IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 14 July 1921, Page 26

IRELAND

That a truce has been declared in Ireland is at any rate something to be grateful for. That a definite invitation to the President of the Irish Republic has been sent by Lloyd George is another sign of the direction in which the wind is blowing. The game haj but opened, and it is early to be optimistic. However, the first tricks are to de Valera. He has never had to eat his words no man has ever stood up and called him liar ; no newspapers have contrasted his words with his deeds to his discredit. With clean hands he accepts the invitation of a man to whom Tory lords and even an Anglican Archbishop have given the lie; whose pledges to small nations were broken by his crimes against Ireland; who betrayed John Redmond after 1916 who betrayed Horace Plunket after the bogus Convention whose conduct at Versailles made Lansing describe him as a shifty, cunning politician who will say yes to-day and no to-morrow and is never troubled by any qualms of conscience concerning his twisting. That is the man with whom Ireland has to deal, and there is always danger in dealing with a trickster and a confidence-man. He Valera knows that right well. He warns his people not to be too optimistic, and reminds them that he may again have to call on them to come out and carry on the fight to the bitter end. They will come, if needed. They will not throw away the substance for the shadow. They are winning; and they know it: Lloyd George has now practically acknowledged it. Therefore, we may bo sure that unless the settlement is one that gives Ireland control of her own destinies there will be no peace. Bonar Law said that England would never give Ireland even Dominion Home Rule. Ireland will never take less, even as a temporary measure. He Valera will give Ulster all reasonable safeguards, but he will not & let Ulster (or rather a few Ulster counties) rule Ireland. While the result is thus doubtful, it is certain that the present phase of events has proved once more that Lloyd George and Greenwood’s murders of women and children and their wholesale arson and plunder have failed miserably. Some time ago they would not meet what they — the true murderers— “the murder gang”; later they would meet them only if Sinn Fein laid down arms. Now there are no conditions, only a very great anxiety to meet “Mr. de Valera.” There will be many more tricks to Sinn Fein before the game has been played out. In the meantime remember the League of Prayer for Ireland.