DASH TO BELFAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 February 1922, Page 11

DASH TO BELFAST.

BEARER OF THE TREATY

■RACE AGAINST TIME.

London, Deo. 13.

‘ You went away unknown and came back famous,” said Mr. Lloyd George cheerily when he met his junior secretary, Mr. G. H. Shakespeare, on the latter’s return to London as bearer of the historic peace agreement. It is recorded by “Quex” in the Evening News, that the climax of the early morning signing of the agreement at Downing Street was reached when, after the Sirin Fein leaders had sent back their answei, they returned and communed till 2.30 with our Ministers. “The scene of the signing was memorable indeed for its.-strange, almost unnatural high spirits. There was a hectic hilarity born of weary nerves and jaded thoughts, and everyone chatted and laughed. Best of ail was Mr. Collins, the redoubtable man o‘f action and practical negotiator, whose jokes and everready humor sent the Prime Minister into peals of laughtei. He was appealed to about details, and answered so drolly that the room shook with amusement time and again.

“But a certain shrewd observer tells that the time which gladdened his heart most was wbeji peace had been signed and former foes were at long last wholly friends. The problem was to get the news and terms in time to Ulster, and lo! the clock spoke of 2 a.m., and past! What was to be done to get the messenger in time ‘to-morrow’? “ ‘No, to-day,’ said Mr. Collins, and everyone roared. HOW THE CHOICE WAS MADE. “The Sinn Feiners and Englishmen put their heads together for common action for the first time against the common enemy, time, and devised means for the instant transmission of a courier to Belfast. The ordinary train to Holyhead takes six and a-ha If hours or more, so a special one primed to do it in five hours was ordered on the telephone. Next a destroyer was summoned through the Admiralty to be in readiness to waft Mercury across the briny seas.

- “‘But who shall go?’ The Prime Minister pointed roguishly to Mr. Collins. Mr. Collins pointed back to the Prime Minister, when their joint eyes fell upon the devoted red head of Mr, Shakespeare, the indefatigable secretary of No. 10, who hail followed negotiations all night. “ ‘Shakespeare, you must go,” said Mr. Lloyd George. “ ‘He has no clothes for the journey,’ said someone. ‘He can have my overcoat,’ says the Prime Minister.

“ ‘And my toothbrush,’ roars an Irish voice somewhere.

“So otherwise without change of garI ments, Mr. Shakespeare speeds off in the Prime Minister's fur-tipped overcoat to brave a non-stop run along crowded rails to Holyhead, and a rolling passage over the Irish Channel. Then somebody said what ought to have occurred to them all:-—‘How strange that a man named Shakespeare should act as intermediary between our reconciled nations.’ ” ' i

It was when he got back that he was greeted by his chief in the words already quoted. The traveller returned to Mr. Lloyd George in his fur-lined eoat, with the remark: “I have brought it back safe and sound, air. Without it I should have been frozen.” EXPECTED BY AEROPLANE. On landing at Belfast from the destroyer which was waiting for him at Holyhead, Mr. Shakespeare says: “I was told that most of the people had been gazing into the clouds all day. as they expected me to arrive by air. I had to report to the harbor master, and asked permission to use his telephone. He agreed willingly, but added. ‘Sure, I would be delighted, but it is broke,’ so I then went to the senior naval officer, whose telephone I used.” Mr. Shakespeare thdn went immediately to the House of Parliament, where he found the Ulster Premier addressing the House. “I occupied a seat in the official gallery and listened to his speech,” he said. “After the speech and Sir James Craig’s announcement to the House that a special messenger had arrived, I motored with Sir James to his home at Cabin Hill, Knocke, where the document was opened.” The return journey was not without its element of excitement, for after he had put off in a small boat the craft stuck on a mudbank, and it was necessary for one of the officers to jump overboard and drag the boat ashore. Meanwhile a wireless message was sent requesting the ■station authorities to delay the departure of the train for a few minutes. “However,” he added, “I was able to catch the train with very little delay.” This young man, who rushed so unexpectedly into the limelight, is the second son of Dr. J. H. Shakespeare, who, as general secretary of the Baptist Union, and ex-president of the Free Churches’ Federation, has done so much to settle the differences of religious bodies.