IRISH LEADERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1922, Page 5

IRISH LEADERS.

ANOTHER CONFERENCE, MEETING IN LONDON. MORE TROOPS SENT.By Telegraph—Prasi Assn.—Copyright. Received May 23, 5.5 pan. London, May 22. Mr. Winston Churchill, in the House of Commons, announced that the signatories to the Irish Treaty wotfld confer during the week-end with the Imperial Government. He added that the Government was co-operating with the Northern Parliament in restoring order. Four additional battalions landed in Ulster on Saturday, and further reinforcements and ammunition would be sent if necessary. Mr. Churchill stated the Government is not yet able to form any final conclusion in regard to the agreement between Mr. de Valera and Mr. Collins. The agreement would appear to raise most serious issues, both as to the character and validity of the elections and the treaty itself. The Government, therefore, had invited the signatories to the treaty to come to London. After the conference at the week-end he hoped to make a statement to the House. Meanwhile he trusted the House would refrain from premature and hasty judgment upon the agreement, either in a favorable or unfavorable sense. After detailing the murder of Mr. Twaddell and the outrages organised by Republicans in various patte of the six counties, he said he had every confidence that the Northern Government would continue to grapple with the serious task of restoring order. Lord Londonderry was conferring with the Government regarding the terms of the police force which the Northern Government was organising. It was the Government’s intention to support the Ulster Government in every way in its power. Mr. Devlin complained that this was a one-sided statement of the conditions in Ulster. He said several Roman Catholics had been murdered. Mr. Churchill replied: “I have not attempted to conceal the obvious fact that murders and counter murders are being done by religious sects, but the principal fact during the week-end has been the violent attempts to create outrage and disorder in what was hitherto considered a quiet portion of North Ireland. Replying to Air. Lambert, Mr. Churchill said the British War Office was not responsible for law and order in North Ireland, but was responsible for At® defence. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. THE NEW AGREEMENT. DANGER TO TREATY - . PRESS COMMENTS. London, May 21. The Observer says: The Irish Treaty is in graver danger than at any time since it was signed. In effect the agreement is a nearly complete surrender of the pro-treaty to the anti-treaty party. The main issues have been shirked. The price of Sinn Fein unity is tne silencing of the people’s voice. No opposition has a chance against Sinn Fein. The new coalition has stereotyped the present position in such a way that the majority of the electorate must be stifled. Either the coalition will hold together on the basis of renewed and united hostility to Britain and Ulster, or it is a more grotesque sham than the Ardlneis agreement of February. In either case the Irish people have suffered betrayal. We fear that the future of Ireland has been sacrificed to the interests of party. W« fear that Mr. Collins is not big enough, and that he has found the risk of war with the North a more comfortable risk for the Sinn Fein ere than the assertion of democracy for »South Ireland. The Times, in a leader commenting on the Irish agreement, says: No Government in Ireland can be established on a permanent basis unless it will conform to the principles of the peace treaty. In view of the new agreement the Parliament and people of England are entitled to a prompt and definite explanation of an event that has not been explained. It appears to menace the only foundations on which a final Anglo-Irish settlement is practicable.