THE EARL OF DONOUGHMOREMy Lords, I beg to ask the noble Viscount on the Woolsack a Question of which I have given him private notice—namely, whether he has any statement to make to the House with reference to the progress of events in Ireland.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT BIRKENHEAD)My Lords, I am glad that the noble Earl has asked me this Question, although I have not a great deal of information which adds substantially to that which your Lordships will have gathered from the daily papers. But nevertheless the progress made, if we are right in supposing it to be progress, is considerable, and it ought, I think, to be made the subject of observation in Parliament. Three or four weeks ago we were deploring in this House, and we were genuinely misunderstanding, the relationship that had been entered into between Mr. Collins and Mr. Griffith, of the Provisional Government, and Mr.de Valera, and the so-called pact, which was entered into between these personages, occasioned no small anxiety to the Government. Events have developed since then, and the position to-day is shortly this.
When the Provisional Government saw themselves to be armed with the democratic authority which was plainly conceded to them as the result of the recent Elections, they immediately struck. Let us not under-rate the effects and the contingent importance of that which they have done. Its consequences in many respects have been most melancholy, for they have destroyed, in the course of their necessary operations, some of the most beautiful and some of the most historic districts of Dublin. Nevertheless, let us see what they have done. There never could be, there never would be, peace or order in Ireland until the strong hand was used against those who are the avowed and violent opponents of the Treaty. Therefore, there were only two parties from whom the necessary degree of coercive strength could in the 292 alternative be required. The one was the Provisional Government, the other was the forces of His Majesty's troops. I, for one, rejoice, as I have said before in this House, that this task, painful, costly, bloody as it must ultimately prove, is being undertaken by those to whom it properly falls, by those to whom it as directly falls as it would fall in the case of any Dominion which was menaced within by domestic dissension.
It is possible, to-day, to say that, for the moment at all events, this movement has been crushed in Dublin. It would be grossly unfair to those who have made this immense endeavour that we should ignore the character of the task which they undertook. Consider! Only a short I year ago these men and those whom they are attacking were banded together under a single uniform—the uniform of the Irish Republican Army—in order to destroy all that they thought was left of British sovereignty and authority in Ireland. And our policy, with all its difficulties, with all its disadvantages, with all the obvious points in which it has been exposed to criticism, has at least secured this result in less than a year: that this task is to-day being undertaken by a Party, and a strong Party, in Ireland—a Party which represents in the South of Ireland the overwhelming majority of the electors—and is not being put upon those who too long have been called upon to make sacrifices of blood and treasure in Ireland.
As I have said, the movement in Dublin, to judge from the information at my disposal, appears, for the moment at least, to be completely crushed. There remains the task of introducing law and order into the country as a whole. Do not imagine that any member of the Government is so inattentive to matters that are happening before our eyes as to be unaware how formidable this task is, and how ruthless are the weapons that must be used to execute it. Many specific instances of great cruelty and hardship have been brought by us, with every circumstance of particularity and formality, to the notice of the Provisional Government, and I myself think it is of high augury and high hope for the future that for the first time to-day the Provisional Government has appealed, not merely to its own troops, not merely to those who in the last five years have shared their political views or political prejudices, but to all men of good will in 293 Southern Ireland who wish to see order restored in that community.
I am hopeful that the response to that appeal will be one which will be genera and that many of the young gentlemen of Southern Ireland, all those people who have played a great part there for centuries and have been vilely treated in the past, will realise, too, that the great hope in Southern Ireland, the great hope for the whole of Ireland, and the great hope for the Empire is that the Provisional Government shall be equipped with all the necessary powers, with the aid of all persons of good will, to put down, and to put down swiftly and by whatever violent methods may be required, the disorder in the Southern provinces of Ireland, as they have already put it down in Dublin. I am even bold enough—cautious as I have been throughout all these discussions—to say that at the moment the situation is more hopeful than it has been at any moment since this Treaty was come to.