On Monday afternoon the representatives of the Government and of
Sinn Fein sat for four and a-half hours without coming within sight of an agreement. As " A. P. N.," of the Daily Chronicle, who is always well informed on such matters, says, the deadlock was as complete as any that had been known during the last three months. Just before the adjournment for dinner, however, the Prime Minister made a final appeal, pointing out that the draft then before the Conference was the last concession which any British Government could make. The issue was a grim choice between acceptance or immediate war. The Sinn Feiners then agreed to consider the situation among themselves and to return to Downing Street at 10 p.m. for a last meeting. The time within which the Government had to let Ulster have a definite proposal was running out and a special train was in waiting at Euston and a destroyer at Holyhead. At 10 o'clock the Sinn Fein representatives had not returned. At 11.20 p.m., however, they arrived and found Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Birkenhead and Mr. Churchill still waiting for them. Three hours of dialectical wrestling followed. The Sinn Fein representatives, A. P. N." tells us, had been much impressed by the dire alternative of peace or war, and their attitude after dinner was sensibly different from what it had been before. At last the agreement was signed and the Sinn Feiners left the Conference at 2.15 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
