The Press Tuesday, September 23, 1924. The Irish Crisis.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18185, 23 September 1924, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, September 23, 1924. The Irish Crisis.

In a long article in the "Observer" : of August 10th, dealing with the beginning of the Irish crisis whieh will come, to a head at the end of this month, Mr J. L. Garvin had a very striking sentence: "Wc are aware that "it is bootless and useless to write "these or any truths about Irish facts "and consequences." . Since, however, such a tragedy as is unhappily very j near in Ireland cannot take place with- ! out affecting every part of the Empire, it is desirable that the public should understand the broad facts of the situation. The Act of 1920 defined quite clearly the territory over whieh the Government of Northern Ireland was to have jurisdiction. The Treaty with tho Irian Free State wae given legislative form in the Irish Free State Agreement Act of 1982, and in this Act provision was made, in Article XIL, for the appointment of a Commission of three persons—-ono : to be' appointed by the Free State Government, one by the Northern Government, and one (to sit as chairman) by the British Government—to determine "in "accordance with the wishes of the "inhabitants, so far as may bo coni"patible with economic and geographic "conditions, the boundaries between "Northern Ireland and the rest of "Ireland." Ulster was not consulted in the arrangement of the Treaty, and tho Northern Government, fearful that the Commission would "dismember" Ulster, has refused to appoint a representative. Tho Government referred to the Privy CeflSCii the question whether there is any means of setting up a Commission to implement the Treaty should the Northern Government refuse its co-operation, and the Privy Council had no difficulty in deciding that Article XII. could not in the circumstances be made operative. The British Government last month introduced ft Bill to remedy this defect, but decided that the Bill shall not be proceeded with until Parliament reassembles on September 80th. In this Bill it is proposed that if the Ulster Government continues to refuse to ap* point a Cpmmißsipner, the Imperial Government shall appoint one who "shall be deemed to be a Com* "mieaioner appointed by the Gov* "ernroent of Northern Ireland," The Ulster Government haa declared in the plainest terms that it will not accept the Endings of any Commission so appointed, and the Free State Gov-ernment-has been no less firm in main' taining that whatever decision the Commission cornea to must be earriod out. As is ujuai W all Irish questions, np party in this quarrel ia entirely blameless. Most people outside Ireland are sick and tired of the extremists North and South, and are disposed to wish that they could fight it out j without Britain's being concerned iii the matter. Unfortunately Britain is deeply involved, She is bound in Honpur' to carry out the Treaty with the Frcq State and to secure the rectification of the frontier between the two Irelands. Yet she is not lees bpnnd in honour to maintain tho Act of 1920, which constituted Northern Ireland. How Britain can find a means of reconciling these two conflicting obligations nobody has been able to see, and in the meantime British good faith, which to any neutral, and to any British subject outside Ireland, is abovo question, is being assailed in Ulster and in the Free State. Ulster believes that the new Bill is an implement for the betrayal of Ulster's rights as conceded in the Act of 1920, whilo in Southern Ireland mischief-makers of high and low degree are declaring that Britain is once again seeking to deny justice to the Free State. Ulster may be regarded as taking up an unreasonably stiff attitude in refusing to consider any such alteration of the boundary as Article XII. makes possible, but the Free State is much more unreasonable in insisting upon a rectification which will transfer a very largo area of Ulster to the jurisdiction of Dublin, To the outsider, Ulster's position seems much, more deserving of consideration than tho Free State's. There i 3 no urgent need for rectification, and there is a very good reason why the Free State should be content to Jet the boundary question stand over indefinitely. Indeed, such logic as there is in the Nationalist idea commands that the Free State i should wait. For the best Nationalists have always admitted in their best moments what is indeed obvious enough, namely, that a single and united Ireland ean eome only through the growth of mutual goodwill and mutual trust. And the insistence by the Free State upon altering tho boundary in the face of the passionato j hostility of Ulster is as fatal to the policy of union through goodwill as anything can be, The difficulty is that the Free State Government has allowed tho masses to believe that the Treaty (through Article XII.) contained provision for the transference of wholecounties from Ulster to Southern Ireland, and it is unable to adopt a policy

of moderation and concession. It has struggled honestly enough against tho forces of separatism and Republicanism, but it has apparently lost its power to control these forees, and Mr Cosgrava is unable to agree to the oftrepeated offer of Sir James Craig that they two should thrash out tho boundary question without any interference from outside, other than the assistance of experts they might bring along themselves. Behind the crisis, in fact, is the pressure of the resurgent Republicanism of Southern Ireland, and that is an element to -which the vast majority of the people in every State of the Empire is unalterably hostile.