2110-3-11-8

Hotel Beau Rivage, GENEVA

September 7th. 1921.

My dear John,

Many thanks for your letter of August 30th. Grey's speech is to be at Berwick, and I rely very much on your saying what you can in support of it.

As to Ireland, I do not [at all, crossed out] disagree with anything you say, but the Government have got the matter into such a mess, that I do not feel at all certain, what if anything, can be done. When I have talked to Grey, he seems to favour a plan which has a good deal to be said for it, which would avoid as far as possible making any agreement of any kind with the Southern Irish. The kind of thing he has in his mind - I do not say he would put it exactly like this - is that we should occupy whatever strategic positions we [could crossed out] wanted, and that we should inform the Irish that under no circumstances could we allow them to have an independent Fleet or independent foreign representation; That we should tell the Ulstermen that we are prepared to defend them against any attack by the Southern Irish if such were made, and that we should then withdraw except from our strategic positions all our armed forces in Ireland, and see what happened to them, without any admissions on either side as to questions of independence and the like. With a slight nuance I should be inclined to think this the best of a very bad job. The nuance would be that I should specifically assert that I could not admit that the Irish had any right to independence, and that I should occupy several strategic points, one or two of the big towns, Dublin, Cork etc on the coast, which be as it

it were, the pale for any loyalist. [which crossed out] They would be in [strategic crossed out] strict military hands, no one being allowed to reside there without a military permit. My impression is that a policy of this kind would compel Sien [sic] Feiners to realise that they must negotiate reasonably for terms - if they want any - and if not would be a fairly safe solution for ourselves. In any case I am altogether against wild plans of conquest, block-houses etc, which I believe would fail, and would almost certainly divide the British people as well.

Yours ever,

Robert Cecil

Colonel John Buchan, Elsfield Manor. Oxford.