Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1920 — BRITISH RESENT U. S. AID TO IRISH [ARTICLE]

BRITISH RESENT U. S. AID TO IRISH

Question Is Raised During Debate in the House of Commons. u' GREAT BITTERNESS IS SHOWN Horatio Bottomley Asks Whether Govornment Knew of Honor Being Conferred on De Valera, “Presdent of Irish Republic." * London, May 7. —The subject of the Support given to the “Irish republic” by some persons in the United States came up in the commons. Horatio Bottomley asked whether the government was aware that appeals for subscriptions for bonds addressed by De Valera as “president of the Irish republic” were still appearing in American newspapers and were supported by the governors of various states, and whether Great Britain proposed to make representations on the matter to President Wilson. Mr. Bonar Law, replying in behalf of the government, said it was understood that such appeals were still appearing in certain American papers, but he was not in a position to say whether they were supported by any governor. Great Britain, he added, was not prepared to make representations. Asks, "Is It Not Unfriendly Act?" Mr. Bottomley asked whether Mr.

Law had seen the announcement that already £2,000,000 had been subscribed to this fund and that triumphant processions had gone through the principal streets of the United States in celebration of the event, nnd that De Valera had been entertained by state governors. He asked if Mr. Bonar Law did not consider that in international law this amounted to an unfriendly act The government leader said he had not seen a statement of the specific facts named, but it did not alter his view regarding Great Britain’s right course, namely, that it was not always wise to take action to which a country had the legal right. Capt. William Wedgewood Benn wanted to know whether the government would take steps to halt the malicious compaign which, he declared, was destroying the friendly relations between this country and the United States. To this Mr. Bonar Law did not reply. Robert Burton Chadwick asked whether Mr. Bonar Law was awk re that “the outlaw” was recently honored with the freedom of New Orleans and whether any representations had been made to the United States in the face of “this deliberate insult by an ostensibly friendly power.” Mr. Bonar Law answered that he was satisfied the good feeling of the United States was not represented at all by such demonstrations and he did not believe that any action the British government could take against them would have any other effect than to make the relations worse. Lords Discuss Sinn Fein. In a debate in the house of lords Baron Birkenhead, lord high chancellor, on behalf of the government, said it was intended to continue the policy of living to the Irish executive all

possible assistance and support. He added that in no conceivable circumstances would the government concede the demands of the Sinn Fein; and that the proposal to invite the Sinn Fein to another Irish convention was a proposal out of contact with any living reality. “Every single motive which led the United States to resist the attempt at secession would operate with even greater force to determine this country," said the chancellor, and he would remind the Sinn Feiers that the race which had resisted the might of the German empire would not yield to a section of desperate people In Ireland.