1 Personal & Private Home Office,
Whitehall,
S.W. July 21st 1916 Dear Carson, If any alteration is made
in the terms of the clause
agreed to by Redmond and
yourself regarding the
provisional character of
the Irish Bill, the result
must be our immediate
support, and Nationalists
throughout Ireland will
claim that the failure 2 2. of the settlement is due to
their having been deceived as
to the terms to be embodied
in the Bill. It is obvious
that the task of maintaining
peace and order in Ireland
will be rendered far more
difficult if the work takes
place in such circumstances.
On the other hand the Cabinet
recognises that it is necessary to meet your point that it
must be made quite clear
to the Ulster counties that
they will not automatically
be swept into Home Rule
Ireland through any
failure to make an Order in
Council or for any other
reason, but that the re-union
of Ireland can only be
effected by the special and
deliberate action of the
Imperial Parliament. 3 The only way that I can
see to meet this situation
is to keep the sub. section
relating to the provisional
character of the measure
untouched, and to add to
it a declaratory sub. section
that will embody your
point in specific terms.
I enclose the draft which
has drawn to effect
this purpose. Whether Redmond
will agree I do not know,
but before discussing the 4 point with him or laying
it before the Cabinet I
should be glad to know
whether you concur. I hope
you will agree that if a
surprise is to come, it had
better be on a disagreement
on an additional declaration
such as this because
of an alteration in the
wording of the agreed terms. 5 The suggestion you made
to as to the form of
the first clause can be
adapted without difficulty.
I enclose the re-draft.
I am not sending the whole
Bill because there is to be
a Conference on it this
afternoon with &
Sir H. Robinson, and further
alterations will no doubt be made.
With respect to the name
for the six counties, I appreciate
your objection to the title of
"the excluded area." On the
other hand to call them
"North Ireland" will be taken
in the rest of the country
as hoisting the flag of a
permanent separation and as
the definite constitution of a definite
new state within the Empire,
(which is not, I believe, what you have in view)
It must so offend 6 the sentiment of great numbers
of people as to intensify in
a high degree the opposition
to the whole scheme. I would
therefore propose to call
them in the Bill what we
are all now calling them
in these discussions "The
Six Counties." I sincerely
hope that you will not
dissent. Yours very truly,
Herbert Samuel. P.S. The Cabinet meeting for this mornings has been postponed till
tomorrow as LdGeorge & several others
had to be away to-day.