No operative decision of any moment was taken or could be taken at this moment in Ireland.

Everything was referred to the Cabinet, and that body had no power to carry out a popular policy in Ireland.
Redmond had put forward a policy which they had accepted in principle.
It could only be carried out through him, and for success he must be consulted in detail.

Neither Lord Kitchener nor General Parsons in fact recognized the status which this implied.

They were prepared to listen to suggestions from him; they were not prepared to accept guidance, as they must have done had he been Prime Minister of the country.
It was impossible that Redmond's attitude in dealing with General Parsons should not imply some sense of the position which he held; equally impossible, from the temper and mentality of the man, that there should not be in General Parsons's letters an underlying assertion that in military matters the military must decide.
The correspondence between the two men opened by a letter from Sir Lawrence Parsons, who had just established his headquarters at Mallow; and its chief purpose was to direct Redmond's attention to the fact that an Irish Division was a much finer and nobler unit than an Irish Brigade.

Two points in it, however, are of interest.