13 AUGUST 1921, Page 3

The Government, by muddling and hesitation, have brought the whole

management of Irish affairs to such a terrible pass that we accept the negotiations with the Irish Republicans as inevitable. But we feel strongly that if any exceptions were to be made in releasing prisoners McKeon should certainly not have been one of them. Surely the Government ought rather to have excepted those who ordered the unspeakable murder of the aged and delicate Mrs. Lindsay, who did only what any woman of humanity and spirit would have done in her position. The mistake about McKeon has been retrieved, but only at the price of involving the Government in a little more discredit.