Mr. Walsh, "I might answer v the ' ! suggestion made; ; by the unthinking that the 1 question of the recognition of the suggested form of Irish government is a domestic question with which no person ' has " to do > except the Government of Great Britain and ; the 1 people upon this island. No great wrong inflicted upon one nation by another is a domestic question^ Unless I V say that I must .turn my back upon mp own country's course in the.history of the world, I must write the condemnation of one of the most important 'acts ever performed by my Government when they went into the island of Cuba and swept from the Western Hemisphere; for ever the hand of . Monarchy. * (Cheers.) I say to you as an American to-day in my humble opinion what drove us into the war was the thought that the heel of the invader might press upon our sacred soil. : (Cheers.) America entered the war : in terms so clear and .unequivocal that all could understand, and denied for ever the claim that Me question of Ireland is not an international question in which the' whole world is interested to-day, and on the 'proper solution of which depends the ultimate and permanent peace of the world." , (Loud cheers.) He referred to Wilson's more recent declaration at the tomb of Washington, and said that the difference between the cause that then claimed the sacrifices of the American nation was that it was then a fight for the 13 American States, while to-day they had fought for the freedom of the nations of the' earth, large and small. (Cheers.) : .. : , - - : Mr. Dunne said they had been recognised and given unique distinctions and honors by a different nation. It was not because of the personality of the men, but because Of the mission in which they were engaged. The invitation which had been extended to them came ■ from the. President of a nation duly elected according to the forms of a foreign law. As the result of that election nearly three-fourths of ; the majority of .the people of : Ireland determined that they needed and would have self-government, and they who met that day were elected as representatives of the National idea. ' Mr. Ryan said that he had always stood behind those who represented the majority of the people of Ireland, but. after the horrible tragedy of Easter Week he was behind Sinn Fein, because he saw it was the best for the motherland. Never before had the Irish people in America been so united. _. > ~,..., 'Messrs; Walsh, Dunne, and Ryan, the American Commissioners; "visited University College, Dublin, after the conclusion of the'Dail Eireanii proceedings on ; May 9. "- They were warmly received, and an.address of welcome was presented. Dr; Coffey, president of the college, conducted the . visitors through the building. Mr Walsh, : who replied, said r they , would give them j their assistance in the struggle in the world of the new conceptions, and he felt assured '.' that their great ; devotion• to the cause of their country "would hot go for nothing. ,. f . Mansion House Seized: Military's Men's ,/,' Extraordinary Manoeuvre. 1. --■•:fa ■•♦ J The Castle authorities were the i authors \ of a most sensational performance in Dublin on { the] evening of

May 9.^ At about 5.30" p:m. the Mansion- House was taken possession of by forces of military and police. Three/motor lorries filled with soldiers arrived. ihKDaw-son-Street, and the men V alighted outside the Mansion . House. Immediately afterwards a large body of police * came on the scene. r A crowd collected, and the street was cleared, the police dispersing the people a towards Stephen's Green. z ,Af guard of soldiers with 'machine* guns and rifles } was placed outside the building, and also a guard of police, ; who! were unarmed. It was known that a _ reception to the American j Commissioners would be given in the Mansion House that evening by'' the ; Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress. •- Some 1500 in- ! vitations i had - been issued, , and , amongst those -who hadi accepted was the Archbishop; ..■ of Cashel. The soldiers carried rifles with fixed bayonets;; -Sat They" had also machine-guns. Shortly,afterwards, several additional' motors . with soldiers ;> were•:-hurried to Dawson Street, - . and- another addition to the display was an armored car. The soldiers ; were so ; placed that entrance by persons -to;. Dawson Street in the neighborhood, of the Mansion House was-stopped, < cordons , being . drawn across. the thoroughfare at Stephen's .;- Green, South Anne Street, Molesworth Street, arid adjacent to the Hibernian Hotel. , There was no stoppage, : however, of the trams. Colonel Johnstone, Chief - Commissioner, ; was in charge of the police, and the Lord Mayor, who had just entered his.-. official residence'-= shortly before the 3 troops - and police arrived, had a conversation with him in the street. The military held their, positions for i'M considerable time, and wildest rumors about the meaning. of the performance were current throughout: the < city It was stated in some quarters that the Castle authorities meant to place Messrs. Walsh; Dunne, and Ryan, under arrest (and, indeed, inquiries by telephone from.:Derry City and several other northern centres were responsible .for the story that "exciting scenes'- were happening in Dublin being spread far s and wide with remarkable rapidity), but , before 8 o'clock the; word was given to : the military to withdraw, and they; returned to barracks. The reception to < the Irish-Ameri-can delegates was successfully held in: the Mansion. House in. due course. ; So far as can be gathered, the extraordinary and provocative display of "force had no • other practical object than an; attempt to arrest some of the Sinn Fein prisoners who recently [ escaped from Mountjoy Gaol. The idea was that the escaped men had concealed themselves in the Mansion <House. ; -j A later message states: While the. search was in progress two of the American visitors arrived, accompanied by Mr. De Valera, on their way to i dinner in the. Mansion House. They were held up by the cordon at Stephen's Green, and Mr. Frank Walsh; one of the delegates, interviewed Colonel Johnstone, who said the Americans might pass, but De Valera could not. When= the second car containing one of the Americans and a number of well-known Sinn Feiners drove up, it was also stopped.- The crowd;around then became' excited, and cheered and boohed. At this; point it is stated, a volley of shots rang out,- the soldiers firing; over the heads of the people. < The crowd scattered, in different directions. The Americans declined: to pass : through the cordon without> Mr. De Valera, and the.party remained; there until the cordon was withdrawn, i k; 10