"INSOLENT REJECTION "

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 40, 16 August 1921, Page 7

"INSOLENT REJECTION "

MORNING POST'S COMMENT. The Morning Post says: "We thought it possible that the rebels might have accepted the terms, because the conditions formulated by the Government give the Sinn Fein all they want, inasmuch as a treaty framed on these terms would enable tbo South to declare a republic, leaving Great Britain the choice between acceptance of the situation and waging a war of reconquest. Mr', de Valera has other views. His insolent rejection is extremely significant. The position is that the Govewiment proffered a. surrender, and its overtures have been flung back in its face. Short of wholly yielding to the rebel demands, the Government of this country cannot sink lower.' It.courted humiliation and received its full measure." The Daily News comments : "If Ireland desires the opinion of the civilised world on the choice presented by the British Cabinet, she has it in General Smuts's letter. It is a perfectly consistent attitude. for Irishmen to take up tha^- Ireland would be happier, and therefore ought to have sovereign independence; but that attitude ignores every consideration of practical politics and puts the shadow before the 1 substance." '.' . The Daily Chronicle says: "It is difficult not to discern many hands and two tendencies in Mr. de Valera's letter— one a doctrinaire hostile peace, the other practicable and favourable. The hostile tendency now has the upper hand in the councils which drafted the letter. It remains to be seen whether Irish public opinion and 1 the opinion of the Da-il Eireann confirm that supremacy."