The Star. FRIDAY, JUDY 8, 1921. EYES ON IRELAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16473, 8 July 1921, Page 6

The Star. FRIDAY, JUDY 8, 1921. EYES ON IRELAND.

The progress of the latest peace effort in regard to Ireland will be followed with the deepest interest and sympathy throughout the Empire. Its initiation may be traced to the Royal visit to Belfast, when the King performed the ceremony of opening the Ulster Parliament. His Majesty’s speech on that occasion was on a lofty plane, and it created a profound impression. It was felt that neither side to the dispute could ignore such an appeal without shouldering the entire responsibility for the continuance of a most unhappy state of affairs. The first step was taken by Mr Lloyd George, who ■wrote to Mr I>e Valera, stating that the British Government was anxious that the King’s appeal for conciliation should not be in vain. It therefore invited Mr Do Valera and any of his colleagues, to whom a safe-conduct would be granted, to visit London and explore to the utmost, with the Premier of Northern Ireland, Sir James Craig, the possibility of a settlement. Mr Lloyd George added that the Government extended the invitation with a fervent desire to end the ruinous conflict which for centuries had embittered the relations of the peoples of England and Ireland, who ought to live in neighbourly harmony, and whose co-operation would mean so much, not only to the Empire, but to humanity. It could hardly have been expected that the invitation to the opposing leaders would be accepted without hesitation. Tlie differences between them are fundamental, and they can only be settled when it is fully and finally recognised that the cause of humanity, not less than the interests of the Empire, demands a settlement. It is believed in tho Old Country that the invitation to confer has changed the whole face of the political situation, and it has certainly caused a reaction from gloomy despair to profound relief and lively hope. There is apparently a definite resolve to attempt to reach a workable understanding which will bring a deplorable situation to an end and usher in an era of peace and justice. The measures of the Government have been supplemented by a delegation headed by Lord Midleton, which has been conferring with the Irish. Republican leaders. According to Lord Midleton the door is open as the result of the conference with Mr 3>e Valera, and the whole Empire will share in the hope that it will not be closed again. A definite statement of the attitude of the Irish Republican leaders will be awaited with the most anxious interest. The question of a truce pending a parley may present difficulties, but it is stated that there has been a gradual easing Tip by the Crown of all measures of repression. It remains to be seen whether the Sinn Fein lenders will undertake to restrain the Republican activists, and so bring to an end the competition in murder and reprisal which has furnished so many ghastly pages of current Irish history. British sentiment the world over will endorse Mr De Valera’s expressed desire that a basis of right and reason should be substituted for barbaric violence in the arbitration on the questions at issue. It is incontestable that both in the Old Country and in the Dominions there is an overwhelming desire that the Irish problem should ge .settled on such a basis. Though Great Britain has to make the ultimate decision, the question has ceased to be one of purely domestic politics. To some extent at least it is international, and it iB also receiving increasing nttention in the overseas portions of the British Empire. If the problem is not solved on prinrio’es which are founded on right and justice the Irish question will become a veritable canker at the heart of the Empire.