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Show JOHN REDMOND FEELS DESPAIR Vigorously Denounces the Men Who Have Injured the, Cause of Ireland. London, April 28, 7: IS p. m John Redmond leader of the Irish Nationalists Nation-alists in the house of commons, tonight to-night gave the Associated Press the following statement concerning the uprising In Dublin: "My first feeling, of course, on hearing of this insane movement, was one of horror, discouragement and almost despair. I asked myself whether Ireland, as so often, before in her tragic history, was to dash the cup of liberty from her lips was the insanity in-sanity of. a small section of her people peo-ple once again to turn all hei" marvel- ous victories of the last few vears Into fv, , irieparable defeat and to send her back on the very eve of her final recognition rec-ognition as a free nation into another long night of slavery, Incalculable suffering and weary and uncertain struggling. "For, look at the Irish position to-daj to-daj ' In the short space of 40 years Ireland has by a constitutional movement move-ment made an almost unbrokenly triumphant march fiom papuerism and slavery to prosperity and freedom. free-dom. She has won back the possession posses-sion of Irish land; she has stayed immigration; im-migration; she has at last begun an era of national prosperit3'. Finally, she has succeeded in placing on the statute books the greatest charter of freedom every offered her since the days of Grattan. Is all this to be lost9 "When war came, she made a choice which was inevitable if she was to be true to all the principles which she has held through all her history and which she had just so completely vindicated vin-dicated on her own soil, namely, the rights of small nationals, sacred principles prin-ciples of nationality, liberty and democracy. t Trampled Under Heel. "Moreover, the nationals for which throuch all her historv shfi hart folt the sympathy that comes from common com-mon principles and common aspirations aspira-tions were trampled, as she in her time has been trampled under the iron heel of arrogant force. "What has Ireland suffered in the past which Poland, Alsace, Belgium and Serbia have not suffered at the hands of Germany? And I may add also that portion of the soil of France, held old friend and ally, which Is in the hands of Germany? "What has been the record of Germany Ger-many but the suppression of nationality, national-ity, of freedom and of language In short, the suppression of all things for which for centuries Ireland has struggled, the victory of which Ireland has achieved Take the case of Belgium. Bel-gium. Has there not been there the same ruthless shedding of blood of the priests and the people that is part of Ireland's own history? Leaving the question of principle out of it, what does the situation warrant? "Neutrality? That was impossible Hostility to the Just cause of the allies' Is there a sane man In Ireland Ire-land who does not see that this meant the di owning of Ireland's newly won liberties in Irish blood? Be this view right or wrong, this was the opinion of an oerwhelming majority of the Irish people It was the opinion which thousuuds of Irish soldiers have sealed with their blood by dying In the cause of the liberty of Ireland and of the world "But, anhow, it was the opinion of Ireland and surely I need not argue the principle, especially with anybody who has professed himself a home ruler, the policy of Ireland must be decided by Ireland herself. That Is the principle which haB been adopted by tho Irish race everywhere. "Millions of our people in tho United States and elsewhere, whose generous devotion helped us so largely to win our victories for the motherland of our race, have always accepted It, However bounteous their help, never have they denied Ireland's right to choose her policy for herself. That doctrine has been contested only by the very same men who today have tried to make Ireland a cat's paw of Germany. "In all our long and successful struggle to obtain home rule we have been thwarted and opposed by that same section. We have won home rule not through them, but in spite of them Tills wicked move of theirs was tneir last mow at borne rule. It was not half as much treason to the cause of the allies as treason to the cause of homo rule. Blow at Home Rule. VThis attempted deadly Wow at home rule carried on through this section is made more wicked, more insolent, by this cast that Germany plotted it Germany organized; Germany Ger-many paid for it So far as Germany's share in it is concerned, a German invasion in-vasion of Ireland as brutal, as selfish, as cynical as Germany's invasion of Belgium. Blood has been shed and if Ireland has not been reduced to the same horrors as Belgium, with her starving people, her massacred priests and her violated convents, it is not tho fault of Germany. "And the final exaggeration of this movement is the insane young men who have taken part in this movement in Ireland, who have risked and somo of them lost their lives. But what am I to say to those men who have sent them into this Insane and anti-patriotic anti-patriotic movement while they have remained in tho safe remoteness of American cities? "1 might add that this movement has been set in motion by this same class of men at the very moment when America Is demanding reparation for the blood of Innocent American men, women and children, shed by Germany Ger-many and thus they are guilty of double treason treason to the generous gener-ous land that received them, as well as to the land which gave them birth. "Is It not an additional horror that on the very day when we heard that the men of Dublin "fusilliers had been killed by Irishmen in the streets of Dublin, we received news of how men of the Sixteenth division our own Irish brigade, and of the same Dublin fusilliers had dashed forward and by their unconquerable bravery re-taken trenches the Germans had won at Hulluch? Was there ever such a picture pic-ture of tragedy which a small section of an Irish faction has so often inflicted in-flicted on the fairest hopes and the bravest deeds of Ireland? "As to the final result I do not believe be-lieve this wicked and Insane movement move-ment will achieve its ends. The German Ger-man plot has failed. A majority of the people of Ireland retained their calmness, "fortitude and unity. They abhor this attack on their interests, their rights and their principles. Home rule has not been destroyed. It remains re-mains indestructible" London, April 2S, 9.15 p. m. The parliamentary branch of the United Irish league In Great Britain, at a meeting here tonight, endorsed John Redmond's condemnation of the "crime " nn |