10 X.
The Prime Minister's Reply to Mr.
de Valera's Letter of
September 17, 1921.
(Telegraphed.)
gir * Gairloch, September 18, 1921.
'
I have received your telegram of last night, and observe that it does not modify the claim that your'delegates should meet us as the representatives of a sovereign and independent State.
.
You made no such condition in advance when you came to see me m July.
1 invited you then to meet me, in the words of my letter, as
" the chosen leader of the great majority in Southern Ireland," and you accepted that invitation.
From the very outset of our conversations I told you tliat we looked to Ireland to own allegiance to the Throne, and to make her future as a member of the British Common wealth.
That was the basis of our proposals, and we cannot alter it.
The status which you now claim in advance for your delegates is in effect a repudiation of that basis.
I am prepared to meet your delegates, as I met you in July, in the capacity of " chosen spokesmen " for your people to discuss the association of Ireland with' Ehe British Commonwealth.
My colleagues and I cannot meet them as the representa¬ tives of a sovereign and independent State without disloyalty on our part to the Throne and the Empire.
I must, therefore, repeat that, unless the second paragraph in your letter of the 12th is withdrawn, conference between us is impossible.
I am, Yours faithfully, (Signed) D.
LLOYD GEORGE.
XI.
Reply received from Mr.
de Valera, September 19, 1921.
(Telegraphed.)
The Right Hon.
D.
Lloyd George,
Gairloch.
Mansion House, Dublin, Sir, September 19, 1921.
We have had no thought at any time of asking you to accept any conditions precedent to a conference.
We would have thought it as unreasonable to expect you as a preliminary to recognise the Irish Republic formally or informally as that you should expect us formally or informally to surrender our national position.
It is precisely because neither side accepts the position of the other that there is a dispute at all, and that a conference is necessary to search for and discuss such adjustments as might compose it.
A treaty of accommodation and association properly concluded between the peoples of these two islands and between Ireland and the group of States in the British Commonwealth would, we believe, end the dispute for ever and enable the two nations to settle down in peace, each pursuing its own individual development and contributing its own quota to civilisation, but working together in free and friendly co-operation in affairs of agreed common concern.
To negotiate such a treaty the respective representatives of the two nations must meet.
If you seek to impose preliminary conditions which we must regard as involving a surrender of our whole position they cannot meet.
Your last telegram makes it clear that misunderstandings arc more likely to increase than to diminish, and the cause of peace more likely to be retarded than advanced by a continuance of the present correspondence.
We request you, therefore, to state whether your letter of the 7th September is intended to be a demand for a surrender on our part or an invitation to a conference free on both sides, and without prejudice should agreement not be reached.
If the latter we readily confirm our acceptance of the invitation, and our appointed delegates will meet your Government's representatives at any time in the immediate future that you designate.
I am, feir,
Yours faithfully, (Signed) EAMON DE VALERA.
