ABSTRACT
In the early months of 1921 the urgent need of a lasting peace was felt both in England and in Ireland. Public opinion demanded that every avenue which might lead to a settlement should be explored. It demanded that a compromise should be made between conflicting principles and ideals, rather than that open hostilities should continue. The military situation was decisively in favour of either combatant. Public opinion demanded that every avenue which might lead to a settlement should be explored. The course of this correspondence does not concern us here, save in the one respect, that it showed that for the moment, at any rate, any question of a United Ireland was outside the bounds of possibility. The Treaty furthermore defined the manner in which power should be transferred to the Provisional Government of the Free State, certain matters of administrative importance, and finally the manner in which the Settlement itself should be ratified.
