The Lord Chancellor dealt almost 'exclusively with Ireland in a
speech last Saturday at Tonbridge. He said that the response to the King's Speech at the opening of the Northern Irish Parliament made it plain to the Government for the first time that the Sinn Feiners were ready to treat with the Govern- ment. The Government then had to recognize that the only alternative to a Conference was to invite people to go on sending their young ,men, either as members of the police force or as soldiers, to carry on the quarrel and shed their blood. The Government had no doubt which course to pursue, and through- out they had been unmistakably supported by public opinion. The Lord Chancellor declared that unfortunately he would be misleading people if he pretended that there were not still grave anxieties about the result of the Conference.
Previous page
