THE FATEFUL DECISION.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 January 1922, Page 5

THE FATEFUL DECISION.

LAST STAGE OF THE DEBATE. OPENING DISCUSSION. Received Jan. 8, 6j5 p.m. London, Jan. 7. When the Dail Eirfeann opened to-day the Speaker announced a motion in his own name asserting the sovereign status of Ireland and pointing out that the facilities and accommodation granted to foreign nations should be subject to a condition that Ireland’s liberties be not endangered. Mr. Boland (a colleague of Mr. De Valera, who until recently represented Sinn Fein in America), addressed the Dail. He characterised the treaty as a negation of everything for which they had fought. He admitted that the great body of opinion in America and the Press favored the treaty, but he said the people there who subscribed the money regarded rhe treaty as a betrayal. He asked Mr. Collins if the treaty was to be regarded as a final settlement.

Mr. Collins (loudly): “It is not.” Mr. Joseph McGrath (one of Mr. Griffiths’ whips) said he never expected to get- a republic when he went into the fight, but he had the same object as the men who died, namely to awaken the Irish ’people. Mr. Boland had told him, when the former was about to return to America, that he was going back to do an awful thing—that was, to prepare Americans for something of a shock.

Mr. De Valera at this point rose to explain, Mr. Boland’s instructions. He told Mr. Boland that the idea of an isolated republic would have to be changed -for some sort of association, but this must be consistent with the position Sinn Fein had taken up.—[The debate was apparently still in progress when the last message was dispatched from London.]