bitterness now existing. I believe it is to the interest of Great
Britain to settle the Anglo-Irish dispute. It has been countered
in many of its policies in America and the Colonies by the vengeful
feelings of Irish exiles. There may yet come a time when the refusal
of the Irish mouse to gnaw at a net spread about the lion may bring
about the downfall of the Empire. It cannot be to the interest of
Great Britain to have on its flank some millions of people who,
whenever Great Britain is engaged in a war which threatens its
existence, feel a thrill running through them, as prisoners do
hearing the guns sounding closer of an army which comes, as they
think, to liberate them. Nations denied essential freedom ever
feel like that when the power which dominates them is itself in peril.
Who can doubt but for the creation of Dominion Government in South
Africa that the present war would have found the Boers thirsty for
revenge, and the Home Government incapable of dealing with a distant
people who taxed its resources but a few years previously. I have
no doubt that if Ireland was granted the essential freedom and
wholeness in its political life it desires, its mood also would be
turned. I have no feelings of race hatred, no exultation in thought
of the downfall of any race; but as a close observer of the mood
of millions in Ireland, I feel certain that if their claim is not
met they will brood and scheme and Wait to strike a blow, though
the dream may be handed on from them to their children and their
children's children, yet they will hope, sometime, to give the
last vengeful thrust of enmity at the stricken heart of the Empire.

14. Any measure which is not a settlement which leaves Ireland
still actively discontented is a waste of effort, and the sooner
English statesmen realize the futility of half measures the better.
A man who claims a debt he believes is due to him, who is offered