proposals, but these were now dead and
damned by all parties, the Roscommon, Longford and East Clare
victories of Sinn Fein having brought the Irish Party to disown their
twice-repeated bargain for Partition. He then proposed as an
alternative that an Irish Convention, composed of representative
Irishmen, should assemble to deliberate upon the best means of
governing their own country.

The All-for-Ireland Party were asked to nominate representatives to
this Convention, as were also Sinn Fein. In reply Mr O'Brien stated
four essential conditions of success: (1) a Conference of ten or a
dozen persons known to intend peace; (2) a prompt agreement, making
every conceivable concession to Ulster, with the one reservation that
partition in any shape or form was inadmissible and unthinkable; (3)
the immediate submission of the agreement to a Referendum of the Irish
people (never before consulted upon a definite proposal); (4) if any
considerable minority of irreconcilables still uttered threats of an
Ulster rebellion a bold appeal of the Government to the British
electorate at a General Election to declare once and for all between
the claims of reason and justice and the incorrigibility of Ulster.

One panel of names which Mr O'Brien submitted to the Cabinet at their
request was: The Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Protestant Primate, the
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, the Marquess of Londonderry, the
Marquess of Ormonde, General Sir Hubert Gough, Major "Willie" Redmond,
M.P., the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Dunraven, Viscount
Northcliffe, Mr William Martin Murphy, Mr Hugh Barrie, M.P., and two
representatives of Sinn Fein. Mr O'Brien was in a position to
guarantee that at a Conference thus constituted Sinn Fein would not be
unrepresented. Instead of setting up a Conference of this character,
which it is now clear would not have separated without coming to an
agreement, the proposal was set aside--whether by Mr Lloyd George or
by Mr Redmond's advisers has yet to be revealed--and an Irish
Convention composed of nominated representatives was constituted,
which had no possibility of agreement except an agreement on the lines
of Partition and which was doubtless planned and conceived for the
purpose of fooling Ireland and America and keeping the Convention
"talking" for nine months until America was wiled into the war.

The Convention could by no possibility succeed, and my belief is it
was never intended to succeed. It was nume