AN IRISH AGREEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1921, Page 4

AN IRISH AGREEMENT.

T'he news cabled from London last night that an agreement has been reached in connection with the government of Ireland. will be received with relief and gratification throughout the Empire, indeed throughout the world. Ever since negotiations were begun, as the result of King George’s personal good offices, between the Dail Eireann and the British Government the issue has been in doubt: At no time did prospects for a settlement look promising, and during the past two days indeed it appeared as if the conference must break up and war with the South of Ireland be a certainty. The stumbling block all along with Mr. De Valera and his colleagues has .been that of allegiance to the Crown. That point was rightly regarded by the British Prime Minister as vital, but from the cables to hand at the time of- writing an acceptable formula of allegiance has seemingly been devised. Ulster has been reluctant to surrender any of the rights ! recently given her, huh been determined i not to be placed at the mercy of the more numerical South in any "all Ireland” scheme of government. This objection has also been successfully surmounted. Mr. Lloyd George anticipates no difficulty with Ulster., whose rights, he says, are fully safeguarded. The agreement has been, rendered possible by the making of mutual concessions on the part of the three parties Great Britain, Ulster, and Sinn Fein. The result is a great triumph Air the British Primo Minister, who has all along -been as confident of finding a solution of the difficult problems presented as he has been tenacious in keeping the conference together. He, like all other enlightened Britishers, felt there was no reason at all why Ireland should not work out its destiny in co-operation with Great Britain, which did not desire to hold in subjection lieland or any part of the Empire desirous and capable of controlling its own affairs. For obvious reasons it but desired to control the Empire’s naval forces. In every other respect—even to controlling its fiscal affairs it- offered Ireland home rule. It went further, and offered financial terms that probably no other nation in the world would give. When the full details are known it will be found that Britain has dealt most generously with Ireland, treating her as one of her own children, wayward and incorrigible perhaps, yet an offspring for whom she still retains a warm regard. It is foil Ireland now to show herself worthy of this consideration and generosity, to pull together. South and North, forgetting the past, nnd co-operating with Britain in everything that makes for true happiness and national greatness.