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After all, you cannot force a man, as a condition

precedent to anything, to say something which he believes to be untrue. Mr. De Valera says that he believes it to be untrue that he can come to a conference in any capacity except as the repre- sentative of the Irish Republic, because he was elected in that capacity, and it is only in that capacity that he has any right to speak. There is, of course, formal logic in that, however foolish we may think his conduct has been, and nobody could possibly think that Mr. De Valera has behaved in a futile way with more conviction than we do. It all comes to the same thing, however, in the. end. If Mr. Lloyd George announces that he will never agree to Irish sovereignty, the Sinn Feiners will know exactly what to expect at the conference.

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