TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE APPLE OF DISCORD.
THE debate on the Irish Boundary question has not been concluded as we write, but the first day's discussion, including as it did the speeches of the Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith and Mr. Baldwin, made the position quite clear. The Government, assured of the whole-hearted support of the Liberal Party, will accept no amplification, alteration or interpretation of Article 12, except that which they are under bond with the Free State to give. When a fundamental alteration of the Treaty is required by the Free State, that is only " imple- menting "—i.e., fulfilling it ! When it is asked for by anybody else—as it is asked for by a Unionist amend- ment—that is a flagrant breach of a sacred agreement ! A policy of this kind, however tempting it may be, is sure to lead to disaster. It is specially certain to do so in the case of a Government who, by their own con- fession, will the end but do not will the means. We may be asked why we assume that the Government do not mean to " implement " their Act of Parliament, except on paper ? In reply we need only ask our inter- rogators whether they seriously think that the Government are going to send their air squadrons over Belfast to drop bombs on the docks and the Parliament House, while the Fleet forces the mouth of Belfast Lough and attempts to overawe the city by the guns of its battleships. Do the Government propose that, at the same time, a joint force of Free State and British troops should drive the Ulster police force out of Tyrone and Fermanagh ? Of course, nothing of this kind will happen or could happen, but all the same this insistence on Parliament passing a law in regard to another Legis- lature, even though technically subordinate, and then refusing to have the courage to carry out the measures involved, is one of the most demoralizing pieces of State ineptitude that can be imagined.
Why do the Government enter upon a course of action exposed to such obvious and potent objections ? The only answer we can give to that question is that they have been told that unless they pass their amendment of the Treaty the Free State Government will fall, and its place will be taken by a Republic. Either by the vote of the Dail repudiating the Treaty, or else by some- thing in the nature of a coup d'etat, Mr. Cosgrave will be forced to go or to become a Republican. If that is the reason, Mr. De Valera must at the moment be smiling over the way in which his threats have led the British Government into a bottomless morass. Yet even he, if he has anything in the nature of vision, will hardly feel satisfied with the result. What is being done in Parlia- ment is, in fart, strongly inimical to what the Republicans most keenly desire, to what, indeed, they regard as essential—the unity of Ireland. The unity of North and South can come only in one of two ways. It must come either by the way of the Soviet with Georgia, that is, by ruthless coercion, or by convincing the people of Ulster that the path not only of their safety, but of their higher development, will be their union with the rest of Ireland. A desire for union on their part might, nay, almost certainly would, have come if the Free State had honestly and persistently declared, '" We will never force union upon you. UnlesS and until you ask for partner- ship with us, not a finger shall ever be stirred here to coerce you or annoy you." That and that alone is the path to true Irish Unity.
One of the most illuminating and important speeches made in Tuesday's debate was that of Mr. Macpherson. He dealt with the realities of the Bill and specially with a point which we have made again and again in these columns. It is preposterous to pretend as the Prime Minister appears to do, that there was an unfortunate piece of bad drafting in the wording of the Treaty and of the Statute. This " bad drafting " was the omission to put in any machinery for setting up the Boundary Com- mission if Ulster refused to appoint a Commissioner. We say deliberately that there was no false drafting, and that the omission now complained of was a deliberate omission made for a definite purpose. It was made in order that Ulster should have a right to contract herself out of a Boundary Commission if in the end she so desired. That may seem a strange thing for any Government to have done, but nevertheless it was done. We have no doubt that if Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Winston Churchill, Lord Birkenhead or any of the other signatories of the Treaty and of the Act of Parliament could be made to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the negotiations over Article 12, they would say that they had to word the Article in the Treaty as they did word it, because it was only by making the Commission a voluntary Commission that they could obtain the ac- quiescence of Ulster. Ulster refrained from the active opposition by which she could have prevented the Parlia- mentary endorsement of the Treaty because of the security given her by the voluntary nature of the Commission. We will go further and say that the Irish signatories of the Treaty were well aware of the nature of Article 12. The astute lawyers who were advising them must have noted the omission of the words usual in the case of arbitration, and arrangements of a similar kind. In such cases provision is always made for a failure to appoint a delegate.
Mr. Macpherson proceeded to point out that as the Treaty was drawn and received Statutory sanction, Ulster must give her consent before any Commission could be set up. The Treaty which the House had been told was unalterable while it was passing was now being altered by the Government, at the instigation of the Free State. " It was not too much to ask that there should be terms of reference defining clearly what the Commission was asked to do. That would give the real feeling of everybody, even of the trenches on which he was sitting." Mr. Macpherson also declared that he still held the strong view which he expressed in 1919—that it would not be long before they had a Republic in the South and West of Ireland. He therefore asked the House of Commons to hesitate long before they sacrificed the loyalty and friendship of those who had shown themselves through thick and thin loyal to this country. Therefore he pleaded for the amendment defining rectification. " If .some- such terms are introduced I think the representatives of Ulster will be willing to give the Bill an easy passage."
Unquestionably this is the path of safety and states- manship and yet the Government in their infatuation and want of vision are apparently going to reject it. If they do they will bring us to the verge of civil war here, and probably to actual civil war in Ireland. Cer- tainly, they will hasten that declaration of a Republic in the South of Ireland which already exists in fact if not in name. Retention of a State in the British Empire is not a thing which can be brought about by bribes. By pretending that it can be we shall merely throw our " valuable consideration " away and get nothing but shame, hatred and confusion in its place.
J. ST. LOE STRACHEY.
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