INITIAL DIFFICULTIES.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15127, 18 February 1922, Page 5

INITIAL DIFFICULTIES.

.MESSAGE FROM MR. .COLLINS. (A. and N.Z. Cable). 'LONDON, February 17. Mr. Collins, last night telegraphed to Mr. Winston Churchill: “The .best way .the British Gp.veminent can help us at the ..present time is not by suspending the carrying .out 6f the treaty regarding evacuation, but so adhering to its spirit and letter that Ireland w|.U be convinced that Britain is really .delivering the goods .this time. Many peo--ple in Ireland believe that England will again trick us. This belief is being used .to our disadvantage. We, who put our hands to the Treaty, .do not intend to turn back, but we must insist that the other side shall also show absolute jin this regard. It is high time the -English •{people (should view Mhe so-called "Ulster question in its true perspective. I protest strongly against the campaign of slander that is proceeding in connection with the trouble- between East and West 4 Ulster. It was inevitable that the detention of the I. R. A. officers going to a football match and the -failure to notify in time the reprieve of the Berry prisoners, should 'be met locally by the seizure of prominent Unionists. Tt is equally unavoidable that the Nationalist minority in Belfast should defend themselves. I, and my associates, are working in the teeth of many difficulties, ready to settle all matters in a spirit of peace and goodwill. We have already proved our sincerity by ’ the withdrawal df the boycott, but there will be no real peace until, the Ulsterites display the same spirit.'”