ability on account of religious belief or religious status, or affect
prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public
money without attending the religious instruction at the school, or
make any discrimination as respects State aid between schools under
the management of different religious denominations, or divert
from any religious denomination or any educational institution any
of its property except for public utility purposes and on payment of
compensation.
Article XVII. -By way of provisional arrangement for the ad- ministration of Southern Ireland during the interval which must elapse between the date hereof and the constitution of a Parliament and Government of the Irish Free State in accordance therewith, steps shall be taken forthwith for summoning a meeting of Mem- bers of Parliament elected for constituencies in Southern Ireland since the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, 1929, and for constituting a provisional Government. And the British Govern- ment shall take the steps necessary to transfer to such provisional Government the powers and machinery requisite for the discharge of its duties, provided that every member of such provisional Gov- ernment shall have signified in writing his or her acceptance of this instrument. But this arrangement shall not continue in force beyond the expiration of twelve months from the date hereof.
Article XVIII. This instrument shall be submitted forthwith by His Majesty's Government for the approval of Parliament and by the Irish signatories to a meeting summoned for the purpose of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and, if approved, shall be ratified by the necessary legislation.
Signed on behalf of the British delegation :
LLOYD GEORGE. L. WORTHINGTON-EVANS.
AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN. HAMAR GREENWOOD.
BIRKENHEAD. GORDON HEWART.
WINSTON S. CHURCHILL.
On behalf of the Irish delegation:
ART O GRIOBHTHA (ARTHUR GRIFFITH).
MICHEAL O COILEAIN rMICHAEL COLLINS).
RIOBARD BARTUN (ROBERT C. BARTON).
E. S. DUGAN (EAMON J. DUGGAN).
SEORSA GHABGAIN UI DHUBHTHAIGH (GEORGE GAVAN DUFFY).
Dated the 6th of December, 1921. ANNEX
An annex was attached to the treaty. Clause I specifies that Ad- miralty property and rights at the dockyard port of Berehaven are to be retained as at present date and the harbour defences and facilities for coastal defence by air at Queenstown, Belfast Lough and Lough Swilly to remain under British care, provision also being made for oil, fuel and storage.
Clause 2 provides that a convention shall be made between the two Governments, to give effect to the following conditions : That submarine cables shall not be landed or wireless stations for com- munication with places outside of Ireland established, except by agreement with the British Government, that existing cable rights and wireless concessions shall not be withdrawn except by agree- ment with the British Government, and that the British Govern- ment shall be entitled to land additional submarine cables or estab- lish additional wireless stations for communication with places outside of Ireland, that lighthouses, buoys, beacons, &c., shall be maintained by the Irish Government and not be removed or added to except by agreement with the British Government, that war signal stations shall be closed down and left in charge of care and main- tenance parties, the Government of the Irish Free State being offered the option of taking them over and working them for commercial purposes, subject to Admiralty inspection, and guaranteeing the upkeep of existing telegraphic communication therewith.
Clause 3 provides that a convention shall be made between the two Governments for the regulation of civil communication by air.
On the announcement being made that the agreement had been signed, the greatest relief was felt on practically all sides. Ulster, it was noted, might " contract out "; and the ^ e , misgivings of the Ulster leaders about the terms on Opposition, which the Irish Free State was to be set up were on that account regarded as of minor moment. From all parts of the world, congratulations began to pour in on Mr. Lloyd George. Summonses were at once sent out for Parlia- ment to meet, in order to ratify the treaty; and the Govern- ment took immediate action for recognizing its validity by re- leasing all Sinn Fein prisoners. It was not known till Dec. 8 that there was opposition in the Sinn Fein camp itself. On that day, however, Mr. De Valera issued a " message to the Irish people," disavowing and disapproving of the agreement. It ran as fol- lows:
" You have seen in the public press the text of the proposed treaty with Great Britain. The terms of this agreement are in violent con- flict with the wishes of the majority of the nation, as expressed freely in successive elections in the past three years. I feel it my duty to inform you immediately that I cannot recommend accepN
Msh Free
State
Adopted
and
Started.
ance of this treaty either to the Dail Eireann or to the country. In this attitude I am supported by the Ministers of Home Affairs (Austin Stack) and of Defence (Charles Burgess). A public session of the Dail Eireann is being summoned for Wednesday (Dec. 14). I ask the people to maintain in the interval the same discipline as heretofore. The members of the Cabinet, though of divided opinions, are prepared to carry on public service as usual. The army, as such, is, of course, not affected by the political situation and continues under the same orders and control.
" The great test of our people has come. Let us face it worthily without bitterness, and above all, without recrimination. There is a definite constitutional way of resolving our political differences. Let us not depart from it, and let the conduct of the Cabinet in this matter be an example to the whole nation."
In spite of this repudiation from Mr. De Valera, the situation was dominated by the fact that the agreement had been signed by all the Sinn Fein delegates to the conference. As the leading Irish plenipotentiary, Mr. Griffith thus became its chief champion.
So far as the British Government was concerned, no time was lost. On Dec. 16 Parliamentary sanction was obtained, after comparatively short debates in both Houses, in which adverse criticism played a very small part, except for a hot denunciation by Lord Carson, in the Lords, of the betrayal of the Unionist cause in Ireland. The fact that Mr. De Valera was hostile to the agreement, and that Dail Eireann had met on Dec. 14 and was starting what seemed likely to be an interminable debate, with rather doubtful prospects, created, however, a somewhat deli- cate situation for the Government. It was not till Jan. 7 that the discussion in Dail Eireann was at last concluded, Mr. Griffith's motion for the approval of the agreement being car- ried by a narrow majority of 64 to 57. During the debates a profound gulf was disclosed between Mr. Griffith and his supporters on the one side, chief among whom was Mr. Michael Collins, and Mr. De Valera and the irrecon- cilable Republicans on the other. Many things were said, in- deed, which might seem to bode ill for the future, should the result only be to create opposing factions in the new Irish Free State. Mr. De Valera passionately urged his view that the delegates had had no right to abandon " the republic." Great play was made with the contention that the agreement had been signed "under duress" the suggestion being that the British Government had finally threatened a renewal of "war" should it not be signed. The fact was entirely ignored that "duress" had been exerted much more from the Sinn Fein side, since it was only the intolerable situation of the past two years that had made English opinion ready to accept "dominion status" for Ireland at all. No "threat" had, in fact, been made except in so far as Mr. Lloyd George had frankly intimated that a break-down in the negotiations, resulting from a refusal of Sinn Fein to accept anything but an independent republic for Ireland, would leave Great Britain no option but to fight. Mr. Griffith, Mr. Collins and their supporters, while anxious to show them- selves no less determined than Mr. De Valera to stand for the independence of the Irish Free State, hotly resented the charge that the Sinn Fein delegates were not acting within their man- date. In all parts of Nationalist Ireland, moreover, resolutions were passed in favour of ratification and peace.
The final division developed into a theatrical resignation of De Valera as "President," and the reconstitution of the Dail Eireann "Cabinet." On Jan. 10 a further meeting of Dail Eireann was held, at which only Mr. Griffith's 64 supporters attended, and he was unanimously elected "President" in Mr. De Valera's place, an adjournment then being taken till Feb. 14. On Mr. Griffith's summons, the Irish Southern Parliament (under the Home Rule Act of 1920) was convened on Jan. 14, and formally ratified the agreement. A Provisional Government, for the purpose of bringing the new Irish Free State into being, was constituted at the same time, consisting of Mr. Michael Collins, Mr. William Cosgrove, Mr. Eamon J. Duggan, Mr. P. J. Hogan, Mr. Finian Lynch, Mr. Joseph McGrath, Prof. John McNeil!, and Mr. Bryan O'Higgins, Mr. Griffith himself not being included, since he wished to continue for the present to act as the head of the Dail Eireann. With the formation of the Provisional Government, as provided by the agreement, a
