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A History of Ireland.Volume 2 by Eleanor Hull 1931 |
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XXV.—THE TREATY |
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; | Meanwhile, Ulster politically was consolidating her position, and on June 22, 1921, the first Parliament of Northern Ireland was opened by the King in person. His speech on the occasion rose high above the local interests of the Northern province and was an appeal to the people of Ireland as a whole to compose their differences and work for the general good of the country. "The eyes of the whole Empire," he said with evident emotion, "are on Ireland to-day...I speak from a full heart when I pray that my coming to Ireland to-day may prove to be the first step towards an end of strife amongst her people, whatever their race and creed. "In that hope I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land which they love a new era of peace, contentment and goodwill... May this historic gathering be the prelude of a day in which the Irish people, North and South, under one Parliament or two, as those Parliaments may themselves decide, shall work together in common love for Ireland upon the sure foundation of mutual justice and respect." The King's speech, on such an historic occasion, could not be ignored. It expressed the intention of the Government to take fresh steps to ease the situation. On both sides the struggle was approaching a climax. The Sinn Feiners were gradually being driven out of their hiding-places and pressed back and their supplies of money and arms were becoming exhausted. On the other hand, Sir Nevil Macready was reporting that a change must be taken in hand before October, or he would need enormous supplies of new troops. The Government must "crush the rebels with iron and unstinted force or try to give them what they want." A sudden and startling change of policy was the result of these consultations. In May the whole power of the State was engaged to "hunt down the murder gang"; but in June it was resolved to leave no stone unturned to "make a lasting reconciliation with the Irish people."[1] In May, 1921, Lord FitzAlan succeeded Lord French as Viceroy and three days later Sir James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, taking his life in his hand, was conveyed by rebel drivers to meet Mr. de Valera in his unknown hiding place, to arrange terms of truce. Nothing came of the interview, but the speech of the King on June 22 gave a new opening and on June 24 an invitation from Mr. Lloyd George was received by Mr. de Valera and a similar one by Sir James Craig to a conference in London. On July 11, the invitation was accepted and Mr. de Valera met the Prime Minister in Downing Street. There was to be a cessation of hostilities as from July 11 during the continuance of the negotiations, with the release of all the Deputies of Dail Eireann then in prison. [1] The Right Hon. Winston Churchill, The World Crisis: The Aftermath,
p. 290. During the guerilla war no regular election had been possible and from this purely Sinn Fein parliament, sworn to allegiance to the Irish Republic, only one answer to the proposals of the English Government was to be expected. They almost unanimously confirmed the view of the President, who notified to the Prime Minister that the British proposals were rejected. The famous letter delivered to the Prime Minister at Inverness, in which Mr. de Valera stated that "Our Nation has formally declared its independence, and recognises itself as a Sovereign State" was followed by hurried conferences and correspondence, which were ended on September 30 by the acceptance by Mr. de Valera of a renewed invitation to a conference in London. It is significant that when the time to accept the invitation came, Mr. de Valera refused to go, as feeling it "beneath his dignity, as President of the Irish Republic, to leave his country," and Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith became the leading figures in the delegation, with Messrs. Gavan Duffy, Duggan, Barton, and Erskine Childers in various capacities accompanying them. Childers, who acted as Secretary to the delegation, brought with him the famous Document No. 2, with which Mr. de Valera wished to replace the actual Treaty. Collins says that it was drawn up by Childers, as he believed, purposely to defeat the objects of the delegation; in any case, it wasted days of precious time and was three times turned down by the Government and three times presented by Collins acting on instructions from the President, though sorely against his own will and judgment.[2] The one thing that had been made plain to Mr. de Valera was that an Irish Republic would not be considered. The terms of the invitation were "to discuss terms of peace; to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire may best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations." Mr. de Valera's Document No. 2, puts the preamble in a different form. "That, for purposes of common concern, Ireland shall be associated with the States of the British Commonwealth, viz.: the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa." The matters of common concern were to include Defence, Peace and War, Political Treaties, and "all matters now treated as of common concern among the States of the British Commonwealth, and that in these matters there shall be between Ireland and the States of the British Commonwealth such concerted action founded on consultation as the several Governments may determine." [2] Hayden Talbot, Michael Collins' Own Story, pp. 148-149. [3] This Document in its original form will be found in P. S. O'Hegarty's
The Victory of Sinn Fein, Appendix iii, pp. 210-218. When Michael Collins walked into the Council Chamber at Downing Street there was in Dublin Castle a reward of £10,000 on his head for capture, dead or alive. It was a tense moment for all concerned, and Mr. Churchill says that the vast room seemed electric with suppressed emotion when this youthful negotiator appeared. On the opposite side of the table sat men whose reputation and careers likewise hung in the balance, Sir Austin Chamberlain, the Earl of Birkenhead, the Prime Minister and Mr. Winston Churchill himself, many of them strong supporters or leaders of the Unionist party, friends and helpers of Carson, now braving the furious outcry of betrayal sent up by the Southern Unionists and Ulster, and the taunts of their own supporters. The strictest formalities were observed for the first weeks, but asperities softened as the cumbrous mass of detail was considered day by day and the Irish deputies, especially the two leaders, showed themselves, though inexperienced in diplomatic methods, men of probity and sound judgment and capable of attacking the difficult questions before them with fairness and understanding. Collins says that "from beginning to end the English Plenipotentiaries dealt candidly, fairly, sympathetically."[4] Mr. Churchill's opinion of Griffith and Collins had better be given in his own dramatic words. [4] Hayden Talbot, op. cit., p. 146. [5] The Right Hon. Winston Churchill, The Crisis: The Aftermath, pp.
305, 336-337. (By kind permission). [6] These "futilities," of which Mr. Churchill complains, were
largely owing to Document No. 2, which Mr. de Vaiera had forced upon his
representatives, and to discussions on the Naval clauses, in which Erskine
Childers seems to have showed himself frivolous and absurd. (See Hayden
Talbot, Michael Collins' Own Story, pp. 71, 72.) [8] Michael Collins, The Path to Freedom, pp 34, 35. Hayden Talbot, op.
cit., pp. 141, 142. The Treaty, signed late on the night of December 6, 1921, made Ireland, in the opinion of Collins, a fully constituted State. "It gave us the freedom we fought to win, freedom from British interference and domination. We have the constitutional status of Canada, and the status being one of freedom and equality, we are free to take advantage of that status. In fact, England has renounced all right to govern Ireland, and the withdrawal of her forces is the proof of this. With the evacuation, secured by the Treaty, has come the end of British rule in Ireland." "Under the Treaty," he argued, "Ireland is about to become a fully constituted nation...Our Government will have complete control of our army, our schools, and our trade. Our soldiers, our judges, our ministers, will be the soldiers, judges and ministers of the Irish Free State. We have complete freedom for all our purposes. We shall be rid completely of British interference and British rule. We can establish in its place our own rule and exactly what kind of rule we like. We can restore our Gaelic life in exactly what form we like. We can keep what we have gained and make it secure and strong. The little we have not gained we can go ahead and gain." [9] "It is now only fratricidal strife which can prevent us from making the Gaelic Ireland which is our goal."[10] [9] Michael Collins, The Path to Freedom, pp. 37-39. In the Dail, of which Mr. de Valera was President, the Delegates were faced with the open hostility of a large part of the members. Out of the 121 members, 112 were old fighters in the war, and most of them had spent a term in English prisons, some of them having been arrested three or even five times. Many of them were in prison when they were elected and they had been liberated in order to attend. Most of them had taken an oath of allegiance to the "Republic," and it naturally went hard with them to disavow it. After an adjourned debate, the Treaty was brought into being by a narrow majority of seven; Mr. de Valera and his Cabinet resigned; Mr. Arthur Griffith was elected President, and a Provisional Government was formed. The election which followed in June, 1922, returned 128 Deputies, 94 of whom supported the Treaty, while Mr. de Valera had 34 Anti-Treaty followers.[11] [11] For this election, see page 436. |
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