IRISH CONVERSATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17890, 19 September 1921, Page 4

IRISH CONVERSATIONS.

The renewal of the Irish conversations is a matter for the liveliest satisfaction, even if they have taken a form which represents a considerable departure >from the position originally taken up by the British Government. The significance of the latest exchange of telegrams may best be appreciated by going back to the beginning of the present correspondence. The British Government commenced by offering Ireland the status of a Dominion, assuming that she would remain within the Empire. In reply, Mr. de Valera claimed the right to secede and the British Government in turn declined to discuss any settlement involving the refusal on the part of Ireland of " partnership in the British Commonwealth under one sovereign." In a further letter on September 7, which made it clear that Britain would not allow Ireland to repudiate allegiance to the Crown, Mr. Lloyd George asked for a definite reply " as to whether you are prepared to enter into a conference to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British 'Empire can best lie reconciled with Irish national aspirations." Taken with the context there could be no mistake as to the meaning of these words. But Mr. de Valera ignored the context. He repeated the sentence already quoted and "accepted a conference on that basis, adding that he and his colleagues could only enter such a conference as representatives of an independent sovereign State. Mr. Lloyd George thereupon cancelled the arrangements for a conference on the ground that to accept a conference on such a statement of* claim would constitute official recognition by the British Government of an Irish republic. The further developments are recorded in the cables this morning. Mr. de Valera rescued the conversations from their threatened collapse by supplying an interpretation of his letter which suggested that it was no more than a definition of the Irish attitude, not intended to prejudice the conference. To this Mr. Lloyd George reiterated his conclusion that to meet the Irish delegates as representatives of an independent sovereign State would be tantamount to official recognition of that State. Mr. de Valera's last telegram, while refusing to admit this interpretation, attempts to. overcome it. He says he does not ask the British Government to abandon any principle, but he himself refuses to abate any. This conception of the proposed conference may help to obviate the technical difficulty raised by Mr. Lloyd George, but it comes ilo nearer reconciling the points of view of the British Government and the Dail Eireann. The conference Mr. de Valera contemplates is to be governed by no conditions and its purpose is no more definitely stated than in the words " to consider how the association of Ireland with the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations." The world knows what Mr. Lloyd George means by this phrase ; it knows also what Mr. de Valera may mean. In advocating secession he has already offered to consider " a treaty of free association with the British Commonwealth group." In view of these circumstances the renewal of the conversations, though it is most welcome, must be regarded with tempered optimism.