THE IRISH TREATY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1922, Page 5

THE IRISH TREATY.

HOW IT WAS SIGNED. ( A GRAPHIC SKETCH. ) I THE FATEFUL DECISION. LLOYD GEORGE AT HIS BEST Australian Press—Copyright. Received Dec. 22, 5.10 p.m. London. Dec. 19. Mr. Lloyd George’s third article is devoted to the Irish Treaty, and it is notable chiefly for the pen portraits of | those figuring in Irish questions since [ Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill nearly thirty years ago. When the House of Commons •was recently summoned to the House of Lords to hear the Royal aseent to the Irish Constitution Bill, Mr. Lloyd George says two pictures flashed across his mind during the short procession to the House of Lords. Firstly, Mr. Gladstone’s great speech when introducing the Home Rule Bill; secondly, that of the dreary December night, just a year ago. when four British representatives and five Irish leaders sat at a table in the Cabinet mom at Downing Street, in this simple Council Chamber, where Pitts Act of Union and many other Irish measures had been discussed, now came the final treaty of peace. Would it be signed? A DRAMATIC CLIMAX. It was an anxious moment, charged with the destiny of two great races who confronted each other. The climax of decision had been reached. Britain had <rone to the limit of concession. No British statesman could have faced any assembly of his countrymen had he appended his signature to a convention placing Ireland outside the fraternity of free nations known as the British Empire, or freed her from the bond of union represented by common fealty to the Sovereign. Would the Irish leaders have the courage to make peace on the only conditions attainable, namely, liberty within the Empire? THE IRISH LEADERS. Opposed to me sat Mr. Griffiths, the most un-Irish leader that ever led Ireland. Ouiet to the point of gentleness; reserved almost to the point of appearing saturnine, a man of laconic utterance, he answered in monosyllables, where most men would have considered an oratorical deliverance was demanded by the dignity of the occasion. But we found his yea meant yea, and hia nay meant nay. He was asked whether he would sign, and in an abrupt, staccato manner he replied: “Speaking on my own behalf I mean to sign.” By Mr. Griffiths’ side sat Mr. Michael Collins, one of the moet courageous leaders ever produced by a valiant race. Nevertheless, he hesitated painfully when the quiet, gentle, little figure on his left had taken his resolve. THE SHADOW OF DOOM. Both saw the shadows of doom clouding over the fateful paper. They knew that the pen which affixed their signature. at some moment signed their death warrant. The little man saw, beyond his own fall. Ireland rising out of her troubles a free nation, and that sufficed him. Mr. Collins was not appalled by the spectre of death, but had an Irishman’s fear of the charge of having succumbed to alien wile and betrayed his country. It was the first time Mr. Collins ever showed fear. It was also the last. I knew the reason why he halted, although he uttered no word revealing his mind. A FINAL APPEAL, I addressed my appeal to demonstrate how the treaty gave Ireland more than O’Connell and Parnell ever hoped for; that his country would be ever grateful to him, not only for the courage which had won such an offer, but for the wisdom that accepted it. He asked for a few hours to consider, promising a reply 'by nine o’clock. Nine passed, ten, and eleven, but the leaders did not return. We doubted whether we should see them again. Then came a message of their return to Downing Street. When they entered it was clear from their face* that they had come to a great decision after a prolonged struggle. There were, however, difficulties of detail to be overcome, but. soon after one o’clock, the treaty was complete. ERSKINE CHILDERS. Outside, in the lobby, sat the man who had used all the resources of a well trained mind, backed by a tenacious will, to wreck every endeavor to reach an agreement—Erskine Childers, a man whose kindly and refined intellectual countenance, whose calm and courteous demeanour offered not a clue to thr fierce passions which raged in hi« breast At every crucial point of th« negotiations he played a sinister part He was clearly de Valera’s emissary. Every draft that emanaated from his pen (and all first drafts were written by him) challenged every fundamental Position to which the British delegates yer? irrevocably committed. He was iica-pable of compromise. Brave and re’olute he undoubtedly was, but, unlappily for himself, he was also a rigid fanatic.

When we left the room, worn with Mir tense and anxious labor, we met 2hilders outside, sullen with disappointment and compressed wrath, at what he conceived to be a surrender of the principles for which he had fought. Poor Collin* was shot by his own countrymen, and Griffiths died, worn out by anxiety and toil, while Childers was shot at dawn for rebellion against the liberties he helped to win. Truly the path of Irish freedom, right up to the goal, is paved with tragedy, but the blood-stained wilderness is almost through, and the verdant plains of freedom now stretch before the eyes of this tortured nation.”

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