The earliest letter I have is dated May 22 1917, from Boulvard de Port Royal, Paris. It was on behalf of the 'Cercle d'Autour du Monde' and acknowledged receipt of JJ's memorandum. Garnier was apologetic for the delay; he had been dealing with '..notre bulletins franco-ecossais..'. He went on however to the effect that '...le memorandum est est un document de premiere importance et je suis heureux d'y voir figurer votre main...j'admire sa mesure, sa prudence et sa dignité. Il a du contribuer a aiguiller Lloyd George vers son projet de convention irlandaise..'.

RB McDowell's book on the Irish Convention (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970) gives a feel for the sequence of events: in February 1917 there was the Amory memorandum, followed in April by the Bernard initiative. Bernard was then Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and he subsequently in the 20s became Provost of TCD. Carson all this time was in Cabinet; he also produced a memorandum. Lloyd George in late March was meeting with Joe Devlin and TP O'Connor on the basis of Carson's memorandum, which was edging towards all-Ireland Home Rule but with special provision for the north-east. In April there was discussed a Bill to amend the Home Rule Act, with exclusion options by county, and provision for all-Ireland meetings of legislators. In May Lloyd George came up with a proposal to bring in Home Rule immediately, with exclusion of the six counties, with Council of Ireland superposed. He also had an alternative proposal, 'a last resort... a convention of Irishmen of all parties for the purpose of producing a scheme of Irish self-government.' This letter from LG is dated May 16.

JA Gaughan's book on the life of James G Douglas (UCD Press, 1998) gives some insight into what was going on in Ireland at the grassroots. The Convention did not come as a deus ex machina from LG. There was an influential lobby for it, which had been active since August 1916.

JG Douglas was a Dublin Quaker businessman who eventually became a Senator in the Free State, and worked closely with JJ during his Senate period in the 40s. During the war of independence he ran the White Cross, and worked closely with Michael Collins; he had a hand in drafting the Free State Constitution.

According to Gaughan, there was set up in August 1916 an Irish Constitutional Association, on the initiative of George Russell ('AE'). This included 'Diarmuid Coffey, Joseph Johnston, Edward McLysaght, Col Maurice Moore, Dermod O'Brien, George Russell and Alec Wilson'; Gaughan puts them in alphabetical order. The objective was 'full dominion status for Ireland'. The first document proposing a conference was drafted by Douglas and Coffey in September 1916. Then when Sir Horace Plunkett in November urged support for an Irish Convention, the Constitutional Committee swung behind this with alacrity.

Gaughan continues: '..by March 1917 AE had completed a draft, outlining the committee's proposals for a solution to the 'Irish question'. These were, in effect, a compromise between those of Sinn Fein and the Irish Parliamentary Party....AE suggested that the proposals be placed before an upcoming imperial conference in London...Douglas spent a week in London to lobby for this proposal.... met..Asquith, Lloyd George...Smuts...Sidney and Beatrice Webb of the Fabian Society..'.

Again according to Gaughan AE re-wrote this draft and published it in the Irish Times at the end of May: 'Thoughts for an Irish Convention...'.

The congruence of dates between this process and Garnier's letter indicates that JJ almost certainly had a hand in the drafting, both of the memo that went to LG and the subsequent AE re-draft leading to the Irish Times article.

(*It will be necessary to dig further here in the national library and national archives; maybe the records of the Constitutional Association exist somewhere? This is perhaps for others to do, as I don't want to chase any more hares than I have time for! RJ Sept 00)

An additional Garnier letter turned up dated August 13 1918; this was apart from the others in JJ's papers, perhaps implying that it was part of some priority agenda. It begins by commiserating with JJ about the failure of the Convention, and the silence of the French press on Irish matters. He mentions the need for 'une plume autorisée' to explain Irish issues to the French public, which tends to judge such issues in terms of Savoie or Corse, and to reckon with the sensitivity of the British to feelings in France based on the comradeship of the war, and with the excessive warmth with which the Americans had been welcomed. Misunderstanding between Britain and France is to be avoided.

There is a passage which suggests that JJ has been trying to use AKF leverage to get Ireland into the Peace Congress; I quote this in full:

"Meme dans notre Bulletin, qui n'est pas mis dans la commerce, qui cherche a etre un lien entre tous les alliés en attendant d'ouvrir le cercle aux autres nations grandes et petites, j'ai pris l'avis de notre President et il trouve que nous ne pouvons rien. Lors du Congres 1919, il pourra en etre different, et je vous serai toujours reconnaissant de me tenir au courant. En attendant le devoir de nos dirigeants et de savoir, et je signale le journal en question a un ami qui est chef d'un cabinet de ministre."

The foregoing perhaps suggests that JJ had in mind an event in Ireland of the nature of the First Dail. Garnier goes on the look for Bulletin inputs from JJ, but avoiding the political issue for the moment, but concentrating on the intellectual activity, the co-operative movement, and social issues, '...dans la mesure ou il serait possible de les traiter sans toucher aux problemes brulant du jour.'

Garnier concludes by remarking that it seems impossible that Poland, Bohemia, Serbia could emerge without '...une honnete et honorable forme de Home Rule..' in Ireland. "Ah! qu'elle nous manque la grande voix de Meredith!"

(**There are several hares to chase here. Who was Meredith, and what was his role, now sadly lacking? It is evident that JJ was writing for the Bulletin, perhaps under a pseudonym. The other end of the correspondence may now become available, according to Baud Berthier; the archive has been recovered, at least in part, from Moscow, where it ended up after the war, having been initially looted by the Nazis from Paris. It will be necessary to scan the Bulletins for this period, if they are available. A visit to Paris is increasingly on the agenda. RJ Sept 2000.)

The next available Garnier letter is dated March 25 1919, when CG wrote to JJ tipping him off with advance notice that there would would be an invitation to some 20 or so 'universitaires' from Britain and Ireland to go to France, and indicating that he had insisted on TCD being included. He undertook to write again when the invitation was actually given. He mentioned also that a 'boursiere do voyage de 1914' Mlle Main would be going to Portugal and then on to Ireland; he wanted to know about travel documentation; was it difference from that for Britain? He thanked JJ again for his 'pages', again suggesting that JJ was a regular contributor to the Bulletin of the Foundation with insights into what was going on in Ireland.

The next document in the sequence is a printed invitation to the first post-war Assemblée Générale of the Cercle Autour du Monde, to take place on December 22 1919, from E Hovelaque. On the agenda is the installation of a Resident Secretary. This I suspect is the process of decision to create the post which Garnier subsequently occupied, but this is subject to confirmation. JJ evidently was unable to go.

There is, curiously, no reference to the Assemblée in Garnier's next letter, dated December 21 1919, and to which JJ noted that he replied on January 3 1920. I find this enigmatic. In the letter Garnier recommended to JJ his student Allarq who has gone to study in Dublin. He also in a postscript asked after Mlle Main, from whom they had not heard. He mentioned the recent French elections, in which the Probus party (Democratie Nouvelle) had received a few seats, but not enough to form a group in the Assembly. Garnier seems to have been a Probus supporter, and he expressed hope for the future for their reform programme. Regarding Ireland Garnier expressed the hope that "le loi qui sera présenté demain le 22 donne satisfaction a la grande majorite des Irlandais, qu'il offre les quarantis desirées oar la 'Dominion League'...". This must have been the first reading of the partitionist Government of Ireland Act 1920. I suspect that JJ's rapid reply would have been to disabuse him of this hope, but alas pending access to the AK archives (sequestered by the Nazis and currently in Moscow) I have no means of finding this out.

(**Garnier concludes with a reference to Challage '..qui ne vous oublie pas..'. Who was Challage and what was his role among JJ's French contacts?)

The Garnier sequence then vanishes from sight until January 21 1921, and we take this up in the next module, where the correspondence becomes frequent and detailed.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999