IRELAND

Evening Star, Issue 18252, 17 April 1923, Page 7

IRELAND

PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. PAPAL DELEGATE MEDIATES. Press Association —By Telegraph-'Copyrlght. LONDON, April 16. The ‘lrish Times’ calls for an immediate conference between the Free State authorities and the Republicans, with a view to the negotiation of peace. It suggests Monsignor Luzio as chairman of tho The Australian Press Association’s special correspondent in Dublin says : The curtain is about to fall on another act in Ireland’s secular drama. Last week saw the virtual annihilation of militant republicanism for a time. The Irregular forces, bereft of Liam Lynch, Tom Derrig, and Austin Stack, are sheep without a shepherd. Peace is in sight at last. The deus ex machina will be Monsignor Luzio, the Papal delegate who has been following Mr Bonar Law’s example, waiting the psychological moment to intervene in' the interests of peace. The moment arrived to-day. A special meeting of the Dublin Corporation held on Monday, at which Monsignor Luzio will be asked to institute negotiations for peace. Messrs Cosgrave, O’Higgins, Blythe, and Hogan are still determined to push their advantage home, and they insist on unconditional surrender. Powerful influences, however, are at work to save the faces of De Valera and his associates, while it is quite certain that the people ns _a whole have no desire to see the fallen idol humiliated. Therefore when Monsignor Luzio intervenes he will have the whole-hearted support of the people, and he will move more readily when he sees that success will not only bring peace to Ireland, but will restore the diminishing prestige of the Roman Catholic Church, which has never been at a lower ebb.

The final terms are likely to follow closely on the lines of those to which Archbishop Harly lent his name, and which Austin Stack proposed to support at the ill-starred meeting in the Knockmealdown Mountains. It must bo remembered that the Government has 15,000 prisoners, and their future behaviour depends largely on the terms of the settlement. —A. and N.Z. Cable.