curious interest as to how far this direction would be obeyed. If it were not obeyed, it would show that the Sinn Fein Gov- ernment had no power to come to decisions in the name of the nation; if it were obeyed, it would prove that this Government was responsible for the whole policy of outrage, terrorism and murder by which the extremists had sought to gain their ends.
The signs during the days spent in negotiation were not hopeful; indeed the week-end before the coming into force of the truce was one of the bloodiest on record in Ireland. On July 8 the murder of a constable by Sinn Feiners in Belfast led to serious rioting, in the course of which 14 people were killed and over a hundred wounded, and this rioting continued intermittently for over a week, with further casualties. .On the pth Mr. George B. O'Connor, who had been a Unionist candidate in Dublin, was murdered in Cork, where, on the evening of the same day, four unarmed soldiers were kidnapped and done to death. 1 On the same date three soldiers were killed in an ambush in Castleisland; one was murdered in Doneraile; an R.I.C. sergeant was murdered in Castlerea; and near Clonmel a girl of fifteen was killed by Sinn Feiners in an effort to murder her brother, an ex-soldier. On the loth a farmer was murdered at Kilbride, Portarlington. On July 7 the Irish Bulletin denied the statements made in certain British journals that there had been an " easing-up " on the part of the Crown of its measures of repression since Mr. Lloyd George's letter, and described the " terror " as still " in full blast," and in its issue of the 8th it gave a lurid account of the " war on women and children." Except in Belfast, however, not only the operations of the Crown forces, but Sinn Fein outrages, seem to have ceased from the coming into force of the truce, officers of the British army and the R.I.C. in some cases con- certing with officers of the I.R.A. measures for the preservation of order. 2
Sinn Fein, with its accustomed ability, meanwhile exploited the situation in order to secure foreign support for its claim to independence. On the gth Mr. De Valera ad- dressed a series of messages to the United States, to France, to Norway and to Denmark, of which the World. general moral was that, in the event of the coming conferences leading to the satisfaction of Ireland's just demands, " British prestige will be restored, and Young Ireland will live in history as having saved, by its courage and by its steadfastness, the ideals for which millions were led to offer up their lives in the Great War." To impress upon the outside world the nature of this courage and steadfastness the Irish Bulletin issued on July 13 a number of " thrilling stories of the Guerrilla War," as a counterblast to " the British Govern- ment's ignoble propaganda against the Republican army, the daily descriptions of these unpaid Irish Volunteers as ' murder gangs ' and ' hired assassins.' " On the I2th Mr. De Valera travelled to London, accompanied by Mr. Arthur Griffith, Mr. Austin Stack, Mr. R. O. Barton and Mr. Erskine Childers, and on the I4th had his first interview with Mr. Lloyd George. Next day the Prime Minister held a separate conversation with Sir James Craig and other members of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Sir James Craig returned to ^Ulster* f Ireland almost at once, and there issued a declara- tion which showed that he had not budged an inch from the position he had always taken up. To De Valera's talk about self-determination for the whole of Ireland he op- posed the accomplished fact of self-determination for Northern Ireland, whose Parliament the King had so recently opened, and pointed out that De Valera himself had acquiesced in this fact by standing as a candidate for the Belfast Parliament. From this position the North had no intention of receding, though it would meet the South at any time on equal terms, and work with her in a spirit of good-will and cooperation.
1 They were being " treated " by a friendly publican in celebration of the truce.
2 The Irish Bulletin of July 21 rightly pointed out that this dis- posed of the legend of a moderate " and an " extreme " section of Sinn Fein.
The
Govern- ment's Otter.
De Valera, on the other hand, continued the conversations, and on July 20 Mr. Lloyd George handed to him the proposals. of the Government, which were still, however, kept secret from the public till Aug. 1 5. After a preamble en- larging on the desire of the British people that nothing should " hinder Irish statesmen from joining together to build up an Irish State in free and willing coopera- tion with the other peoples of the Empire," the document went on to offer 'to Ireland forthwith " the status of a Dominion," with " complete autonomy in taxation and finance," the right to " maintain her own Courts of Law and Judges, . . . her own military forces for home defence, her own constabulary and her own police," that she should " take over the Irish postal services and all matters relating thereto, education, land, agriculture, mining and minerals, forestry, housing, labour, unemployment, transport, trade, public health, health insurance and the liquor traffic," and " in sum, that she shall exercise all those powers and privileges upon which the autonomy of the self-governing Dominions is based," subject, however, to six conditions, " vital to the welfare and safety of both Great Britain and Ireland, forming as they do the heart of the Com- monwealth." The control of the seas round Ireland was to be reserved for the British navy; the Irish territorial force was to be kept " within reasonable limits," to conform in numbers with the military establishment in Great Britain; the Royal Air Force was to have facilities in Ireland for air defence and communications; voluntary recruiting for the Empire forces was to be permitted in Ireland; no protective duties were to be imposed between all parts of the British islands; and Ireland was to assume responsibility for a share of the debt of the United Kingdom and of the liability for war pensions, this share, fail- ing agreement, to be determined by an independent arbitrator appointed from within His Majesty's Dominions. The con- ditions of settlement on these lines were to be embodied in a treaty ratified by the British and Irish Parliaments, but the settlement must " allow for full recognition of the existing powers and privileges of the Parliament and Government of Northern Ireland, which cannot be abrogated except by their own con- sent." The British Government would leave Irishmen to de- termine by negotiations among themselves whether the new powers should be taken over by Ireland as a whole and ad- ministered by a single Irish body, or taken over separately by Southern and Northern Ireland, with or without a joint authority to harmonize their common interests. The Government would willingly assist in the negotiations of such a settlement. But they would not consent to any proposals which would kindle civil war in Ireland.
On July 22 Mr. De Valera returned to Dublin to consult his colleagues as to the answer to be given to this offer. A meeting of Dail Eireann, by permission of the Government, was convoked for Aug. 16. It was noted, however, that De Valera had taken the position throughout that he was negotiating with Great Britain as the elected head of the Irish republic and on equal terms. To the National University, which had elected him chancellor during his absence, he sent a letter acknowledging this honour done to " the Head of the State." There were ominous signs, too, that Sinn Fein was in no mood for compro- mise. In the execution of the Government's order for the release of the interned and convicted members of Parliament in order that they might attend the Dail, what the Irish Bulletin described as " a disastrous exception " was made in the case of John McKeon (Sean McKeown), a commandant of the Irish Republican army who had been convicted of the murder of a district inspector of the R.I.C. while resisting arrest. This exception was resented by Sinn Fein, and the Government gave way rather than incur a break-down at this part in the negotiations. Mr. De Valera, however, did not wait for the meeting of Dail Eireann before intimating on his own account to Mr. Lloyd George (" on the occasion of our last interview ") that his offer was unaccept- able; and on Aug. 10 (" having consulted my colleagues ") he addressed to the Prime Minister a letter confirming this
