in opening said the first business of the day was to discuss the peace negotiations. He did not know to what extent it was necessary for him to go over the ground but he expected all the members had read the proposals of the British government to them and their replies. He need hardly say that long before that there had been informal negotiations. Messengers were sent over to sound them to see what their attitude was likely to be, but they gave those secret agents no encouragement with the result that the British government had formally to make the proposals now before them. They saw what the offer was. It was not Dominion status but a sort of Home Rule for a divided Ireland with more general powers than were offered in the best Home Rule proposals heretofore— but to this extent it was for a divided Ireland. The only attitude the Ministry could take was that this offer was not acceptable. The Ministry could not take the responsibility of recommending it to the Dáil or the Irish people and they told the British government so.
He did not propose to go further into explanation. The letters themselves would give the whole attitude. The Ministry took full responsibility for the replies and were ready to stand the fire of any of the members who had questions to put. They proposed to send a further reply to the last letter received practically in the same terms as the previous one—that the terms were not acceptable and that they did not form a basis for negotiation, and the only basis on which it could be hoped to secure peace would be a basis in which the guiding principle was that of "government by consent of the governed".