Great Britain and Eire Too many attempts to straighten - out --
relations between Great Britain and the Irish Free State (or Eire, as we must now call it) have proved abortive for any excessive expectations to be raised by the announcement of forthcoming conver- sations between Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. de Valera. But it is certain that the conversations would not have been arranged at all if there was not reasonable ground for hoping that they might bear some fruit. There has been more contact than was always generally known between Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, as Dominion Secretary, and Mr. de Valera in the last eighteen months, and the excellent personal relationship existing between the two has created.a favourable atmosphere for informal discussion. That the old annuity dispute and the cattle embargo that arose from it should still block the way to understanding because no agreement can be reached on an arbitration tribunal is lamentable. The new constitutional position of Eire makes it more than ever unreasonable to force on Mr. de Valera a purely Imperial tribunal if he prefers, for example, the Permanent Court at the Hague (whose present President happens to be British). But if Mr. de Valera is going to make the abolition of the partition of Ireland a sine qua non then the negotiations must fail before they begin. Desirable as the unity of Ireland may be, and is, nothing in the form of pressure on Northern Ireland from Downing Street could be tolerated. Oppor- tunity may arise, now or in the future, for a British Prime Minister to use his good offices at Belfast. If so it must be seized and doubtless will be. But no more than that is possible.
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