STATEMENT OF F. P. BRADCHULIS, CHICAGO, ILL.

LITHUANIAN ATTITUDE TO GERMANY.

Lithuania and Germany have been for centuries mutually antagonistic. This attitude has existed ever since the so-called Teutonic knight crusades against Lithuania, and from that time German influence in Lithuania has found no field. Even in that part of Lithuania which forms the extreme northern part of east Prussia and which was dominated by the Germans for four centuries, Germany failed to change the people's customs or their language, and this is an evident proof of the antagonism which flows from generation to generation in the Lithuanian race toward the Germans.

Practically the whole of Lithuania, in 1915, was occupied by German military forces, and from that time they held it continuously until the date of the armistice and after. Germany believed that by that conquest the whole of Lithuania would be incorporated into the German Empire, and acting upon that assumption from the very day of its occupation it introduced its well-known system of 'Kultur." It suppressed the publication of the then existing Lithuanian newspapers, introduced the German language in all the schools of Lithuania, and changed the names of towns, *treets, and even villages, giving them German names. Meetings of every nature were prohibited. Time and again appeals were made to the Berlin Government for the rights of the Lithuanian people, but all was in vain, and only, apparently, when the German militarists realized that their success in the domination of the world was doubtful did they permit in Lithuania the organization of a national council or "Taryba," but they permitted it no right to exercise its functions except in very insignificant matters. The Lithuanian people, knowing Germany's systematic practice of Germanization in conquered territories, became united in patriotism and antagonism toward the Germans. Germany seeing such resistance, gradually moderated its attempts at Germanization.

Since the armistice Germany, realizing that it will be compelled to leave Lithuania, has decided to strip the country of everything valuable by requisitions and exportations to Germany of property amounting to millions of dollars, without any remuneration for the same.

The following statistics will show at least part of the property taken away from Lithuania and its value.

Lithuania, by reason of inherited opposition to Germany, created in the hearts of its people centuries ago by the Teutonic knights, as well as by the acts committed by Germany during this war, will stand as a stone wall against German eastern expan

Lithuania having its own port, Memel, on the Baltic Sea, will become absolutely independent of Germany, and it is certain that she will build up commercial relations with England and the United States rather than with her natural enemy, Germany.

No German influence, either commercial or political, can penetrate into or through an independent Lithuania.

ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM LITHUANIA BY THE GERMANS DURING THE OCCUPATION.

In No. 8 of the "Verwaltungs-Bericht der Militarveraltung Litauen Bezerk Nord" (report of the military administration of Lithuania, northern district) are given the quantities and the kinds of articles which the Germans have exported from the northern district of Lithuania to Germany or which they have requisitioned for the needs of the German army on the various fronts. The figures are given for the period of time between the date of the establishment of the "Verwaltung" (German administration) in Lithuania (February, 1916) and March 31, 1918.

It will be seen that since the establishment of the "German administration" in north Lithuania (February, 1916, to Mar. 31, 1918) that during two years and a half, there was exported into Germany through the intermediary of the "German adminis tration" of Lithuania, in various articles, a value of more than 208,000,000 marks, according to the price fixed by the Germans in Lithuania, or a value of 338,000,000 marks, according to their value in Germany.

It should be emphasized nere that this enumeration does not include articles and merchandise requisitioned for the needs of the German Army nor articles exported at the commencement of une occupation before the creation of the "Verwaltung" (administration). Moreover as may be seen in the "Verwaltungs Bericht der deutschen Verwaltung Litauen" (report of the German administration in Lithuania), November 1, 1916, this list does not include articles requisitioned by he commissary officer (commandatures d'etapes) up to April 26, 1916, which are mentioned in the German reports as "sehr orheblichen Mengen"-very considerable quantities.

Nor does the list include the revictualment shipments (colis de ravitaillement) sent to Germany by German soldiers. These figures relate to the territory of Lithuanis with the exception of the government of Grodno, certain parts of the government of Vilna, and some districts of Suvalki and of Augustovo, in the government of Suvalki At present there are no figures permitting the valuation of various articles exported during this period from the district of Augustovo and Suvalki. Exportation from certain parts of the governments of Vilna and Grodno (south Lithuania) during the period amount to 140,078,541 marks, according to the prices fixed in Lithuania, or 200,023,453 marks according to their value in Germany. So that altogether the articles exported from Lithuania down to March 31, 1918, amount to 538,000,000 marks, without counting the districts of Augustovo and of Suvalki, which is about 214,000,000 marks a year. The various articles imported into north Lithuania, from Germany or by way of Germany, reached 77,000,000 (77,308,570) marks, and in south Lithuania, 61,000,000, or in all 138,000,000 marks.

The difference between articles exported from Lithuania and those imported into Lithuania exceeds 400,000,000 marks, or approximately 160,000.000 a year.

We have no figures permitting the valuation of articles which the Germans have exported during the past year (Mar. 31, 1918-Mar. 31, 1919), but we have no reason to believe that they have decreased. On the contrary, it is proved that the Germans have progressively organized exportation from Lithuania; for example, according to the "Verwaltungs Bericht" No. 6, the Germans had exported from north Lithuania, down to March 31, 1917, 62,000,000 marks worth of merchandise, according to their value in Germany, but during the year, March 31, 1917 to March 31, 1918, they exported from north Lithuania 227,000,000 of marks, an amount representing more than 100 per cent increase. It must be admitted necessarily that during the past year they have not exported less of various merchandise than in 1917. Hence the quantity exported from Lithuania exceeds the quantity imported by at least 560,000,000 to 600,000,000 marks.

In order to have a fairly complete idea of what the exploitation of Lithuania's natural wealth means we must bear in mind that all which has been hitherto mentioned concerns only products exported by Germany.

A large quantity of products was utilized for the needs of the country, e. g., the for ests furnished all the wood used in the war-fortifications, trenches, railroads, etc.

(By direction of the chairman, the following additional statement in the case of the Irish is here printed in the record, as follows:)

Statement of John O'Dea, Philadelphia, Pa., national secretary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America:

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate, realizing that the time of those who desire to address your honorable committee on this occasion must necessarily be limited, I shall merely quote the language of the resolutions bearing on the subject at issue, adopted at the National Convention of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, at San Francisco, Calif. July 15-19, this year, I having been a member of the committee which presented them for consideration and adoption:

"We join in the joy of the triumph of the Great Republic in the war. Our service as citizens, as creators of the munitions of war, and as fighting men in the armed forces have now been written upon another page which records the unbroken loyalty of men and women of Irish origin to the Government of America. Moved by a supreme sense of duty in the hour of danger, there was no hesitation in our response. Just as the soldiers of the Continental Army were called the 'Irish line'-as the armies of both North and South had Irish brigades-as every war for the preservation of American principles has been won through Irish valor and the eagerness with which Irish brain and brawn served in toil and trust, so also were the victorious fields of this war reddened with Irish blood gladly given in the belief that the land of their citizenship was again stretching forth its mailed hand to demolish the strongholds of despotism and shatter the shackles that bind freemen to the chariot wheels of predatory empires. Our fighting men and our honest citizenship still hold this belief. We do not accept the interpretation that the only fruit of this war is a phrase-made democracy. We do not believe that either the Government or the public opinion of our country will seek to avoid that responsibility of victory which forbids a denial of its just share of happiness to the inhabitants of that noble isle which sent forth the stream of exiles whose sons shared the sacrifices of America and look for the emancipation of their ancestral nation as the reward of gratitude and the verdict of honor. We hold that the primary law of equity shall be broken by a withholding of American sympathy from the Irish people. and that a harmonious cooperation of the great powers sufficiently cordial to insure peace will be impossible with the continued subjection of Ireland to an alien rule. We hold that the American Government has ever been solicitous for the freedom of others, waging war to secure it for small nations, repelling oppression on its own soil and in foreign lands, possessing a strong sense of what is just to the American people, and recognizing that this sense of right impels active sympathy to resist encroachments upon the rights of other peoples.

"The pride of American citizenship treasures the generaous deeds of the founders of liberty here, and remembers the bold words which rebuked foreign rulers who dealt harshly with their unwilling subjects. We are confident that history will repeat itself; that there will be no turning back of the clock of progress; that there shall be no easy acceptance of the failure of the tribunal of plenipotentiaries at Paris to fulfill the mission of democracy; that there shall not be a delusion that it is not our business to sit as judge in the cause of Ireland versus England, but that the cry shall rise from the hearts of America that the words of the Declaration of Independence are still living words that a disregard of others' claims will provoke active encroachment upon our own; that the battle for democracy did not end on this continent at Yorktown nor in Europe at the Rhine, but that democracy is a mighty and irresistible yearning of the human heart for equality of opportunity; that none can be wholly free until all are free; none wholly just until all are just; none wholly happy until all are happy.

"Whereas the Republic of Ireland has been proclaimed by a determined and united people, and is hailed throughout the world by a confident and jubilant race.

it is

"Resolved, That the brave and generous Irish people have struck a mighty blow for true democracy, have filled with pride and delight the heart of the great Celtic family, and have rallied the scattered hosts of Irish freedom with this uplifting of its glorious banner and the unsheathing of the ancient sword. The shattering of an out

worn despotism in the stronghold of its power with the marshaled mind of a fearless people is a vivid vindication of the deathless truth which rises from the ashes of martyrs to immortality in the character of a people. The hopes of this generation glow in exultation of the two victories-the defeat of a foe's intrigue, and the conquest over its own betrayers. In 1914 the trustees of the Irish people, in an hour of grave decision, without casting one glance at the past, without asking one pledge for the future, threw down the fate, the freedom, and the good name of a whole race at the feet of the oppressor. But this generation locked upon the gigantic spirit of Ireland as it threw off the thrall of treason and in a single deed of heroism fling defiance in the face of power. We witnessed the miracle of a people who led themselves; who saw when their leaders were blind; who saw a living nation which held in the depths of its love the vision of its hallowed dead and formed the dream into a breathing image of splendor from its own blood and its own faith. We saw a nation save its soul when all seemed lost; a nation which snatched its honor in thunderous courage even from the lightning blast of shame. The elevation of sentiment, the noble sacrifice of precious lives, the devotion of millions to an immortal patriotism, the establishment of a representative government reflecting the public will not only called forth the ardor of Irish loyalty, but aroused the admiration of all mankind with its proof that eight centuries of usurpation had failed to make hewers of wood and drawers of water of the fighting race, showing that its unconquerable spirit was still unbroken, and that its defenders stood upon the soil of their country as free citizens defending their homes against foreign aggression, defending democracy to-day with the same valor they guarded their faith on the walls of Limerick.

"Resolved, That there can be no peace among men while Ireland's long war for freedom is unclosed by victory; no covenant binding the nations in a fraternal amity; no league of Governments worthy of the respect of honest freemen until we have a treaty that shall acknowledge its sovereignty. Any vaunted charter of human rights will be looked upon as a 'scrap of paper' if it bears not the name of the historic nation which has stood embattled against an alien rule of inhumanity, whose sons have wrought the charters of new states, and whose faith during the age-long epoch of human wrongs gave first a fiery meaning to 'human rights.' The rule of Ireland by England is an affront to the conscience of humanity-a feudal relic surviving from an age of barbarism, and exhibiting the degraded system of senile bigotry to a world reforming its society and purifying its constitutions from the taint of despotisms-a system vanquished in Europe by four years of slaughter, and overthrown by the Continental Army during the revolution which freed America from the same enemy that has gripped the throat of Ireland so long and so cruelly. The instinctive feeling of hope that the reign of good will would come with the return of general peace has been rudely insulted, the belief in justice has been violated by the tribunal which heard the whisper of the breaker of treaties, but could not hear the clear call of the gallant land which has 'fought the good fight and which has kept the faith.'

Resolved, That this convention pledge its aid in every effort made to achieve the full independence of Ireland; that our felicitations be extended to President Eamonn de Valera, of the Irish Republic, and that we officially petition the President and the Congress of the United States to grant recognition to Ireland as a free and independent nation. We condemn the illiberal action of the peace conference in denying a hearing on the right of Ireland to self-determination, and regret that America failed to protest against this rebuff to the representatives of the Irish Republic. For we are convinced that the judgment of the peoples of all free nations will decide that the political degradation of Ireland is a menace to that democracy for which the great war was won, and that the American people will extend their invincible and traditional sympathy to the new nation which has founded its institutions upon the model of the mother of republics; that her statesmen will realize the peril and the shame of ingratitude to a people whose sons and daughters have never stood back in the day of danger to this Government, and ask now but a requital of their loyalty that there may not be again a black spot on the map of a free world, but masters of their fate, and sharers in the security and happiness of just government-such government as that for which they have striven so fiercely in other lands and which they now have erected, after ages of bitter suffering, in their own.

"We recommend that the incoming national officers communicate forthwith with the members of the order, through State, county and division officers, urging the most earnest cooperation in the effort to win American recognition for the Irish Republicurging also that, as citizens of the United States, they support only those Senators and Representatives who stand openly for American independence and for the American system of self-government for all the peoples of the world, regardless of the race or creed of the oppressors or the oppressed.'

JOHN O'DEA.