THE IRISH OUTLOOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17889, 17 September 1921, Page 6

THE IRISH OUTLOOK.

The prospects of Irish peace have been dashed by Irishmen. If Mr. de Valera thought to gain a tactical advantage by placing on Mr. Lloyd George formal responsibility for cancelling the conference he is likely to find his tactics, bat so much Dead Sea t fruit. We do not believe that the outside opinion Ireland Values most will be deceived by the deplorable lack of candour shown by the Irish leaders ir. misconstruing the terms of Mr. Lloyd George's invitation. The British Prime" Minister laid it down definitely that there; could be no conference if L. aland repudiated allegiance to the Grown and membership of the British Coah raonwealth. To appoint delegates to a conference who acclaim themselves representatives of an independent, sovereign State is, under the circumstances, merely playing with an issuj which means life or death to Ireland. There are few examples in history of such irresponsibility on the part of national leaders facing a crisis. It is in the levity of Mr. de Valera's letter that the British people will find the only remaining ground for hope, and it is tragically slight. The Irish reply may have been intended to trap the British Government into giving diplomatic recognition to an Irish republic by conferring with professedly republican delegates. If so, the plot has failed, and the issue has now been narrowed down to its final elements. The British Government will not rush blindly into war. It may give the Dai] Eireann a final invitation, in language that cannot be misunderstood, to repudiate re- 1 publicanism and independence, or it may proceed forthwith to administer Southern Ireland under the alternative provisions of the Government of Ireland Act,- which practically mean Crown Colony rule. The object of such a form of administration must be to encourage an expression of more responsible and more deliberate Irish opinion. If the Daii Eireann has intended to make republican independence a -ondition of conversations with the British Goverr-ne;.t we refuse to believe that it interprets the mind of the Irish people correctly. It has no mandate to make any such farreaching stipulation. It was elected at a time when the Irish voter's freedom of choice was severely restricted, and when the utmost offer of the British Government was very much less generous than the terms now before Ireland. We have every confidence that a free plebiscite would approve and accept those terms, but we foresee no possibility of holding a free plebiscite until the law is vindicated in Southern Ireland and the" open and secret terrorism of the Sinn Fein'is broken. Unless the Dai] Eireann is prepared at the eleventh hour to withdraw its impossible conditions obstructive statesmanship must be in abeyance for a time while law and order are being re-established and rebellion against the Crown is crushed by military force. The length and severity of that process -vci>]d impend on the number of rebels •>, Ireland. We do not think the?- are as many as Mr. de Valera ptulet *•:.