TOPICS OF THE DAY.
A LESSON IN SOUND POLITICS.
WE congratulate Sir James Craig upon the wisdom and, what is even better, the admirable temper with which he has acted in the Irish peace negotiations. He has done what we felt quit% sure he would do. He and his colleagues have told the Government exactly what we declared last week they would tell them. Our words were as follows : " Ulstermen do not claim, and never will claim, the right to veto any arrangements with Ireland outside the Six County Area which the British Parliament decides to make. Ulster claims her own right to decide her own fate, but not the fate of the rest of Ireland." This is precisely what is said in the official communication made on the departure of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland on Monday evening : " The people of Northern Ireland, on behalf of whom I speak, while claiming in the most absolute way possible to determine their own fate, do not make any claim whatever to settle the terms which Great Britain may make with South Ireland." There was, of course, no curious coincidence or wonderful prescience in this. We found it easy to set down what Northern Ireland would say for a very simple reason. The Ulster people are steady, honest politicians who do not trim their sails to every passing breeze, but keep a straight course when once they have decided upon it. Therefore one is perfectly safe in prophesying about them when one recognizes the only course that they can steer with honour and good sense. They make the prophet's business the easiest in the world. We cannot resist this opportunity to tell the people of Northern Ireland how proud we are of them and of their chief and his colleagues. They have shown the true political instinct, one worthy of our race at its best, worthy of Pym and Hampden, worthy of the great Whig leaders of the Revolution of 1688, of Somers and Halifax, worthy of Washington, Franklin, and the founders of the United States. They have been wise and they have been sincere. What is even more worthy, though so much more difficult, they have been sympathetic in the true, if not the senti- mental sense. There was a great temptation to secure points for their side by making mischief and by what we might call intellectual cruelty. They could have managed, if they had so chosen, to put not only the Sinn Feiners but the Government hopelessly in the wrong over the negotia- tions. They could have raised moral and dialectical points—nay, real moral issues which would have been the greatest possible obstacles to the difficult and dangerous task on which the Government is engaged. Most nghtly, they refused to do anything of this land. They did not ,flounce out of the Conference room in anger or leave it with a bitter word or a telling warning. Instead they acted with perfect sincerity, good sense, and good breeding. If they had merely stated their position and then coldly added that, though they meant to keep what belonged to them, they made no claim to dictate or even influence the terms which the British people might make with Southern Ireland, no one could have blamed them. But they were most careful not to adopt this frigid and cynical attitude. They employed words which showed a humanity and a power of forgiveness which, if their antagonists are men of flesh and blood and not of rock or oak, should greatly move them. Referring to the prospective settlement between Great Britain and Southern Ireland, Sir James Craig added : " When this is accomplished I can promise cordial co- operation and equal terms with Southern Ireland in any matters -effecting our common interest." There was wisdom ; there was magnanimity ; there was the voice of Humanity and True Civilization. It is such words as these which never bring remorse, which will never make a man say in the years to come : " I was right, of course, in the main ; but, oh how I wish I had been a little more generous, a little less cold in expression 1" Sir James Craig's concluding phrases are equally sound. There he speaks optimistically, not pessimistically, of the future. There can be no better proof of goodwill and good intention than this : " Having reached the present stage, I go back to Ireland to carry on the practical work of government... I feel that our interests are ably repreiented in the Imperial Parliament, and, of course, our services are available at any moment." This was as courteous as it was helpful. No man who meant mischief or in whose heart was-the thought, "I can do a clever trick here and spike my enemy's gun," would ever have spoken after that fashion. There is right-feeling in every line and letter.
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