1 MARCH 1924, Page 3

* * * * We notice that some of the

Irish Free State papers are trying to make capital out of the article by Sir James Craig which we published last week. One of them has remarked that it is strange that, although the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland has been ill for some weeks, he can find time to write for the Spectator. Others profess to see in the article a pro- nouncement on the Boundary Conference. In these circumstances, it is only fair to Sir James Craig that we should explain that his article was not written recently. It was written, in fact, before the dissolution, and it was because of the distractions caused by the dissolution and the elections and the fall of Mr. Baldwin's Government that we postponed publication.

* *