Pax Vobis

Eamon de Valera, President of the Irish Republican Government, sent a note to the Free State Government offering to negotiate terms of peace. The document, which looks like a free translation of Jean Jacques Rousseau's Contrat Social, does not, however, make any allusion to a surrender of arms--a stipulation which, as the Free State Government has constantly emphasized, must precede any peace parley.

The note is described in its text as a proclamation and starts off with: " The Government of the Republic, anxious to contribute its share to a movement for peace and to found it on principles that will give governmental stability and otherwise prove of value to the nation, hereby proclaims its readiness to negotiate an immediate cessation of hostilities."

The Irish Times, Dublin journal, said: " We confess that after a very careful study of de Valera's proposals we are not in a position to enlighten ourselves." The general anti-Republican opinion throughout Ireland is that it is an ambiguous document and needs a good deal of elucidation by de Valera before it can be seriously considered.

In accordance with a clause in the de Valera note, E. E. Aitken, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army, ordered a " suspension of offensive " against the Free State.