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diff --git a/78446-0.txt b/78446-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1341e41 --- /dev/null +++ b/78446-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,575 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78446 *** + +Transcriber’s Notes: + +Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + +An additional Transcriber’s Note is at the end. + + * * * * * + + + + +The Irish Cause and “The Irish Convention” + + + By Wm. O’Brien, M.P. + + Authorized Report of Speech + delivered on May 21, 1917, + in the House of Commons, + in the Debate on Mr. Lloyd + George’s Irish Proposals + + THIRD EDITION + + To which is added Correspondence + with the Prime Minister + + MAUNSEL & COMPANY, LIMITED + DUBLIN AND LONDON. 1917 + + Price One Penny + + * * * * * + +Printed by George Roberts, Dublin + + + + +THE IRISH CAUSE AND “THE IRISH CONVENTION” + + +The Prime Minister’s proposals are contained in two apparently +water-tight compartments: The first is the Bill which the Government +offered to introduce based on the severance of six Irish counties +from the body of Ireland, and that offer could only be met by an +immediate and unchangeable negative on the part of the Irish people. +You may abuse Longford as much as you like, but Longford has shot +the fox--Longford has killed Partition so far as the Nationalists of +Ireland are concerned. The alternative plan which now, after the Prime +Minister’s speech, remains the only one--the plan of referring to +Irishmen themselves the drafting of a Constitution for Ireland--is one +which, if it had been adopted six or seven years ago by the Government, +must to a certainty have led to a happy settlement so far as anything +human is certain. That offer is one which, even now at the half-past +eleventh hour, ought not to be dismissed by any man in this House, and +especially by any Irishman, without grave and anxious deliberation. + +Unfortunately the speech of the Hon. Baronet (Sir John Lonsdale), +the leader of the Unionist Party, makes it only too plain that +the Partition proposals of the Government, as to which neither of +the previous speakers has said a single word, remain far the most +formidable danger of the situation in Ulster. That being so, Mr. +Speaker, unless we are again to yield to the easy optimism and +child-like trustfulness which have been the ruin of the Home Rule +cause, that fact has got to be grappled with, and if you are ever to +understand the real forces you are dealing with in Ireland--as to which +you are deplorably--I must in frankness say deplorably--ignorant, you +must not really expect us to forget the elaborate system of Partition +which the Government, or rather their predecessors, attempted last year +to force upon the Irish people. Our British rulers actually imagined +they were soothing the national pride of one of the most sensitive +races upon earth, while they were all the time wounding to the quick +the feelings of every Irish Nationalist, and indeed of every other +Irishman as well, with a degree of stupidity that was scarcely exceeded +by the worst wrongs of the old times. Because in those old days at all +events England acted with her eyes open and with the deliberate purpose +to insult and oppress. + +You persisted in that scheme of Partition notwithstanding the most +earnest remonstrances which some of us could address to you. When the +late Prime Minister went to Ireland after the Dublin rising--it was a +pity he waited for the Dublin rising to go--the position of our own +friends, at all events, was made absolutely clear to him, and it was +this: Any amount of concession that would unite Ireland, but Partition, +permanent or, as you call it, temporary, never! You persisted with +your Partition scheme and you failed. The Government and those Irish +representatives who thought fit to act with them were driven from the +field by a storm of public fury and horror more universal, I think, +than anything I ever witnessed in Ireland; you had scarcely a man in +the whole country with you north or south except the place-hunters, +and the place-hunters very quickly took to their heels. That lively +experience occurred only nine or ten months ago. Yet, here we have, or +rather up to to-night had, the Prime Minister coming up again to offer +us a Bill which in a slightly more gilded form is the self-same nostrum +of Partition which was rejected last summer as a burning insult by +almost every honest man of the Irish race. + +The only difference between the two schemes which is worth a moment’s +discussion is the pretext that some shadow of national unity is +preserved to Ireland by this so-called Council of Ireland. That device +does some credit to the Prime Minister’s ingenuity, but, Sir, it is +of no more real value as a preservative of the integrity of Ireland +than if you were to put in a proviso that the Hon. Baronet and his +Ulster men might still travel up to Dublin to attend the Punchestown +races. The work assigned to this Council is too trivial for words. +Indeed it could absolutely do no work at all without the leave of the +Hon. Baronet and his Ulster Party in this House, who would command +a majority of fifteen to six Nationalists in the Ulster delegation. +The proposal is luckily too insignificant to be really irritating. +Otherwise the only effect could be to add an additional complication +by setting up a new and irresponsible dual control in Dublin to review +and criticize every act of the unfortunate mutilated Dublin Parliament. +I cannot suppose the Prime Minister really desired to add insult to +the injury of the exclusion of the six counties by establishing the +Ulster Party in this House in addition as a rival authority to snub +the unfortunate Dublin Parliament at every turn. But the truth is, the +whole thing is so ridiculously unworkable that the only practical +purpose of any kind it could serve would be to throw dust in the eyes +of the American people and to keep President Wilson in good humour. + +Sir, the essence of the Government’s first proposal is Partition in +a more insidious form. Its essence is a renewal of the intolerable +insult that Ireland is not one nation but two. Whether our country is +to be mutilated county by county, or by what, in the language of the +butchers, is called the clean cut, the result would be to split Ireland +asunder as surely as if what the Prime Minister proposed to us was to +fight another battle of the Boyne. + +Sir, we had no difficulty in telling you four years ago, as we are +telling you now, that the Irish Nation will never submit to any such +scheme as long as grass grows and water runs. What would be your own +feelings if the Germans proposed to you as a condition of peace that +you should cede to them--I won’t say six of the richest counties on +your southern coast, but that you should cede to them even temporarily +as you say--even for five years--the smallest parcel of the sacred soil +of England--say Westminster Abbey. Mr. Speaker, Westminster Abbey does +not contain an ounce of dust more sacred for you than do for us the +shrines and graves and battlefields which we are asked to surrender to +an Orange Free State as a visible symbol that the integrity of Ireland +as a nation has ceased to exist. No, sir--better, as Cardinal Logue +said, better let us wait for fifty years longer, and I tell you you +will have to wait for fifty centuries longer before you will ever get +the Irish nation to cut up the land of their fathers either by the +clean cut or county by county, under some preposterous system of a +majority of two or three hundred jerrymandered or corrupted votes. + +I do not at all say that if the Irish people were to treat you as +unscrupulously as they have been treated themselves, they would not +close with the offer of the Government, such as it is, but they +could only do so with the determination to work it in a spirit of +sleepless hostility to England and to those Irishmen who might attempt +to organize that abominable caricature of an Irish Parliament. Sir, +the Irish people are not sufficiently good hypocrites to play a +Machiavellian game of that kind, and it is just because we desire +peace, and genuine peace, between the two countries that I tell you +straight that for the few hundred placemen you might content, you would +be making enemies of millions of the best men and women of the Irish +race. + +I know all your difficulties. Unhappily after the speech we have +listened to from the Hon. Baronet they may seem at this stage all but +insurmountable. But these difficulties are mainly due to your own +feebleness and double-dealing--to the feebleness and double-dealing +of the late Home Rule Government and their Irish allies. They could +never make up their minds either to conciliate Ulster while there was +yet time to do it, nor to enforce their own law under the Parliament +Act. We shall hear plenty of complaints now of the speech of the +Hon. Baronet, the leader of the Ulster Party, but where is the use +of complaining if he and his Ulster men take their stand on the six +counties, and take advantage of their knowledge that they never will +be compelled to obey the law like other people? Yes, but whose fault +is that? The Home Rule Government and, unfortunately, their Irish +auxiliaries first offered them four counties, and then advanced their +bid to six. They passed a so-called Home Rule Act with the public +stipulation that it was never to be put in force without an Amending +Act, which would repeal it in its most vital particular. They passed it +further subject to the solemn assurance of the Home Rule Prime Minister +that the notion of Ulster being ever compelled to obey that Statute was +unthinkable--Sir, to my mind, a monstrously unconstitutional doctrine. +It would be the death of the first principle of all democratic +government. But that was then common ground all round in every Party +in this House except in our own small camp, and the foullest insults +were hurled at us in this House for daring to make even the most +modest protest. Sir, how can you be surprised if the Ulster men have +now taken you at your own solemn word? You never proffered a single +concession to the Ulstermen while they were still unarmed, and while +even in this House they were still amenable enough to reason and to +conciliation. Neither did you attempt to dispute their right to arm +in order to bid defiance to your Parliament Act with arms in their +hands. If we clear our minds of cant we all know that nothing happened +in Dublin in the rising of Easter week that would not have happened +in Belfast on a much larger scale if you had attempted to enforce the +law there. It is all your own doing, and, unfortunately, the doing of +five-sixths of Ireland’s own representatives as well, and it is this +miserable collapse of Parliamentarianism which is responsible for the +Dublin rising--which is responsible for the Roscommon election and the +Longford election, and which is responsible for the contempt and hatred +of Parliamentary methods which has unquestionably taken possession of +far the largest portion of the uncorrupted youth of Ireland. + +Sir, I turn with relief to the Prime Minister’s alternative plan which +is now the only hope. No man in this House could like to think that the +last word has been spoken in this great matter of the reconciliation +of the two countries which has been brought so marvellously far towards +success. For my own part, a Home Rule Settlement, by the consent of +all sections and persuasions of our countrymen, has been the one--I +can truly say the one and only object of my political life for the +past fifteen years. It is the only hope which could induce me to +linger for twenty-four hours more in Irish public life, such as it has +become. It would be affectation to deny that this alternative plan +of the Government might well make the ears of some of us tingle with +satisfaction because the Government have at long last begun to find +out that the only real way out of the Irish difficulty lies through +those principles of Conference, Conciliation and Consent which we have +spent the last five years in preaching to deaf ears in this House. Our +unforgivable sin was that we only counted seven against seventy in the +Division Lobbies. But let that pass. Undoubtedly the declaration now +made by the Government that to Irishmen themselves should be left the +settlement of their country’s legislative and fiscal future is one of +the most momentous announcements that ever was made in this House. +It is the resumption and the completion of Mr. Wyndham’s historic +declaration in the same sense in 1902, which put an end to the agrarian +war. There are only one or two observations by which I should like to +qualify my whole-hearted approval of the general principle. The first +is only as to a matter of practical procedure, but it will be found to +be one of vital importance if the Government really mean business--if, +as I trust, this is an honest effort and is not mere playing to the +American gallery for war purposes. The Prime Minister unfortunately +has made it plain that by the term Convention he means the assembling +of a large body of men. Well, Sir, that will involve you at once in +almost insuperable difficulties as to the selection or election of the +members. However you manage it the cry is quite sure to arise from one +side or the other that it is a packed Convention, a term of not very +fragrant memory in Ireland. For instance, the hon. Member for Waterford +has just thrown out the suggestion that you should call in the County +Councils, Corporations, District Councils and so on. Well, sir, if +there is one fact notorious in Ireland it is that these bodies were +elected five years ago and have long exhausted their mandate, and do +not in the least degree represent the present state of public opinion +in Ireland. + +The selection of this Convention would in point of fact give you as +much trouble as a general election, without satisfying anybody. Then +even if you had this big Convention assembled, you would have no end +of hot-headed partisans rushing in with their own particular plans and +fads, and you would find it impossible within any reasonable time to +reach what you require, which is a prompt, succinct, consistent and +practicable agreement. This morning’s _Times_ wisely warned you that +the analogy from the case of the more phlegmatic people of South Africa +on which the Prime Minister dwelt is a wholly illusory one--not much +wiser than the English bull which has suggested General Smuts as the +principal personage in a purely Irish assembly. From my experience of +Irish affairs, which is at all events one of considerable length, you +will I believe find that the only possibility of a prompt agreement +is among a small number of men, and that its success must depend not +upon the personality of the men, but upon their agreement being of such +a character as to commend itself to the overwhelming sense of the +community. The other observation I should like to make is that I hope +we may take it for granted from the Prime Minister’s speech to-night +that the mandate of this Convention, or whatever you may call, will be +entirely separate from the views of Partition that were to be embodied +in the proposed Government Bill--in other words, that the alternative +plan must be read independently of the views enunciated in the first +part of the Prime Minister’s letter. Otherwise, any Convention, such as +you contemplate, if it ever assembles at all, will either break up on +the question of Partition, or if it be packed with place-hunters will +end in some Partition compromise, which will be repudiated with fury by +the country. + +Up to the last moment my friends and myself urged in the competent +quarters as we have done for the past five years that it is not in +this House but in Ireland the foundations of any real settlement +must be laid. But we warned them that all our suggestions were based +upon the principle that although a conference would of course, in +courtesy, listen to any discussion, be the cost what it may, for your +sakes as well as for our own, Partition in any shape is inadmissible +and impossible. What we suggested was that the Government should +begin by inviting a small Conference of Irishmen in Ireland, not +necessarily composed of the leaders of any existing party or section. +In this I am glad to be in entire agreement with the hon. member for +Waterford, although he probably would not go so far as myself when I +say the less the Conference would have of party leaders the better, +because I am afraid it is not the Irish people but the leaders of all +existing parties and sections who are mainly responsible for the whole +mischief. I do not, of course, make any exception whatever. I admit +that the present situation in Ireland is one of mere chaos, and that +nobody--literally no politician--is at the present moment in a position +to answer for the action of the Irish people. + +But it would be still not at all difficult to hit upon the names of +a dozen eminent Irishmen--men of broadmindedness and imagination and +toleration wide enough to embrace all political sects of our countrymen +from the most moderate to the most extreme. If you could assemble a +dozen such men around a friendly council table, they could be depended +upon not to separate in such a crisis for our country without some +great and memorable national agreement upon some such non-partitionist +and Federationist lines as I have again and again indicated in this +House and outside it. Let me add that the chances of an agreement +would be all the better among all classes of Irishmen north and south +the further the Conference would travel away from the existing Act +upon the Statute-book, which has really become a bitter laughing-stock +throughout the country. + +Well, suppose you had an Irish agreement. We suggested as the second +stage that it should be submitted to the Imperial Cabinet, including +the Premiers of the Over Seas Dominions. For that tribunal there might +now be substituted the hybrid committee of an Imperial character which +the Prime Minister contemplated in case his Bill received a second +reading under the presidency of some man of the type of Mr. Speaker, +if indeed a second such man is to be found. Once you had secured an +Irish agreement thus splendidly fortified, the democratic thing would +be to submit it frankly by Referendum to the whole Irish people, and +then by all means place on the Irish people the responsibility for +its acceptance or rejection, for under a Referendum the masses of the +Irish people would have a voice such as they can never have under your +nominated or selected Convention. If, as I am very sure, the response +to a Referendum should be an all but universal chorus of acceptance +and relief from every substantial element in the country, including +the bulk of the great Protestant and Dissenting communities--well, +then, let the Government do what the Home Rule Government ought to have +done five or six years ago, let them adopt the agreement as their own, +and let them publicly announce that they will if necessary go to the +country and appeal for the sovereign authority of the electorate if any +small section of merely irrational irreconciliables at either extreme +should still attempt to block the way. I am speaking of a small and +irrational minority. I do not, of course, speak of the Unionist body in +bulk, and of course if you were to attempt Partition in any shape you +would be dealing not with an irrational minority but with practically +the entire Irish race, fifteen or twenty millions of them, and you +would find yourself up against that rock of Irish nationality against +which all the force of England has spent itself in vain for the past +eight hundred years. + +What I want the House to mark is that you have never yet tried any +of the things I mention. You have never called the Irish people into +consultation. You have never called the electorate into consultation. +You have never offered any concession to Ulster except one which would +call upon us with our own hand to take the very life of our motherland +as a nation. You have abdicated the first function of democratic +government in favour of the right of rebellion, whether in Belfast or +in Dublin, and if the Prime Minister’s first proposal could pass you +would be simply extending the area of the next insurrection to Derry +and Tyrone and Enniskillen. + +I don’t deny--Mark Tapley himself could scarcely deny--that at this +time of day you may fail to produce any general Irish agreement even +through such a Conference as we propose. You have let one golden +opportunity after another slip through your fingers. It is tragic +to think that if the Government had only made their alternative +proposal six or seven years ago, and if the Irish bishops, Catholic +and Protestant, had only then issued their recent manifesto, all +these troubles might have been long ago blessedly composed, and the +whole course of the war might have been very considerably altered. +It may quite possibly be now too late. But the point is, you have +never yet tried it. That is the astounding fact, but fact it is. The +Prime Minister’s own letter confesses it, and fail how you might, you +could never at the worst reach a more humiliating position than you +occupy to-day before the nations of the world, confessing that you +have incurred obligations to Ireland which you are in honour bound to +discharge and that you cannot do it. + +I am still not altogether without hope that a Government which had the +grit to tackle all the might of Germany unflinchingly may no longer +stand shivering before two opposite sets of extremists in the Irish +seas. Unfortunately the Prime Minister’s speech which, I am afraid, +lacked a good deal of his usual magnetic attraction, did not afford +very much evidence of the fearlessness and high purpose which alone can +pluck a successful Irish settlement out of the dangers in which the +miserable bungling of the politicians has entangled us. If you break +down now--I pray you not to delude yourself on this point--if you +break down now, you will not kill the Irish cause, but you will kill +any reasonable chance for our time of reconstructing the Constitutional +Movement upon an honest basis. You will kill all Irish belief in this +House or in any Party in it. You will set up the right of Rebellion, +whether for the Covenanters or the Sinn Feiners, as the only arbiter +left in Irish affairs. You will justly make Parliamentary methods even +more despised and detested than they are at the present moment by the +young men of Ireland. You will force the Irish people, sorely against +their will, to turn their eyes altogether away from this Parliament +to the International Peace Congress. I daresay it will turn out to be +an equally hopeless mirage, but at all events, you will have left the +Irish people no alternative except to haunt your path at that Congress +and to join all the other small nations of Europe in a final appeal for +freedom to that supreme tribunal of European and American democracy and +humanity. + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE PRIME MINISTER + + +The following correspondence has taken place:-- + + 10 DOWNING STREET, + WHITEHALL, S.W., + + _13th June, 1917_. + +DEAR MR. O’BRIEN--Pursuant to my statement in the House of Commons on +the 11th instant, I now have the satisfaction of requesting you to +nominate two representatives of the Party under your leadership who may +be invited to serve as members of the Convention. + +With the terms of reference you are familiar. I stated them in my +letter to you of the 16th May in these words:-- + +“Would it be too much to hope that Irishmen of all creeds and parties +might meet together in a Convention for the purpose of drafting a +Constitution for their country which should secure a just balance of +all the opposing interests, and finally compose the unhappy discords +which have so long distracted Ireland and impeded its harmonious +development.” + +I further referred to them in the House of Commons as follows:-- + +“The Government, therefore, propose to summon immediately, on behalf +of the Crown, a Convention of representative Irishmen in Ireland, +to submit to the British Government a Constitution for the future +government of Ireland within the Empire.” + +I shall be glad to learn as soon as may be convenient to you the names +of the gentlemen to whom invitations should now be sent. + + Yours very truly, + + D. LLOYD GEORGE. + + WILLIAM O’BRIEN, ESQ., M.P., + _House of Commons, S.W._ + + * * * * * + + MALLOW, + _June 18th, 1917_. + +DEAR MR. LLOYD GEORGE--To my deep disappointment, the details of how +“The Irish Convention” is to be composed confirm the apprehensions +which I endeavoured to express in the House of Commons. The rejoicing +excited by the courageous Amnesty for the Insurrection of last year +cannot be allowed to blind the country to the danger. + +1. While the Government have nominally adopted the principle of +allowing the future Constitution of Ireland to be settled by agreement +among Irishmen themselves, they have done so under conditions which +render that principle a nullity. There can be little or no hope that +a Convention constituted as the Government have directed can arrive +at any decision except some hateful bargain for the partition of the +country under a plausible disguise. To attribute the blame for such a +decision or for the failure to arrive at any better one to the Irish +people would be little short of an outrage upon Ireland, and would be a +gross imposition on the credulity of friendly nations abroad. + +2. The proposed Convention would both be too large to make a prompt +and carefully-considered agreement practicable, and too small for a +National Assembly purporting to represent all the great interests +concerned. The fact that the scheme excludes from any direct +representation whatever the 400,000 Ulster Nationalists whom any +Partition proposal hitherto contemplated would cut off from their +country; the agricultural and urban labourers, comprising one-third +of the Irish population; the great farming interest in the area of +the Rural District Councils, and the Universities and other teaching +professions--must surely make it unnecessary to emphasise the latter +point. + +3. While the politicians’ organizations are in appearance restricted +to a delegation of five apiece, the pretence is, to the knowledge of +everybody in Ireland, a misleading one. The twin organizations of +the Irish Parliamentary Party--the most powerful of the two being of +a secret and rigidly sectarian character--would command a majority +of the Convention as disciplined as if directly delegated by these +organizations, and, in the event of “a deal” with the Ulster Unionist +body of at least twenty-five delegates, would represent an overwhelming +vote for some scheme of Partition, such as the two Nationalist +organizations referred to strove hard last year to force upon the +Nationalists of Ireland, and have never since categorically pledged +themselves to renounce. Their leaders have, on the contrary, on more +than one recent occasion expressed their regret that the Partition +bargain of last year did not succeed. + +I do not impugn the sincerity of those who may believe any compromise +would be better than failure to secure an agreement, but am absolutely +convinced, for my own part, that Partition under any disguise would +mean the destruction of the ideal of Ireland a Nation, and could not, +indeed, be enforced at all without bloodshed and disorder. + +4. The solid majority--apart even from the aid of the direct nominees +of the Government--which the Irish Parliamentary Party would thus be +able to cast in favour of any such Partitionist compromise--would +consist principally of Mayors and Chairmen of County Councils, all of +whom were the choice of the Board of Erin wing of the Ancient Order +of Hibernians and of the United Irish League, and could not have been +elected without the imprimatur of these organisations. This fact might +not be material if the Board of Erin Hibernians and the United Irish +League could still pretend to enjoy the confidence of the country; +but their leaders have owned that the contrary is the truth, and, as +a matter of fact, have not attempted to hold a free public meeting +anywhere throughout the country for more than a year past. The local +governing bodies, like the Irish Parliamentary Party themselves, have +outstayed their mandate from the country by several years. The greater +number of those whom the Government arrangements will constitute a +majority of the Convention would quite certainly be defeated if they +were obliged to face their constituents at the polls. The will of +the people is, therefore, rendered powerless to control the secret +deliberations of the Convention, and would be forced to find other and +regrettable means of resisting any such Partitionist compromise, as +there is only too substantial reason to apprehend. + +5. On the other hand, while my friends and myself would welcome the +most generous representation of the unofficial Unionist population of +Ireland, the Government scheme ensures to the official Ulster Unionist +Council a full third of the voting power of the Convention--under the +direction, moreover, of a Committee not present at the Convention, but +specially nominated by the Council to supervise its proceedings from +outside. The terms of the Resolution under which the Ulster Unionist +Council consented to enter the Convention make it clear that they have +only done so as a War measure, and, relying upon the assurances of +the Government that they need fear no Parliamentary pressure if they +should adhere to their demand for the exclusion of the six counties +as a minimum--a demand, indeed, which was conceded to them last year +by the Irish Parliamentary Party. It is consequently obvious that the +chances of any agreement by the Ulster Unionist Council other than one +based on the separation of the six counties are all but hopelessly +handicapped from the start, and the temptation dangerously increased to +those Nationalist politicians who have already committed themselves to +dismemberment. + +6. As you are aware, my friends and myself have long since urged upon +the Cabinet a constructive proposal, by which alone, in our judgment, +any agreement involving a genuine settlement of the Irish difficulty +can now be obtained, viz., a small Conference of responsible Irishmen, +on the Land Conference model, to draft the headings of a project of +Self-government for Ireland such as would guarantee a future of the +fullest security and power to the Unionists of Ulster and of the South +as well in the government of our common native land; such agreement, if +arrived at, to be submitted to a vote of the people of Ireland by way +of Referendum. + +Recent experience has convinced me more deeply than ever that it is to +a small Round Table Conference of thoughtful and competent Irishmen, +and not to a heterogeneous assembly, mostly composed of pre-committed +partisan politicians, we must look for the materials on which the +country might with confidence be called upon for a judgment, and that +a Referendum, giving the whole mass of the population a direct and +influential voice, would be the only means of eliciting a decision so +overpowering as to put an end to all further controversy among rational +men. + +It is because I am driven to the conclusion that the Government +scheme, while making a specious appearance of adopting the Conference +method, in reality adopts it only to destroy its efficacy--because +it forbids all reasonable hope of any agreement other than one which +could only inflame and intensify Irish discontent, and because it +would most unjustly cast upon the Irish people the blame for a failure +of the Government’s own producing--that I have made up my mind, with +reluctance, and, indeed, with poignant personal sorrow, that I must +decline to undertake any responsibility in connection with a Convention +so constituted. + + Yours very truly, + WILLIAM O’BRIEN. + + RIGHT HON. D. LLOYD GEORGE, M.P., + _Prime Minister_. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber’s Note: + +Punctuation has been made consistent. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78446 *** |