For centuries England strove to reduce Ireland to the position of an English province. Irish civilisation was to be blotted out, the Gael was to go, Irish lands were to be given to aliens, Irish industries were to be destroyed, Irish development was to be prevented, Ireland was to be utilised according to the colonial police to feed and enrich England. A paper in the Record Office, dated 1720, says:-
All advantageous projects for commercial gain in any colony, which are truly prejudicial to and inconsistent with the interests of the mother country, must be understood to be illegal, and the practice of them unwarrantable, because they contradict the end for which the colonies had a being.
This policy was first applied to all the colonies, including the American Colonies, but it broke down over the American Colonies. Though they were founded by English colonists and peopled largely by their descendants the colonists were not willing to exist solely for the purpose of feeding and enriching a mother country, and they fought for and won their independence. England learnt a lesson, and in the nineteenth century the idea of freedom grew up. The other colonies by peaceful growth have developed into practical independence, and are now only willing to be associated with Great Britain in a free and equal partnership. ╥We have received a position of absolute equality and freedom, not only among the other States of the Empire but among the other nations of the world [General Smuts, September, 1919]. The indomitable spirit of Canada made her incapable of accepting at the Peace Conference, in the League of Nations, or elsewhere, a status inferior to nations less advanced in their development, less amply endowed in wealth sources and population, no more complete in their sovereignty,╙ [Sir R Boden, September, 1919].
Ireland has never been a British colony. She has been a separate nation kept subject by a more powerful neighbour for that neighbour╒s own advantage, but she has never ceased to fight for her freedom, and now, after centuries of political struggle and armed conflict, she has won independence. The British people hardly realise the change which has come and the nature of the new era which is dawning, not only for the two islands, but for the whole world. All former phases of the Anglo-Irish struggle are now seen to have been but incidents in the English claim to dominate Ireland and to control Irish destinies in England╒s interests. England has now in substance, renounced that claim, and the business of the Irish Conference is to shape the form of the partnership or alliance in which two peoples of equal nationhood may be associated for the benefit of both.
The problem is not now to define a sort of provincial autonomy for Ireland such as was contemplated in the Home Rule bills, but to agree on a method by which the international concerns of the two countries - foreign affairs, defence, trade and communications - may be dealt with for their mutual security and advancement. Home Rule bills may have been ╥practical politics╙ before the recognition of the independence of the Colonies. With that recognition they are now out of date. While Anglo-Irish relations have taken on this aspect with an apparent suddenness which is almost bewildering to the ordinary British mind, it happens that at the same moment the relations between Great Britain and the Dominions have, by a different process, reached a stage in which the finding of a solution is almost as urgent in the interests of British security and world-peace. The history of Ireland as an ancient independent nation, which is now at last receiving recognition, is utterly different from that of the Colonies, who have gradually outgrown the tutelage of their mother country, but though their relation to England differs so widely Ireland and her Dominions present new to England an immediate problem containing the same elements in essence.
The problem on both sides can only be solved by recognising without limitation the complete independence of the several countries, and only on that basis can they all be associated together by ties of co-operation and friendship. The only association which will be satisfactory to Ireland and to Great Britain and to the Dominions for Ireland to enter will be one based not on the present technical legal status of the Dominions, but on the real position which they claim and have in fact secured. In the interest of all the associated States, in the interest, above all, of England herself, it is essential that the present de facto position should be recognised de jure, and that all its implications as regards sovereignty, allegiance, constitutional independence of the Governments should be acknowledged.
An association on the foregoing conditions would be a novelty in the world. But the world is looking for such a development, and it is necessary if the old world of internecine conflict is to emerge into the new world of co-operative harmony. For such an association would be the pattern for national co-operation on a wider scale, and might form the nucleus of a real League of Nations of the world. Great Britain has now the opportunity to lay the foundations of such a new world-order in the relations to be established between the nations of the British Commonwealth. In such a real League of Nations there would be no inequality of status. Oaths of allegiance from one nation to another would become meaningless and would be quite unnecessary where there would be real allegiance of all to the common interests. The creation of such a League is the best, indeed the only possible way for England to obtain the permanent security which she needs. General Smuts has given warning that South Africa will be restive in any association which is not a League of Free Nations. The colonies can only be kept if they are themselves on a free and equal footing and if such a footing is also conceded to Ireland as a free partner in the group. If Ireland were free all the component nations of the group would be bound firmly together.
Into such a League might not America be willing to enter? By doing so America would be on the way to secure the world ideal of free, equal, and friendly nations on which her aspirations are so firmly fixed. Ireland╒s inclusion as a free member of this League would have a powerful influence in consolidating the whole body, for Ireland is herself a mother country with world-wide influences, and it is scarcely to be doubted that were she a free partner in the League as sketched the Irish in America would surely wish America to be associated in such a combination. In that League the Irish in Ireland would be joined with the Irish in America, and they would both share in a common internationality with the people of America, England, and the other free nations of the League. Through the link of Ireland a co-operation and understanding would arise between England and America, and would render unnecessary those safeguards which England wishes to impose upon Ireland and which by preserving an element of restraint might render less satisfactory the new relations between the two countries. If America were able to enter such a League a further move would be made towards world-peace already begun by the agreement to be arrived at in the Washington Conference in regard to the scrapping of warships, and in addition would lead through the improved relationship to a condition of financial accommodation and stability. Without real and permanent co-operation between Britain and American world-peace is an idle dream. With such co-operation war would become impossible.
