Evening Post. FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1922. A TREMENDOUS TASK

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 76, 31 March 1922, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1922. A TREMENDOUS TASK

" From bad to worse " seems to describe fairly'well the state of the world, and of Ireland in particular, during the last few weeks. It was ou the 6fch December that the Irish question, which had defied the statesmanship of centuries, was settled by a Committee of the British Cabinet in a conference with the representatives of Southern Ireland, and the result was hailed as a triumph of wisdom and ingenuity, not merely by its proud authors but by the press and public opinion of Great Britain, regardless of party. Never surely was that warning against the credulity of pride and vainglory—" Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you"—more signally verified. The question which had been so miraculously settled stayed settled for about a fortnight. ' Not perhaps without some of the pride of authorship, The Times hailed the settlement as a proof that the capacity for " constructive statesmanship " had not perished in Britain, and when the settlement had been confirmed by overwhelming majorities in both Houses its transports knew no founds. Whether or not constructive statesmanship is a lost art, the peroration of The Times on that occasion showed conclusively that under suitable inducement journalism can still recapture the grand manner of an earlier day. Yesterday, sajd The Times, a great monument o£ eighteenth-century statecraft lay finally in the dust at Westminster. Time has other changes in atore both for Great Britain and for Ireland. It is the weakness of mere politicians to delay action until it has become inevitable. It is the strength of statesmen, having recognised their destiny, to go out and meet it boldly;. It is fortunately too early to say that the monument pf twentiethcentury statecraft which The Times acclaimed with this noble eloquence has been laid finally in the dust at College Green or Beggar's Bush. But it will be , well within the mark to say that the I success of that epoch-making ef-1 foit is mote obvious on its destructive than on its constructive side, and nobody, neither in Britain nor in Ireland, wpuld venture to-day to eulogise it as a feat of constructive statesmanship with the grand-' iloquent fervour that seemed appropriate to The Times a little more than three months ago. Doubts are already suggested whether Mr. Lloyd George and his colleagues really avoided " the weakness of mere politicians" who " delay action until it has become j inevitable " ; whether their action j had not really been delayed until that deadliest of moments. when they could neither grant with grace nor withhold with safety. Did they really display " the strength of statesmen" who, "having recognised their destiny, go out and meet it boldly," or merely the eagerness of those creatures which, having also recognised their destiny, ran violently down a steep place into the seal Wise after the event, the world is inevitably asking these questions .new, Let us iiope thai when three I mere month* have passed the

judgment of the world will be more like what it was three months ago than it is to-day.'

It is the summoning of another Irish Conference that brings these doubts to a head by way of contrast to the hopes inspired by the agreement at which the previous Irish Conference arrived in December. To the observer at a distance the outlook is even blacker now than it was when the previous Conference met. Six months ago all the remedies for Irish discontent had been tried except the one which Irish patriotism had consistently demanded. If a measure of self-government could be granted which would reconcile the honour and safety of the Empire with Irish ideals of freedom,' there was still hope. A reconciliation which, to say the least, strained British generosity to its utmost limit, was effected by ,the Conference, and probably a majority even of those who had been sceptical or hostile were hopeful of the outcome. Yet from the moment when the agreement came before the Dail Eireanh for ratification the result in Ireland has been an almost unbroken' series of disappointments. The narrow majority by which ratification was carried was in itself a disappointment, but there was evidence that Irish public opinion was strongly in its favour. Mr. Griffith and Mr. Collins, who, as those who met them at the Conference expected,' appear to have " played the game " throughout, have nevertheless been afraid to take the verdict of the electors, and with the Irish Free State Bill still in .suspense they are carrying on the Provisional Government \ under unexampled difficulties.

The hopes of a magic transformation through the grant of Home Rule were, of course, absurd, and it would not be unreasonable if Ireland required some years' to settle down. But for the present things are going so badly, and threaten to become so -much worse, that even men who saw nothing good in the settlement except the release of Britain from an intolerable responsibility are naturally doubting whether even that advantage has been secured. Though the energies which the Sinn Feiners previously concentrated upon their opposition to British rule are now largely absorbed in fratricidal strife, Britain is not getting the respite for which she hoped. Instead of bringing Ulster any relief, these quarrels among those whom she regards as her natural enemies have aggravated her difficulties. A state of guerrilla warfare prevails along her southern frontier, and the conditions in her capital are such that they were compared by her own Premier to those of Johannesburg while it was in a state of siege. It is^ lamentable position in all parts of Ireland, with which, the Conference has to deal, but there is one essential point on which it has an advantage over its predecessor. It j was a grave and perhaps a fatal blunder, and one for which the Sinn Feiners are entirely free from responsibility, that Ulster was not represented on the previous Conference. All the three Governments concerned are now conferring at Westminster, and it remains to be seen whether they will be equal to I their tremendous task, or whether the, Republican Army will carry out its threat to overthrow them all.