SINN FEIN “TERMS”

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. BELFAST, THURSDAY.

A report regarding an alleged Sinn Fein offer is published to-day by the Belfast Telegraph, which states that the following terms’ received in London by a prominent Irishman, well known in Belfast and London, were forwarded late on Sunday night to the Prime Minister: “Provided the independent status of Ireland is recognised, Irishmen will be prepared to furnish international guarantees, properly incorporated in a peace treaty, to safeguard the strategic interests of the British Empire.”

A rather interesting story attaches to the preliminaries leading to the submission of the foregoing terms to the Premier. The gentleman in question, it is stated, received a request on Sunday to visit a private house in the West-end, where he met several other Irishmen resident in London. One by one these took their departure, presumably to catch the last ’buses or trains for their respective homes, until only one of them and the intermediary were left in the room, the former being unknown to the latter. After a brief parley the terms as stated were put in writing. The Telegraph makes no comment on the matter, but the suggested terms are so impossible that Unionists attach no importance to the whole business. Telegraphing later, our Correspondent states that the alleged Sinn Fein offer was made through the Right Hon. A. M. Carlisle, and there is no proof that it has the authority of Dail Eireann. Mr. Carlisle is said to have had correspondence with the Prime Minister’s secretary prior to the offer. It will be recalled that in 1906 Mr. Carlisle contested West Belfast as an Independent, when his townsmen gave him 153 votes, but his presence in the field on that occasion ensured the defeat of Sir John Smiley, the Unionist, who was beaten by Mr. Devlin by sixteen votes,