PRESS COMMENT

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 138, 8 December 1921, Page 5

PRESS COMMENT

PLAN MEETS WITH GENERAL 1 y APPROVAL

EFFECTS WILL BE FAR-REACHING.

(Received December' 8, 9.30 a.m.)

LONDON, 7th December. The Irish settlement has received good press comment throughout the United Kingdom, .

The Daily Mail and Leader in an editorial says: "This plan for an Irish settlement establishes clearly before>the world the British love of liberty, "and the desire to extend it widely. Ireland at peace within the "Empire is the consummation long and devoutly wished. It_ will have far-reaching effects, and will profoundly enhance the moral status of England throughout the world." .'"'The Freeman's Journal declares: "Ireland has given the strongest proofs of her will to peace, and looks to Mr. Lloyd George and his colleagues to do their part in ensuring that the opposition of a fanatical minority shall no longer prevent peace with honour." _ The Daily News states that the British Government may claim the respect due to a broad and generous conception, and to. j lhß patience and adroitness which alone could have surmounted the enormous difficulties in the way of its execution.

The Daily. Herald comments: "'Approval or disapproval of the details is vnow irrelevant. What matters is the great hope for future settlement which the treaty gives. It is admittedly a compromise. Everything will depend on whether it is carried out in the right spirit." The Manchester Guardian considers the agreements a splendid achievement, reflecting the utmost credit on. those concerned, and that the negotiations are such as only a coalition, of great Government parties could have carried through. The Westminster Gazette considers the outstanding virtue of the terms is that tKey are independent of Ulster's consent. She may come in or stay put as she chooses. Her claim to receive the same terms as are offered to the Sinn Fein is not'admitted, which of course is the crucial decision which has enabled the Sinn Fein to accept the British offer.

The Liverpool Post thinks no exoeption can be taken on any ground of Imperial interest, rectitude, x or dignity. "It is a settlement also which the Irish people may accept with the consciousness that though it does not for a moment bring unity to Ireland, which is their ideal, it includes everything to which the most fervent glow of Nationalism could aspire."

The Glasgow Herald comments: "6th December should take a notable place among anniversary dates if it marks, as we believe it will mark, the definite termination of the discords and conflicts that make up the history of the British and Irish negotiations. We can set no limits to the beneficent horizons which will presently engage the ambitions and co-operative activities of the united people." The Daily Chronicle says: "With the signature of the settlement England, and Ireland can see each other with their own eyes face to face, equal partners in liberty." The Daily Telegraph remarks: "Because we have lived through, years in which disasters and triumphs of stunning magnitude followed one another, wearying the imagination, let us not misapprehend the character of this event. It is the greatest that has happened in the internal affairs of Britain for generations, for we have to measure it by the duration of the quarrel which it ends. Come what will now, our portion of the responsibility for that incessant and disastrous complication is liquidated at last. We hail the signature, of the agreement as a supreme event." The Daily Express says: "It is impossible to exaggerate the relief throughout the country at the announcement of the settlement. So perish the malignant troubles which for many centuries poiEoned our domestic politics. The terms are generous, beyond cavil."