.

No section of honest Irishmen will dream of negotiating on such a
basis, and any attempt to make use of "sane and moderate" elements to
divide and discredit the elected representatives of the people will be
met by the universal declaration that the "Dail Eireann" alone is
entitled to speak for Ireland. Until this primary fact is recognised
the fight in Ireland must go on, and many black chapters of its
history will have to be written before some British statesman comes
along who is prepared to treat with the Irish nation in a spirit of
justice and generosity.

Peace is still perfectly possible if right methods are employed to
ensure it. It is futile to ask Sinn Fein to lay down arms and to abjure
their opinions as a preliminary condition to negotiations. I doubt
whether the Sinn Fein leaders could impose such a condition upon their
followers, even if they were so inclined--which they are not and never
will be. Let there, then, to start with, be no preliminary tying of
hands. The initiative must come from the Government. They should
announce the largest measure of Home Rule they will pledge themselves to
pass. They should accompany this with a public promise to submit it to
an immediate plebiscite or referendum of the whole Irish people on the
plain issue "Yes" or "No." All they can ask of the Sinn Fein leaders is
that they will leave the Irish people absolutely free to record their
judgment. I can imagine that, in such circumstances, the attitude of the
Sinn Fein leaders would be: "We do not surrender our Republican
opinions, but if the Government offer full New Zealand Home Rule (let us
say) and pledge themselves to enforce it if Ireland accepts it, Sinn
Fein would be justified before all National Republicans in saying: 'This
is a prospect so magnificent for our country we shall do nothing in the
smallest degree to prejudice the opinion of the people against its
acceptance or to fetter the free and honest working of the new
institutions.'" Beyond this no person desiring a real peace ought to
expect Sinn Fein to go, and I am convinced that if this were the
attitude of Sinn Fein and if the offer were made by the Government as
suggested, the majority for acceptance, on a plebiscite being taken,
would be so great that there would be no further shadow of opposition
even in Ulster, where nobody would object that it should have local
autonomy in all necessary particulars.

I can conceive only one man standing in the way