Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1921-03-17
De VALERA
Tells Dali Eirann of Archbishop
Clune's Farley With Lloyd
George.
Went Back on His Written Con.
ditions and Bowed to
Castle.
After Finding Himself in an ImpOs'
sible Position Great Prelate
Withdrew.
wELsHMAN AT HIS OLD TRICKS.

tween the British Government and
the Irish Republican forces. The
intermediary was Archbishop Clune.
of Perth, Western Australia, and
the report is made In the form of
speech delivered at a meeting of
Dali Eireann by President De
Valera. In this the Sim Fem lead
er says the pourpariers ended with
proposition with which Arch
bishop Clune would have nothing to
do, and the whole thing ended, as
many of Mr.. De valera's associates
anticipated, by Lloyd George back
ing away from his original terms.
ported as follows:
ION December 1, perturbed at
the effect on world opinion of his
unrestricted Black and Tan warfare
upon the Irish people, the British
Premier commissioned the Arch
bishop of Perth to come to Ireland
as an official intermediary to ar
range truce. His Grace accepted
the commission. came and had inter-
views with the Acting President.
with the Minister of Finance and
others. He found that they were
fair and reasonable men, and re-
turned to report to Lloyd George
on December s. The attitude of
Lloyd George seemed to have
changed somewhat during the week.
He had before him the document
that emanated from six of the
thirty-two members Of the Galway
County Council-that document was
passed on the world as a resolution
iof the Council, quite unanimously
as George handsomely appended,
and also Father O'F'anagan' tele-
gram-both Of which, he believed,
or pretended to believe, were indi-
cations of a general breakup of
the morale of the Irish people, and
a cry for peace at any price In
his speech on December 10 in
the British House of Commons he
fiourished, as you remember, these
signs, as he chose to regard them.
of our decentralization. and outlined
his plan for the victorious final as
sault. Our defences in front were
to be stormed. and we were to be
subtilely and deliberately sapped
from the rear.
However,. His Grace was asked
to return here, which he did. He
had further interviews with Acting
President Griffith, and with the
others whom he had already seen
on December IL, 3 and IA. On the
latter date the English Cabinet in
timated its willingness for a truce
for month on certain general
terms which had been the subject of
the discussions. these terms were re-
duced to a written formula and pre-
sented by his Grace to Dublin Cas-
tie on December 16. Here Is the
formula:
"'The British Government UNDER
takes that during the truce no raids,
arrests. burnings, shootings, loot
ings, demolitions, courts-martial, or
other acts of violence will be car
ried out by its forces, and that
there will be no enforcement of the
terms of the martial law proclama-
tons. We, on our side, undertake
to use all possible means to ensure
that no acts whatever of violence
wills occur on our side during the
period of the truce. The British
Government on their part, and we
on ours, will use our best efforts to
bring about the conditions above
mentioned, with the object of creat-
ing an atmosphere favorable to the
meeting together of the representa-
tives of the Irish people, with
view to bringing about a permanent
peace
"On December II the Castle sig
nified its acceptance of this formula,
but added the impossible conditions
that we should surrender our arms
and leave ourselves without any
means of resistance or of defense.
The Archbishop returned and saw
Lloyd George once more on Decem-
Der %, Before returning he had
got Dublin Castle to waive the con-
dition of the surrender of arms.
But George thought 1T could not be
waived---an opinion which was en-
forced by Mr.. Bonar Law. AS the
Archbishop. who wished to be fair,
could not dream of asking us to ac-
cept such condition the negotia-
lions remained in allegiance until the
goth and 30th, when they were
disposed of finally at a British Cab
met meeting. So the Archbishop
was informed on December 81. On
that date totally new proposition
was put forward, with which his
Grace would have nothing to do.
"Thus the whole thing ended.
as l am sure many of you antici-
pated It would end. by the British
Premier's running away from the
terms he had himself originally sug-
gested. I have read over very care
fully the minutes that have been
supplied me of the several inter-
views, and can find no evidence that
there was any real sincerity on the
other side. The British Premier
was simply maneuvering for posi-
ton In an attempt to place the rep
resentatives of this nation in a false
light before the peoples of the
world. Even though he failed to do
that, still by occupying the press
with speculations on peace negotia-
tons he covered up the bloody OPP
erations OF his Bashi- Bazooks, dur
ing which time they raided S,626
Irish homes; arrested 1,347 Irish
men and women; issued and en-
forced As proclamations and sup
pressions: deported los Irish citi-
Gems; wounded az civilians; de-
stroyed by fire 1853 dwelling houses,
8 creameries. factories, "a public
halls, 255 shops, sS farmsteads and