I feel that the importance of this Resolution and what it may mean is so great that from a sense of duty, as well as from a sense of responsibility, I wish to state the reasons why I make this strong appeal to my colleagues in this House to give it their whole-hearted sympathy and support. I brush aside the many side-issues that have arisen out of this Boundary controversy, because I wish to grapple at once with the one real and living issue—namely, will the functioning of this Commission be a factor for good or for evil? It has already aroused great uneasiness and suspicion in the minds of many, both in the North and in the South. The North is smarting under a sense of injustice, in the belief that the setting up of this Commission is an invasion of its rights under the Act of 1920, and is a violation of the pledges which they state, and I believe, with truth, they received from certain prominent British statesmen, although these statesmen now deny or disown them.
In the Free State, our Government is entitled to point with satisfaction, as an indication of the justice of their claim, to the desire of the people of Great Britain, as distinct from its politicians, to keep faith on this Treaty. Nevertheless, suspicion and uneasiness have been aroused here owing to the concerted action of certain politicians and sections of the Press in England, who by a mischievous and ill-advised crusade, have attempted to prejudge the decision of this Commission and to anticipate the interpretation that is to be placed on Article 12. This unconscionable campaign—because I can not describe it in any more complimentary terms—I believe may defeat its own ends. There is an old saying about the effect of excessive protestation, and I think it may well be that in the minds of sensible people these protestations may have the very opposite effect to what they were intended to produce and may suggest that those who have been indulging in them have thereby given the very best proof of their own want of belief in their sincerity.
Be that as it may, human nature being what it is, this campaign has undoubtedly weakened, in the minds of many people in the Free State, their confidence in the independence and partiality of this Commission. I do not myself, for one moment, question either the courage or the honour or good faith of the distinguished South African jurist who has been called upon to preside over it, but I believe he, most of all men, is entitled bitterly to complain on behalf of himself and his colleagues —whoever they may prove to be—for being placed by this campaign in the dilemma that if they give their decision one way they will be charged with having yielded to clamour, while if they give it on the other it will be said that they are in conflict with expert opinion. Under those circumstances, speaking for myself, and speaking, as I hope I always do when I address this House, with the utmost frankness and sincerity, I see no hope of finality in the findings of this Commission, nor do I see that any government, however willing it may be, will be able to persuade its people to accept or submit to them. I assume for the moment that the hopes that are entertained by so many in reference to this Commission may be fulfilled, and that, as a result of its findings, a substantial portion of the territory at present in the possession of Northern Ireland is to be transferred to the Irish Free State. I ask how is that thansfer to be made, and by whom? The territory will not be surrendered willingly; that is certain, and I very much doubt if any British Government can be depended upon to use the forces of the Crown for the purpose of compelling them to surrender. Only one other method of effecting this remains. But the mind of every Irishman shrinks in horror from the idea of being engaged in civil war in such a cause and in such a manner. Such a war will be internecine in its character, and would de-story for centuries the ideal of a peaceful and united Ireland.
History will, I believe, not fail for all time to characterise the present generation of Irishmen as criminally culpable if, before such a dread alternative is resorted to, they fail to exhaust every avenue which would result in the settlement of these matters by goodwill and by mutual understanding. Surely our fellow countrymen in the North and South are not so bankrupt in statesmanship and patriotism as to resort to any remedy like this for the solution of matters of this kind, which only require goodwill and honesty of purpose on both sides to be capable of solution, and, certainly, of a much more permanent and a happier solution than will ever arise from the findings of a Commission superimposed upon this country by the action of the British Government. What are the obstacles which seem to loom so large in the minds of some people in the way of such a conference as is suggested? Is it religion? To me it has always been unthinkable and unintelligible how people who share in their belief and reverence for all the fundamental truths of our common Christianity, and who differ only in the ritual and ceremony which give expression to this belief, can find in this an obstacle in the path of peace in Ireland and goodwill between North and South. Are these obstacles to be found in any claim on behalf of the South for a monopoly of patriotism? I know the people of the North well, and, I say this confidently, that nowhere will you find men more proud of their Irish birth and traditions than in the North of Ireland, or more zealous in the defence of all their country's interests both at home and abroad. Are those obstacles again to be found in the monopoly of allegiance to the Empire? I point as my witnesses to the graves not only of William Redmond, Thomas Kettle and Arthur O'Neill, but to those of the thousands of gallant soldiers from all counties of Ireland who now sleep side by side with no boundary between them in the cemeteries of France and Gallipoli.
Lest it may be said that these obstacles are to be found in the fact that there still remain, both in the North and South, sections of the people who are the victims of political duress or political disabilities, I know that they exist, but do they exist in greater number than was to be expected in the case of a country recently emerging from the fever of violence and disturbance? Are they of such a character, or are they anything but the temporary, if inevitable, aftermath, of the necessity for punishment and repression which now has passed away, and which, with its consequences, could be adjusted and redressed as the result of a few hours' deliberation amongst Irishmen who are anxious and desirous for peace and goodwill. I do not want to be misunderstood as suggesting that the time is now ripe for an ambitious scheme of reunion between the North and South Recent events and the anger and passions that have been aroused would discredit and destroy any such attempt. But I do, in my heart and conscience, believe that the time is opportune and ripe for a mutual conference to consider how best these outstanding problems, which at present distract us and divide us, may be amicably adjusted. Their number is many. I will just give a few illustrations. Take the matter of the Customs and Excise, the great question of transport by rail, by road, by canal and by sea, our inland and coast fisheries and development of our water-power. There are many subjects which, undoubtedly, in my opinion are capable, I will not say of simple adjustment, but of early adjustment by conference between Irishmen, if they will only enter into it with honesty of purpose and with goodwill and not for the purpose of securing a political triumph over each other.
I believe that the respective Governments of the Free State and Northern Ireland can safely trust each other, and may be certain of the fact that either will carry out everything that it has undertaken to do, and in attempting to do so each Government will have its people behind them and with them. I would appeal to my fellow-countrymen in the North to trust to the people of the Free State, because I am certain they will not let them down, nor will they have to complain that, on every occasion, they have been betrayed by them, as they do complain of their English friends.
I would like, in conclusion, on behalf of the Southern Unionists, who as a result of the assurances extended to them by the Free State Government, remained in this country, and determined to throw in their lot with their own people, to say and to make clear that the Free State Government has made good these assurances in every particular. Speaking from the experience derived as Chairman of this Chamber, of the legislation that has been passed by the Free State during the last three years, I wish to state absolutely that I know of no single instance in which Southern Unionists have been prejudiced or ill-treated by that legislation either in person or property or by any discrimination of any sort or kind. To-day the North and South stand at the parting of the ways. Each is faced with a choice either to take the path which leads to mutual co-operation and goodwill—the only road, however long the journey may be, that can eventually lead to reunion—or the path which will speedily plunge both into the depths of disorder, disruption and despair. I have intervened in this debate solely for the purpose of expressing my own hope and wish that the Government of the Free State will no longer stand on any ceremony as between themselves and the North, but that they will stretch out—I do not say that they are not willing to stretch out, because they have said it very often—but that they will, in fact, stretch out the hand of fellowship to the Government in the North. I have spoken, as I have said, frankly. I have said, I hope, nothing that would in any way offend the susceptibilities or the ideas of any members of the Seanad. If I have, I have signally failed in my purpose. But at the close of a fairly long and strenuous public life, I should have no happier, no more pleasing memory than to think that I had contributed, be it ever so little, to a better understanding and a more intimate relationship between the North and South, believing in my heart and soul that upon that foundation alone can we build with any hope either now or in the future a peaceful, prosperous and united Ireland.