May 2 1924
Sir James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and various members of the Cabinet were guests at a luncheon of the Ulster Association at the Criterion Restaurant, London, yesterday.
Proposing “Prosperity for Ulster”, Lord [Walter] Long declared that the confidence he had always had in Ulster had been entirely justified by the complete success of self-government which Ulster had achieved. It had inherited a turbulent and unsatisfactory state of affairs, but had set up order out of chaos.
Responding, Sir James Craig said that Ulster was perhaps not the least significant part of the British Empire. “All that I as Prime Minister and my loyal followers want,” he declared, “is that we should remain always privileged to be part of the Empire. (Cheers.) I am a man of peace. I believe in a policy of compromise and give and take; but I have always thought that short-sighted politicians confuse compromise with surrender.
“We have been asked to surrender over and over again. I think it is playing fast and loose, not only with public opinion in this country, but with those whom we in Ulster govern, to hide for a moment the gravity of the proposition that has once more cropped up. I would be playing with the matter if I were not firm and straight with everyone in this connection.
“I have already offered to compromise, provided that compromise is according to the will of those who have made this final settlement. Provided that it is a settlement by agreement between the two peoples, I am prepared to use the whole of my weight and energy in saving further difficulty by arranging our border-line on terms such as I have indicated.
“But to appoint someone unknown to come into our sacred territory and tell men who have lived all their lives under the Union Jack that they have got to get out under another flag which is not the Union Jack – under the flag of a Free State which at the moment is in jeopardy, and which may tomorrow be hauled down and find itself substituted by the flag of a Republic – how any Britisher or any man with the blood of his forefathers in him can contemplate such an outrageous action on the most loyal people inside the Empire, passes my comprehension.”