With simple candour Sir James Craig then explained his whole
line of thought. If the invitation had been refused, the action of the North might have been taken as a model by the South. The South might have said : " If the North won't go in, we won't go in." This is exactly the policy, temperate and honest, which the Ulster leaders have always followed. Sir James Craig is only doing what Lord Carson used to do. He does not attempt for a moment to interfere with the rest of Ireland, or to dictate its future. Rather he tries to smooth the way of negotiations between Sinn Fein and the Govern- ment. Nevertheless, to his own people he is perfectly loyal. " Ulster," he said, " by her sacrifice in accepting this Act, has gone the very farthest she can in meeting the wishes of Great Britain, and my Ministers and myself are determined not to budge a single inch." That is to say, the Six Counties will not abandon their right to self-determination, and, of course, they are absolutely justified.
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