The Klax la Belfast.
bat there was a " small war in Ireland "; and that " our military riethods had failed to keep pace with and to overcome the lilitary methods of our opponents." The establishment of he Northern Parh'ament had emphasized the fact that there vas not one Ireland, but two Irelands. The only hope lay in the representatives of these two Irelands coming together and working out a basis of agreement, and from this point of view the meeting of Sir James Craig and Mr. De Valera was of hopeful augury. If it were still necessary to deal with the situation by force, the force would be forthcoming, whatever sacrifices this might involve for the people of Great Britain. As for the ' suggestion that the Government should negotiate, " those with whom we should negotiate are most illusive . . . there will be no peace until an adjustment is made if, indeed, that be possible with those actually carrying on, or inspiring, the policy of violence."
This speech showed an accurate appreciation of the situation in Ireland; it was less accurate as an interpretation of the mind cf the Government, or at least of the Prime Minister. On the next day (June 22) a new phase of the ques- tion was opened by the visit of the King and Queen to Belfast to open the first session of the new Parlia- ment. The news that the King intended to open the Parliament in person had been received with misgiving in the South of Ireland, not because of any possible danger involved, but be- cause it was feared that this action might compromise the posi- tion of the Crown as an impartial influence, and that Republican sentiment, which in Ireland is not very deep or strictly logical, might be still further alienated by this royal patronage of Bel- fast to the neglect of Dublin. These fears were, however, speedily belied. Their Majesties were, indeed, received in Belfast with splendid demonstrations of popular loyalty, but in his speech from the throne the King made it clear that his visit was not intended for Belfast or the six counties alone. " This is a great and critical occasion for the six counties," he said, " but not for the six counties alone, for everything which interests them touches Ireland, and everything which touches Ireland finds an echo in the remotest corners of the Empire. ... I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment, and good-will."
Two days later (June 24), a troop train carrying the loth Hussars, who had formed part of the King's escort in Belfast, was blown up by a land-mine at Adavoyle, some 10 m. south of Dundalk; three soldiers and a guard were killed, an d a I ar 8 e number of horses were muti- lated and killed. On the same day Mr. Lloyd George addressed a letter to Mr. De Valera, as " the chosen leader of the great majority of Southern Ireland," inviting him to attend a conference in London, " to explore to the ut- most the possibility of a settlement," and to bring with him for the purpose any colleagues whom he might select. A similar invitation was addressed to Sir James Craig, the Ulster Prime Minister, who at once accepted. Four days later (June 28) the Parliament of Southern Ireland was opened in the Council Chamber of the Department of Agriculture; but the only mem- bers of the Lower House present were the four representatives of Dublin University, together with 15 out of 64 senators, and the Parliament was at once adjourned. On the same day a special issue of the Irish Bulletin, the official publication of the Sinn Fein " Government," published the "President's" reply to Mr. Lloyd George. Mr. De Valera said that he was in con- sultation with such of the principal representatives of the Irish nation as were available, that he and they desired most earnestly to bring about a lasting peace between the English and Irish peoples, but that he could see no avenue by which a lasting peace could be reached if the British Premier " denied Ireland's essential unity and set aside the principle of national self- determination." He added that he was seeking a conference with certain representatives of the political minority in Ireland. The five gentlemen invited to this conference were, as announced
Negotia-
ment.
in the same number of the Bulletin, Sir James Craig; the Earl of Midleton; Sir Maurice E. Dockrell, Unionist member for S. Dublin in the Imperial Parliament; Sir Robert H. Woods, an eminent surgeon who had been elected as a Unionist for Dublin University mainly as a representative at Westminster of the medical faculty; and Mr. Andrew Jameson, head of the famous firm of whisky distillers and chairman of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Sir James Craig refused the invitation on the ground that he had already accepted the Prime Minister's invitation to London. This refusal and Mr. De Valera's com- ment on it illustrated the fundamental cleavage between Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists. " Mr. Lloyd George's proposal," wrote the " President," " because of its implications is impos- sible of acceptance in its present form." Irish political differences, he urged, ought to be settled on Irish soil, and in negotiat- ing with Great Britain the Irish delegation ought to act as a unit on some common principle. It seemed, indeed, from the first as though it would prove impossible to find a basis even for discussion, let alone a settlement. Throughout the preliminary negotiations the Sinn Fein President and officials carefully avoided using a single phrase susceptible of being interpreted as a modification of their claim to be the legitimate Govern- ment of Ireland negotiating with a foreign Power. The repre- sentatives of the six counties, on the other hand, " stood with both feet on the Better Government of Ireland Act," and, as Sir James Craig put it, made no offers because they " had nothing to give away."
On June 30, as an earnest of the genuineness of the Govern- ment's desire for an accommodation, four members of Dail Eireann, Messrs. Arthur Griffith, John McNeill, Staines and Eamon Duggan, were released from Mountjoy gaol, where they had been interned for eight months, in order that they might take part in the discussion. Meanwhile, the four " representa- tives of the minority " they were, of course, representatives in no strict sense had accepted the invitation of Mr. De Valera, and the first conference between them and the Sinn Fein leaders took place at the Dublin Mansion House on July 4. The fact that the conference did not at once collapse, but was adjourned, was announced in the Irish Bulletin of the 5th as affording gratifying proof " that Irishmen of hitherto widely divergent opinions can continue to deliberate upon the best means of snowing a united front to England at this crisis." To em- phasize the moral of this phenomenon, Mr. De Valera directed that the day of the first meeting of the conference should be celebrated by a display of American flags, in significant com- memoration of the Declaration of American Independence.
On the 5th Gen. Smuts visited Dublin and had a meeting with the Republican leaders. On the 8th the conference reas- sembled at the Mansion House, and at its close Mr. De Valera addressed a letter to the Prime Minister accepting his invitation to a conference in London. At the first Mansion House meeting it had been agreed that it would be impossible to conduct negotiations with any hope of achieving a satisfactory result unless there was a cessation of bloodshed in Ireland, and Mr. Lloyd George had subsequently addressed a letter to Lord Midleton concurring in this view. Gen. Sir Nevil Macready, the British commander-in-chief in Ire- land, accordingly attended the second Mansion House confer- ence, with a view to discussing a cessation of hostilities, and as a result of this, on Saturday the xoth, a formal truce was signed on the one part by Gen. Macready and on the other part by Risteard Ua Maolchatha (Richard Mulcahy), chief of the staff of the Irish Republican army. This truce was to take effect as from noon on the following Monday (July n), so as to allow time for the news of it to be communicated to all parts of the country. In Dublin, where the news was welcomed with uni- versal rejoicing, the suspension of hostilities came into effect at once, the curfew being suspended, and the unarmed soldiers and " black-and-tans " mixing freely with the people. Mr. De Valera had issued a proclamation as President on the gth calling on all " soldiers and citizens " to observe the strictest self-control and discipline during the truce. It was, however, a question of
The "Trace."
