`A SOUTHERN VIEWPOINT'
SIR,—Allow me to congratulate you on the special Ulster number of Friday, May 3, which contains some very interesting 'articles. May I be allowed to refer to a statement made by Mr. Brian Inglis in his interesting contribution described as 'A Southern Viewpoint.' Mr. Inglis states the following in the course of his article :
The greatest obstacle to agreement lies North of the border in the existence of the Catholic and Nationalist areas which were incorporated in Northern Ireland against their will. This was achieved by what can only be termed the de- liberate duplicity of British politicians. The Southern delegates who signed the Treaty of 1921 were promised that the border as then drawn would be revised, but when the revision was made in 1925 it merely ironed out minor anomalies.
I would venture to ask Mr. Brian Inglis whether he would not on reflection desire to modify his phrase 'the deliberate duplicity of British politicians.' The 'Articles of Agreement' for a treaty between Great Britain and Northern Ireland contained in Clause XII a provision for setting up a Boundary Commission
Consisting of three persons, one to be ap- pointed by the Government of the Irish Free State, one to be appointed by the Government of Northern Ireland and one who shall be Chair- man to be appointed by the British Government, which shall determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as may be com- patible with economic and geographic condi- tions, the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland, and for the purposes of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, and of this instrument the boundary of Northern Ire- land shall be such as may be determined by such Commission.
The Boundary Commission sat during several months of the year 1925, visiting every part of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. The draft report, according to Mr. Justice Feetham, a distinguished South African judge, was unanimous and would have come into force had not a leakage occurred. The Morning Post published on November 7, 1925, a very detailed forecast with a map which I have before me. This forecast was assumed to be correct and produced consternation in Dublin, as it proposed that part of the County of Donegal should be transferred from the Irish Free State to Northern Ireland. The result was that Mr. Cosgrave applied immediately to the British Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, asking to be received, and Mr. Baldwin invited Mr. -Cosgrave to meet him at Downing Street the next day. The result was that an agreement was come to on December 3, 1925, and the first clause stated that the existing boundary as established by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, should be confirmed. Consequently, the six counties were once more declared to be part of Northern Iceland, and the statement contained in the article of Mr. Brian Inglis 'when the revision was made in 1925 it merely ironed out minor anomalies' is inaccurate. No anomalies were ironed out. On the contrary, the boundary between Northern Ire- land and the Free State as laid down by the Act of 1920 was ratified. It should be noted that the agree- ment of 1925 was made on the ,initiative of Mr. Cosgrave and was signed by representatives of the British, the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland Governments. Mr. Cosgrave, however, did not return empty-handed to Dublin, because the British Govern- ment consented to the abrogation of Clause V of the agreement of December • 6, 1921, under which the Irish Free State had assumed liability for a fair and equitable proportion of the public debt of the United Kingdom and of war pensions. This liability was estimated by the British Treasury to be at least £155,000,000. All these facts were set out by me in each of the three British Parliaments at which I sat at Westminster, and they were again insisted upon in the three public debates which I had with Mr. de Valera in the University of Durham at New- castle, in the Church House at Westminster and finally at Leinster House in Dublin in September, 1950, at the meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
It must not be 'forgotten that the agreement of 1925 was accepted by overwhelming majorities of both Houses of the Parliament sitting in Dublin. The second reading was carried in the Dail by 71 votes to 20. It is appropriate to notice that the preamble to the agreement stated : Whereas the British Government and the Government of the Irish Free State being united in amity in this undertaking with the Govern- ment of Northern Ireland and being resolved mutually to aid one another in a spirit of neigh- bourly comradeship hereby agree . . • (Here follows the agreement.) Is it too much to hope that, in spite of recent events which• everyone must deplore, the spirit of this preamble may still prevail in the relations between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic?—Yours faithfully,
DOUGLAS L. SAVORY
33 Knockhreda Park, Belfast, Northern lrelaud [Brian Inglis writes: 'The Irish signatories to the Treaty of 1921 accepted its terms under the impres- sion that an All-Ireland Government would be set up later. They would not have signed had they thought that the revision would merely ratify the 1920 boun- dary, with only minor alterations, and they certainly would not have signed had they known that Lloyd George never had the least intention of allowing the boundary to be removed—that his promises were given merely to deceive them. It is true, as Professor Savory says, that the Free State Govern- ment ratified the 1925 agreement; but this was only because they intended that there should be no Parti- tion at all. Irish governments prefer the 1920 border with its injustices (which gives them something to complain about) to the prospect of revision (which would set back the eventual unity of Ireland still f u rther).'—Ed i tor, Spectator.]
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