BAIL EIREANN’S REPLY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16513, 25 August 1921, Page 5

BAIL EIREANN’S REPLY.

WILL NOT INSIST ON REPUBLIC.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. LONDON, August 24. I>afl Eireann, after considering the reply to Britain, adjourned. A further private sitting will be held on Thursday. The “ Daily Chronicle's ” Dublin correspondent, forecasting the reply, says : Dail Eireann will reaffirm its adherence to the republican principle, hut will not insist upon it, iu view of the enormous cost in lives and money entailed. Dail Eireann will suggest that Mr Lloyd George, bv issuing General Smuts’s letter, has tacitly adopted General Smuts’s interpretation of the British oiler, and will point out that in the opinion of Dail Eireann the offer does not confer dominion status. It will enumerate objections thereto, and will invite M. Lloyd George to reply, in order that no ambiguities may remain to cloud the issue. Dail Eireann will probably suggest that if the Lister difficulty cannot be composed, Lister should he excluded from any benefits or privileges granted to the sotith apart from those she already holds. Sinn Feiners believe that if this is done Lister will soon be tempted to join the south. LEADER OF THE EXTREMISTS. NOT AN IRISHMAN: I/ONDON, August 24. The “Daily Express” reveals that tne leader of the Sinn Fein extremists who are standing out for full and final separation is Erskinc Childers. He is not an Irishman, but his fanatical temperament has found full scope in republicanism. He is seconded by his wife, a native of Boston, United States, who, though a confirmed invalid, spends days in her sick bod in a relentless search for material for Sinn Fein propaganda. The success of her husband’s editorship of the Sinn Fein Bulletin ■’ is largely due to her zeal. Mr Childers got his chance when Mr de Valera returned from America to find Mr Arthur Griffith in prison and the other lenders on the run. Mr Childers quickly gained the ascendancy. His faction in Dail Eireann numbers about fifty, and contains some of the best, brains in the movement. Mr Desmond Fitzgerald, a former editor of the ‘‘ Bulletin,” was a moderate. When he was sent to prison, Mr Childers took up the work and spread his gospel of hate against England into every column. The great danger is Mr de Valera’s great misplaced confidence in Mr Childers’s political judgment. In short. Mr Childers is the power behind the presidential chair.