The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-19
REFUSES
 ID MEET IRELAND
 AS TREE NATI0N'
Refuses In Telegram to Alter Original View That Erin Part of Common
 wealth
By Associated Press


 London, September 1S.-Premicr Lloyd George added another to the brisk fire of telegrams between Dub 1 lin and Cair Loch. which leaves Ramon DeValera's search for for mula enabling him to accept the in- vitation to a conference still unsar- isfied, and the position on the Irish question Is virtually the same as on Friday.
 1 In his message to the Irish repua- lican leader, the British prime minis- | ter remains firm in refusing to meet the Irish delegates as representing an independent and sovereign state and declares that unless the dole- i gates action as representatives of an independent Ireland was with drawn, 8 conference between the members of the British cabinet and i the foreign plenipotentiaries would be impossible.
 osfcrs Excuse to Change Notwithstanding the firm tone of | Mir. Lloyd Georges telegram. it. IS | interpreted as displaying solicitude to furnish Mir DeValera a favorable opening for abandoning his present l attitude.
 The text of the telegram follows,
 I have received your telegram 1 of last night, and observe 1t does not modify the claim that your | delegates meet us as representa- lives of sovereign and inde- pendent Ireland. | You made no such condition In | advance when you came to see me in July. I invited you then to
 
 letter, as the chosen leader of the
 great majority in southern Ire- l land, and you accepted the invi- tntion.
 From the very outset of our cOnversr ti0ns, I told you that we | looked to Ireland to own ni- l legiance to the throne, and to make her future member of | the British commonwealth. That | was the basis of our proposals | and we cannot alter 1t. The status you now claim in advance for your delegates K In l effect a repudiation of that basis. am prepared to meet yonr dele l gates as | met you In July, In the capacity of the chosen spokesman for your people to 1 discuss tbeN association of Ire- l land with the British common- wealth. My colleagues and ear meet them ms representative Nf l sovereign and indepenfesss
 stnte without disIoyaIty on o1F l part to the. throne and the cfn-
 pire. must. therefore, re at l that unless the second paraG ANN | of your letter of the tweift is ! withdrawn conference het us ir impossible.
 The second paragraph of M Rs valeras letter of September which Premier Lloyd George auAtet | in his latest telegram, read as fek 1 lows:
 Tn this final note we deem nge duty to reaffirm that our posltioN | Is and can only be as we have de- | ned it throughout this correspondenceH ] Our nation has formally declared its l tndependence and recognizes itself | as a sovereign state. It is only Ss representatives of that state and as | it's chosen guardians that we have authority or powers to act on Denasf of our people. As regards the prin- l ciple of government by consent or | the governed, in the very nature or things It must be the basis or any 1 agreement that will achieve the pur- pose we have at heart--that is, ths | final reconciliation of our nation with yours We have suggested no interpretation of that principle, save | its every day interpretation, Inc sense, for example. in which it was understood by the plain men and 1 women of the world, when on Janu- ary ,, 1918, you said:
 ""rhe settlement of Europe must 1 be based on such grounds Of req | son and justice as will give some promise of stability. Therefore, II is that we feel that government with l the consent of the governed must be the basis of any territorial settlement m this war;