So much for the "settlement " effected by the treaty, and for the part played by British politicians in it, which is not edifying. It remains to examine the boundary problem itself, and to state, as impartially as possible, the position of the parties to the dispute. So far as the mere existence of the boundary at all is concerned, there is general agreement that it is a nuisance and a menace. Ireland, in spite of its sharp political divisions, is an economic unit; the industrial North and the agricultural South are complementary to each other, and anything that hampers their free commercial intercourse must necessarily be damaging to both. A customs barrier, even if it be kept as low as possible, does hamper such intercourse. But this fundamental objection is increased by the nature of the frontier. This follows the old county boundaries-survivals of conditions which have long passed away, with no regard to the conditions of the present. It bisects towns-Pettigo, for instance-and even farms; it meanders irresponsibly from one side to another of railways. Moreover, it is so irregular that its length is greater than it need be; and this, and the wild country through which it often passes, make it hard to guard, so that smuggling flourishes. For this reason, among others, intercourse between the six counties and the South (in which, by a convenient fiction, Donegal is included) can only be carried on by the railways and main roads, all other means of communication over the border having been closed. This means that people living in the border counties are often virtually cut off from all access to their neighbours and friends on the other side.*

The boundary, then, is a nuisance. It is also a menace, so long as it remains undefined by mutual agreement. For it is, to all intents and purposes, a military frontier, in part roughly fortified, and guarded by the Free State troops on the one side and by the Ulster Special Constabulary on the other. These opposing forces, at the time of writing, are on the best of terms, and there are no rumours of trouble. Yet the fact remains that the situation is pregnant with trouble, which in Ireland it is

*A country gentleman in Cavan told the present writer that, in order to visit a friend living seven miles off in Fermanagh, he had to drive twenty miles to the nearest high road. A publican in Cavan owns a farm ten minutes' walk away on the other side of the border. In order to reach it he now has to go five miles round.

VOL. 241. NO. 491.

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feared and believed will break out as soon as the Boundary Commission reaches a decision which is not acceptable to both parties. That a decision can be reached which both parties will accept is, in their present temper, unthinkable.*

It may, at this point, be well to explain why this boundary question is so difficult to settle in accordance with the blessed principle of self-determination. The cleavage between the rival sections being mainly "religious," the problem would have been greatly simplified had Providence distributed the creeds with an eye to its solution. Had the Catholics, who are assumed to be sighing for the flesh-pots of the Free State, been concentrated in the south of the six counties, there would have been little difficulty in adjusting the matter. Unfortunately this is not the case. Here and there, as along the western and southern border of Fermanagh and in the south of Armagh and Down, the Catholics preponderate, though mixed with a large percentage of Protestants; but in Tyrone the Catholic population

mountainy men" for the most part-are divided from the South by a solid block of Protestants. The latter, who have the support of their co-religionists in the six counties generally, say that they will fight and die rather than be forced under the Southern Government. Well, they are a hardy, stiff-backed, dour race of men; and they mean what they say. It is not easy for English Protestants, whose religion is evaporating in a mist of sentimental humanitarianism, to understand, still less to appreciate this spirit. At least, let them become aware of its existence. It exists, partly because the religious struggles of the seventeenth century, with the crowning mercies of the relief of Derry and the victory of the Boyne, remain a living tradition which, for the Protestants of the north, it is a point of honour and a rule of faith to maintain alive, partly because they believe, rightly or wrongly, that to come under the domination of their traditional enemies would be to lose their livings, if not their

*In the South the attitude of the Republicans is quite uncompromising, while supporters of the Government are loudly proclaiming that they will only accept the decision of the Commission "if it is in accordance with the facts," i.e., with the Free State claims. In the North it is not only the Orangemen who continue to drum on drums and shout: We will not yield an inch!"

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lives. This feeling has certainly not been weakened by the influx into the six counties of hundreds of Protestant farmers driven from their holdings during the recent troubles in the South.

In these circumstances, a plebiscite in the counties of Fermanagh and Tyrone, such as the Free State Government demanded, would simply mean civil war. Even in normal times an election in these counties was apt to be fought with other weapons than argument and, but for the calming influence of the Royal Irish Constabulary, might often have led to serious trouble. It is not difficult to imagine the results of attempting to take a vote on what is regarded as "a matter of life and death.” A plebiscite is clearly impossible. Yet, if no plebiscite is taken, how is the South to be persuaded that any compromise which the Commission may arrive at does not involve a breach of the treaty? In the "Handbook on the Ulster Question," issued by the Free State Government, it was pointed out that the formula in Article XII which constitutes the terms of reference to the Commission is practically identical with certain clauses in the Treaty of Versailles, under which important transfers of territory took place as the result of plebiscites.† That being so, the Free State claim is certainly a strong one so far as the treaty is concerned. It does not, however, follow that the claim is otherwise justifiable or that it could safely be pressed. Of this, President Cosgrave and his colleagues are well aware, and there can be little doubt but that they would themselves be glad to accept any reasonable settlement which the Commission may suggest. The trouble is that in this matter they are not altogether free agents. Their authority is based on the treaty, which they assert has given to Ireland the power to realise all the ideals for which the martyrs

*When the present writer was in the Clogher Valley in 1915, there was a wild rumour there that the "mountainy men " were planning a descent on the valley and a general massacre of Protestants in order to seize their farms. It was quite without foundation.

†Several such clauses are cited. One may suffice here. From Article lxxxviii, Annex 5, is quoted: "In this recommendation regard will be paid to the wishes of the inhabitants as shown by the vote and to the geographical and economic conditions of the locality." Under this clause, as the "Handbook "points out, a plebiscite was held in Upper Silesia which, as its result, was transferred from Germany to Poland.

of 1916 died, but which the Republicans have never ceased to denounce as a betrayal on the one side, and on the other side as a subtle device for re-establishing British domination under a new form. Their hold on the country is weakening; the recent Republican victory in South Dublin is striking evidence of that. They have given proof of courage; but even their courage may not be equal to facing the accusation that they have agreed to a permanent partition of Ireland and the gibe that they had allowed themselves to be cajoled into accepting a treaty, the terms of which they did not understand.

It is not, then, surprising that there is no note of wavering in the language of the letter addressed by President Cosgrave, on 17th June last, to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, in answer to his appeal for peace. He pointed out that the conferences between the leaders on both sides which had taken place in February and April had proved as abortive as those which had preceded them. "If agreement can be reached," he said, "it must be reached, not upon the basis of my views, or of Sir James Craig's views, but upon the basis laid down in Article 12 of respect for the wishes of the inhabitants of the area affected and for the economic and geographic conditions." As for peace," we feel," he said, " that it is essential for the maintenance of harmony between nations that the wishes of the inhabitants should be a primary consideration in any system of government, and we are prepared to translate this view into practice to secure not alone a spirit of brotherhood amongst ourselves, but, so far as it can be accomplished, amongst the whole human race."* Clearly the Free State has entrenched itself behind the great principle of selfdetermination, which it expects the Commission to make the "primary consideration " in giving its award. Moreover, it did not make the prospect of this award being satisfactory to it more hopeful by pointing out that the result of certain administrative changes in Northern Ireland would be " practically to disfranchise the Nationalist population in large areas adjacent to the Boundary." All of which points to a serious risk of the settlement under the treaty breaking down if the finding of the

*Correspondence between the Irish Free State and H.M. Government relating to Article 12, etc., presented to the Oireachtas.

†The Governor-General of the Irish Free State to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. March 15, 1924. ib. p. 10.

Commission does not go a long way towards meeting the Free State demands.

If we turn to the North, the prospect is no brighter. The Government of Northern Ireland has never budged from its original position could not, indeed, do so without ceasing to exist. It stands on the Act of 1920 and the pledges of British ministers which that Act embodies. It refuses utterly to recognise the right of the Imperial Parliament to alter by any subsequent Act, and without the consent of the Ulster Parliament, the boundaries fixed by the Act of 1920; and for this reason it has refused to recognise the Commission. Mr. Fisher, who under the recent amending Act, was appointed by the British Government to represent the interests of Northern Ireland on the Commission, represents them well so far as he personally is concerned, but he does not represent the Northern Government. This Government holds itself perfectly free to accept or to reject the findings of Mr. Justice Feetham and his assessors. If these findings are acceptable to the North, doubtless they will be accepted. If they are not acceptable-well, the temper of the Protestant North is as little favourable to compromise as that of the Catholic South. It would be as impossible for Sir James Craig as for President Cosgrave to agree to any compromise of which their people violently disapproved.

That is the situation, and to those who know the volcanic nature of political Ireland it is full of peril. The question is whether anything could be done to avert this peril. To the present writer it seems that much trouble might possibly have been saved had the British Government dealt with the questions arising out of the treaty as a whole, and not piecemeal. The Free State claims the fulfilment of Article XII of the treaty ; nothing has been said about the fulfilment of Article V, which provides for a Commission to decide the liability to be assumed by the Free State for the service of the public debt of the United Kingdom. Here is room for an accommodation which might prove acceptable to both parties. At present the mass of the people of Southern Ireland have no idea that under the treaty they are saddled with a proportion of the British National Debt. Indeed, they have been led to believe by the perfervid orators of Sinn Fein that the obligation is all the other way, and that the British Government owes Ireland many hundreds of millions of