BAIL EIRE ANN AND THE TREATY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18447, 7 January 1922, Page 6

BAIL EIRE ANN AND THE TREATY.

An impasse seems- to have be|n reached in Bail Eireann—an impasse from which it is endeavouring to extricate itself. . It is clear that if Mr Be Valera’s proposal to substitute an agreement prepared by himself for the agreement signed by the delegates to the confer- ' ence in Downing street as the basis of the settlement of the Irish constitutional question is adopted by Bail Eireannvthe whole of the recent negotiations will come to naught. Eiiher the treaty, as it is called, must he accepted or it N must be rejected. There is no other, no middle course. The rejection of the treaty would throw Great Britain and Ireland back to the point at which the conference began?* But it would no longer be a united Sing. Fein party with which the British Government /would have to deal. Excitement and passion have marked the consideration of tho‘ treaty by Bail Eireann. High feeling has been excited between the supporters of the treaty on the one hand and those who are opposed to thp ratification of the treaty on the other hand. Mr Be Valera and his followers cling to the notion that the establishment of an Irish republic is practicable. Mr Gjif- - fith and Mr Collins are satisfied that the agreement to w|iich they hsve attached their games offers.to Ireland all the freedom that can be desired by any, nation. They recognise, that there could have been no settlement if they had held out for anything more than is secured under the treaty. They took what they could because,it was all' they could get. That is what Mr 'De Valera calls a surrender to an ignoble fear. The terms of the treaty which he has submitted to Bail* Eireann are'illuminated by the' proclamation -he ' haa_ issued to the people of Ireland. Ho seems to have a fatal propensity for doing the wrong ( thing at the wrong moment. It was not his fault that the conference in Downing street was not upset before it had ever got to grips with the object dor which it was convened. And now he has appealed over the heads of Bail Eireann to the people whom Bail Eireann represents. The proclamation implies a reflection upon the judgment of Dail Eireann. For this • reason, it will probably be resented "by those of its raembers who do uot servilely support him. It is a proclamation which breathes hostility to Great Britain * and hatred of Mr Lloyd George. It ignores or dismisses the realities which must he encountered in every effort to bring about an Irish peace. It is merely fantastic to suppose that any settlement can be effected which would involve- a renunciation of their British citizenship by Irish' people and a repudiation by Ireland of the; King’s authority in that country. Mr De Valera was evidently stung by the assertion by one of the members of Bail Eireann that the difference between the'treaty and “document number 2" as -his proposed treaty was called easier in the debate, was only a shadow. “Is it a shadow,” he asks, “that would .remove the authority of the British King, the British Cabinet, and the British Parliament unequivocally. from Ireland ?”—and so on. By this sort of appeal is it that he seeks to play on the feelings of the Irish people. They should be discerning enough, however, to perceive that it is, in truth, a shadow which he is pursuing, and that the substance qfa peaceful settlement of a long and ruinous-conflict is afforded in the treaty which ho vehemently opposea.