2 JULY 1921, Page 9

Mr. De Valera, however, as we have pointed out elsewhere,

appeared to make it a condition that there must be no partition in Ireland. Partition is apparently to be reserved for the United Kingdom only! This suggestion that Sinn Fein would not consult about Ireland except with a view to the absorption of the Six County Area in the Southern Area was rendered the more significant, and also, we must say, alas ! the more sinister, by the next incident. Mr. De Valera telegraphed to Sir James Craig asking him as he asked Lord Mid1eton and other prominent Southern Unionists to conic and cOnsult with him in Dublin as to the line to be taken in-the London Conference. Most properly, as we think, Sir James Craig politely :refused to go to Dublin, but wisely did not enter into arguments.' He merely pointed out that he had been invited to wine to a London conference by the Prime Minister. He had accepted, and was going there. A moment's reflection will show what we mean when we say that this answer was inevitable. It is the whole case of the people and Parliament of the Six County Area, whose servant and trustee Sir James Craig is, that there are two Irelands—the Protestant, loyalist and Saxon-blooded and Saxon-minded Ireland, and the Roman Catholic Nationalist and Celtic Ireland.