In the Irish Dail on Tuesday President Cosgrave read a
letter from General Liam Tobin and Colonel Charles Dalton, who had risen in revolt against the order for disbanding the greater part of the Free State Army, and had taken to the hills. These officers announced on behalf of the I.R.A. organization that they had only accepted the Treaty as a means of ultimately obtaining republicanism. They therefore required an immediate answer from the Free State Government to their proposal that a conference should meet to discuss (a) the removal of the Army Council, and (b) the immediate suspension of Army demobilization. If the Government refused, they would take such action as would prove that they were not traitors to the republican ideal. President Cosgrave, after reading the letter, very properly said that the Government could not possibly discuss politics with Army officers and that the necessary steps were being taken to deal with the conspiracy.
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