1 D1507/A/17/8 PAGE 1 OF 2 1/2 BAY 44 40 5 June 1916 My dear Plunkett, I am sorry I am myself confined to bed at all events for
for to-day, but if I am well enough I shall call to see you
to-morrow. I am sorry to hear you are unwell. I doubt very
much whether there is any solution to which you and I could agre
as we take very divergent views of the whole question and my
negotiations were carried on up to some days after my return fxxm
from Belfast without any hint of any kind from any of my late
Unionist colleagues in the Cabinet that they did not really
agree with Asquith's statement on the 25th. May, which alleged
that they were unanimous about a settlement. To withdraw, at
this stage, the offer which was carried by the Nationalists
in very grave difficulties would in my opinion probably render
the carrying on of the war from a Parliamentary view almost
impossible and all that would be secured would be another weak
executive in Ireland which would be challenged at every step
by disappointed and hostile Nationalists. To run these risks
for the sake of putting off till the end of the war the Act
which then automatically comes into force does not seem to me
to be a sound or statesmanlike policy and so far as Ulster is
concerned the settlement gives her all that we would have taken
at Buckinhgam Palace Conference, and personally I would 2 D1507/A/17/8 view with horror the necessaity of native hostilities
in Ulster at the end of the war. Yours ever,
The Rt. Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett