NEW HOPE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1921, Page 5

NEW HOPE.

SINN FEIN COMES ROUND.

CONFERENCE ACCEPTEDDE VALERA 'S DECISION, By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Sept. 18, 11.5 p.m. London, Sept. 18. Mr. De Valera has accepted a conference with the British Government. The full text of Mr. De Valera’s reply to Mr. Lloyd George has been published. It states: — “We have already accepted the invitation to a conference in the exact words of your letter of the 7th inst. We have not asked you to abandon any principle even, informally, but surely you must understand we can only recognise ourselves for what we are. If this selfrecognition be made the reason for cancelling the ’ conference we regret it, but it seems inconsistent. I have already had conferences with you and i!i these conferences and in written communications I have never ceased to recognise myself for what I was and am. If this involves recognition on your part then you have already recognised us. Had it been our desire to add to the solid substance of Ireland’s rights the veneer of technicalities of international usage whfteh you now introduce we might have claimed already the advantage of all these consequences which you fear would flow from the reception of our delegates now. Believe me, we have but one object at heart, namely, the setting up of a conference on the basis of truth and reality, as would make it possible to secure the result which the two peoples ardently desire.” —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

CONFERENCE IMPOSSIBLE.

MR. LLOYD GEORGE FIRM. INDEPENDENCE INVOLVED. Received Sept. 18, 5.5 p.m. London, Sept. 17. Mr. Lloyd George, replying to Mr. De Valera’s letter, points out that to meet the Irish delegates as representatives of an independent State woiild constitute a formal official recognition of Ireland’s severance from the King’s Dominions, and would equally entitle them to make no treaty and break off the conference at any point and negotiate a union of Ireland with foreign Powers.

It would also entitle them, if they insisted on another appeal to force, to claim from foreign Powers, by England’s implicit admission, the rights of lawful belligerents against the King. If the Government dealt with them as a sovereign independent State England would have no right to complain of other Powers following the example. The Government was prepared to discuss how an association of Ireland with the British Empire could best be reconciled with Irish aspirations, but could not consent to any abandonment, however informal, of the principle of allegiance to the King, on which the whole fabric of Empire, and every constitution within it, is based. While De Valera insisted on claiming that the Irish delegates should confer as representatives of an independent sovereign State a conference with them was imposs-ible.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

SINN FEIN’S ATTITUDE.

MOVE FOR COMPROMISE. ACCEPTANCE UNLIKELY. Received Sept. 17, 5.5 p.m. London, Sept. 17. It is unofficially explained that the attitude of Sinn Fein leaders, interpreted in the light of Mr. De Valera’s telegram, is: “We cannot repudiate, as a preliminary to a conference, our republican declarations, but if a conference is held and a satisfactory compromise reached, it will be possible and timely for us to abandon our republican claims and tell the Irish people we have done our best, and that a compromise is the utmost obtainable. Therefore we recommend that you accept it.” It is doubtful if the Lloyd George Cabinet will pander to this punctilious attitude, involving the humiliation of waiving the condition requiring Ireland’s allegiance to the Crown. It. is believed that several Unionist Ministers will resign rather than agree to Sinn Fein’s proposal for an untrammelled conference.