The New York herald., 1922-07-16


the way which. hitching it's wagon tc
the star of an ultimate republic, is
satisfied to take the Free State as the
most 1t can get at the moment aud as
a necessary step toward that republic.
AS many treatyites have said to me
1.-The Free State is excellent. but 1t is
not final settlement" In this world
there is no such thing as "a Anal
settlement
And Ireland is in this one thing no
exception to the world.
New Recruits for Army in
Politics Are Similarly Divided
The decisive factor in the immediate
future Of Ireland is the Irish Repub-
lican Army. 1t is upon this that at
tention should be focused.
/ have taken special pains by speak.
ing not only to leaders of the pro-
visional Government but also to Re
publican leaders as well as to men who
are commandants and to the rank and
file, and / believe that Of the original
or old /. r. A. about SIS per cent. stand
for the republic and are against the
treaty But during the last months
both treatyites and anti-treatyites
have been recruiting alEover the place,
most of the new recruits being mere
boys. There is not a single man In.
Ireland who really knows. whether
these new recruits are mostly treaty
or anti-treaty. My own guess would
be that they are pretty equally divided.
between Griffith andtDe Valera.
Let the situation be quite clear. The
Republicans, truce or no truce, are de-
termined, If it be humanity or. even in
humanity possible, to keep the republic
alive. and to prevent the provisional
Government from functioning-so long.
as Arthur Griffith still holds to the
treaty in it's present form. Rightly or
wrongly, they believe. they have q ma
jority of the army, but confess quite.
openly that they also believe on an i'm
mediate election made upon the old
register. which incidentally Is most
incomplete and cuts out much Of the
army, they would lose. And finally
they believe that Griffith, for all his
stubbornness, as they say. us open to
81
They (the Republicans) deny that
the republic has ever ceased to exist,
they declare that the oath OF allegiance
to the English King will never be
taken by them, and they believe quite
honestly, a belief not altogether un-
shared by some of the treatyites. that
Lloyd George on that 9Th of Decem-
Der which saw the signing Of the
treaty. bluffed the Irish plenipoten.
tiaries into surrender by threat Of
war and so prevented them from first
submitting the terms to the Irish peo-
pie. In fact, to all intents and pur-
poses, the Republicans deny point,
blank the right OF the provisional.
Government to control the army, which
they say IS subject only to tie Dali
and the Irish people, .~ss,e %,. u
As And here is ones the last para
doxes in this isle OF paradox, since the
signing OF the. treaty, While both
Arthur Grifith, and Michael Collins
have personally lost something OF their
old prestige in Ireland, the whole
tendency, despite the stormy outside,
Is toward peace. I believe the Irish
Free State has come to stay, but not
In its present form.
What I believe we are going to see
is a. modification. perhaps a radical
modification of the treaty, especially
in those clauses which bear upon the
oath OF allegiance and perhaps with an
Implied right of secession" which
both Australia and Canada have. II
something along these lines can be
devised and approved by both England
and Ireland then we shall see united
ireland. The only thing that stands
between united Ireland as apart from
Ulster and between real friendship
Of Ireland for England is the form"
not the substance"
Finally, do not forget that the treaty
does not become an accomplished fact
until it has been submitted to and ap-
proved by the Irish people.
[Another article by Shaw
4 Desmond will be published,
next Sunday in THE NEW N