Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-08-27

though no meeting Ind ever taken
place.
must remind you. therefore, that
when I asked YOU 10 meet mo six
weeks ngo made no preliminary con-
ditiona OF any sort. You cam. To
London on that invitation and cx-
changed views with me at three meet.
Jugs of considerable length. The pro-
posala | made TO you after those
meetings were based upon full aud
sympathetic consideration OF the
views which you expressed.
They were not ma.ie In any hagging
spirit. On the contrary, my colleagues
and | went to the very limit Of our
powers In endpavoring to reconcile
i,ritiah and Irish interests. our
proposals have gone far beyond all
precedent. and have been approved as
liberal by the whole OF the civilized
world. Even In quarters which had
shown sympathy with the most ex-
treme Of the Irish claims they are re-
garded as the utmost which the em-
pire can reasonably offer or ireland
reasonably expect.
The only criticism of them I have
yet heard outside ireland is from
those who maintain that our proposals
have overatepped both warrant and
wisdom I'm their liberality. Your let
ter shows no recognition of this. and
further negotiations must. I fear, be
futile. unless some definite progress
Is made toward acceptance Of basis.
You declare our proposals involve
the surrender of Ireiands whole ma
tional tradition and reduce her tc
subservience. What are the facts?
Under the settlement we outlined
ireland would control every nerve and
fihre of her national existence. She
would speak her own language and
make her own religious life. she
would have complete power over taxa
tion and finance. subject only TO an
agreement for keeping trade and
transport as free az possible between
herself and Great Britain, her best
market.
She would have uncontrolled author
ity over education and all the moral
and spiritual interests of her race: she
would have II also over law and order.
over land and agriculture, over con
ditlons of labor and industry, over the
health and homes Of her people, and
over her own defense.
She would, In fact. within the shores
of ireland be free In every respect Of
national activity. national expression
and national development. The states
oI the American Union. sovereign
though they be, enjoy no such range
Of rights.
our proposals go even further. for
they invite ireland to take her place
as partner In the great common
wealth of free nations, united by al
legiance to the King.
We consider these proposals com
pletely fuifill your wish that the prin@
cipIn Of Government by consent of the
governed should be the broad and
guiding principle of the settlement
which your plenipotentiaries are to
negotiate. That principle was first
developed in England and Is the main
spring Of the representative institu-
tions which CHE was first 20 create
1t was spread by her throughout the
world and ia now the very life of the
British Commonwealth.
We could not have invited the Irish
people TO take their place in that Com
monwealth on any other priciple. and
we are convinced that through il we
can heal old misundcrstandings and
achieve an enduring partnership as
honorable ireland as to the other
nations of which the Commonwealth
consists.
But when you argue that the rela-
tions of ireland with the British En-
pire are comparable in principle to
those of Holland or Belgium with the
German people, / find it necessary 10
repeat once more that those are
premises which no British Govern
ment, whatever its complexion. can
ever accept.
In demanding that Ireland should be
treated as a separate sovereign power
with no allegiance to the crown and
no loyalty TO the sister nations of the
Commonwealth, you are advancing
claims which the most famous nation
alist1 leaders in Irish history, from
Grattan to Parnell and Redmond, have
explicitly disowned.
Grattan in a famous phrase declared
that 'the ocean protests against sep
aration and the sea against union.
Daniel O'Connel. most eloquent per-
haps of all the spokesmen of the Irish
national cause, protested thus in the
House of Commons in 1880:
Never did monarch receive more
undivided allegiance than the present
king from the men who in Ireland
o agitate the repeal of the union. Never
was there grosser calumny than To as
sert that they wish 10 produce separa-
ton between the two countries Never
was there a greater mistake than TO
suppose that we wish to dissolve the
The Premier then quotes a letter
written in 1854 to the Duke of Wei
Iington by Thomas Davis. "a fervent
exponent of the ideals of Young Ire
land" as advocating the retention of
the Imperial Parliament and the Civ
ing to ireland of n Senate selected by
the people, the right of levying Gus
toms and excise and other taxes, the
making of roads, harbors, railways,
canals and bridges, encouraging man
commerce. agriculture and
fishing, and the settling of the poor
laws, tithes, tonures. grand puries and
Ireland all that O'Connell and Thomas
Davis asked, and more; we are met
only by an unqualified demand that
we should recognize ireland as for
eign power. 1t is playing with
phrases to suggest that the principle
Of government by consent OF the gov
arned compels recognition of that de-
mand on our part, or that in repudi-
ating 1t we are straining geographical