Irish Feud

The Irish feud over the Boundary Question (TIME, May 5) continued.

After a recent futile meeting between President Cosgrave of the Irish Free State, Premier Sir James Craig of Northern Ireland and J. H. Thomas, Secretary of State for the Colonies, the British Government decided to call the Boundary Commission provided for in the Free State Agreement Act of 1922.

President Cosgrave has all along desired the convocation of this commission, but Premier Craig claimed that the boundary between the North and South had already been fixed by the Government of Ireland Act of 1920; he stated that he was ready to discuss the matter directly with President Cosgrave, but not through the Boundary Commission.

Meanwhile, the Free State Government appointed John MacNeill as their commissioner on the Boundary Commission. The British Government took immediate steps to appoint a commissioner, but one person after another refused the job, the latest being ex-Premier Sir Robert Borden of Canada. The British Government also called upon the Government of Northern Ireland to appoint their commissioner, but Premier Craig stoutly refused, declaring that "not a yard of our territory will be handed over to a foreign flag," and " if the frontier is attacked, we are entitled to the support of the British Army and Navy to protect our boundary."

The only road out of the difficulty was: 1) direct settlement between Cosgrave and Craig; 2) appointment by the King on the advice of the British Government of a commissioner to represent Northern Ireland; 3) settlement by the Privy Council.

Sir James Craig has been reviled and praised by Irishmen more than any other denizen of the Emerald Isle. Of course, the Irishmen that do the reviling will not admit that Sir James or any of his admirers are Irishmen, while the Irishmen that do the praising stoutly affirm that they are every bit as Irish as those who revile.

Sir James Craig was born in County Down 53 years ago, became first a soldier, then a politician, held several important Government positions in the Imperial Parliament, then became on June 7, 1921 first Premier of Northern Ireland.

At one time there undoubtedly existed in England a warm affection and considerable sympathy for the people of the six counties* of the North. Since the settlement of the Sinn Fein disturbances of the post-War era in 1922, the Northerners have displayed an attitude of recalcitrancy which has alienated most of the support upon which they could once have counted in the United Kingdom and abroad.

It was a very difficult task that Sir James undertook when he formed his first ministry, but it has been largely through his undoubted good qualities as a statesman that he has been able to preserve an outward semblance of peace in his small corner of Ireland.

As a man he is solemn, strong, sober; as a leader he is cool, discreet, able. In politics he is a staunch Unionist, and an unbending Imperialist, has "no foolish fastidiousness about democratic principles." As an orator he is a failure, but as a man of action he is "a national asset." Two un-Irish features stand out in his physiognomy and character; he has an egg-shaped head with eyes deep set and far apart; he is "an Irishman without a sense of humor."

*Londonderry, Antrim, Tyrone, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh.