Eoin MacNeill to all members of the Executive Council
(Copy)

It should be a cardinal point in regard of any offer of a settlement with 'Northern Ireland' that any such offer should not go beyond general terms sufficient to convey a notion of the character of the proposals to the ordinary public mind, and should not attempt to sketch out the working details.

It is valuable to consider the possible or probable details of any scheme of settlement as showing the merits of the plan, but the publication of any scheme in detail, however excellent, as a preliminary to conference, would be altogether fatal, unless the purpose was merely tactical, to put the other side in the wrong, which even as tactics is of no value to us.

The reasons against proposing a scheme in detail are quite conclusive:

The opponents of a settlement would have the opportunity of veiling their opposition to unity and concentrating on criticism of details, endeavouring to prove these bad or unworkable. It is obvious that if once agreement was reached on any general principle of unity, all difficulties on details could be overcome, but to proceed on the converse method would make agreement on a general principle or plan practically impossible.

The public mind, both in Ireland, Free State and Six Counties, and in Great Britain, would be easily confused about details, and even those most friendly to a national settlement would be led into endless controversies. In Ireland, especially, people delight in criticism and in propounding elaborate schemes in advance.

Hence, in any public offer, not a single word should be used that is not calculated to bring the two sides together in the hope of a friendly discussion.