The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1932 IRELAND AND THE EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 77, 1 April 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1932 IRELAND AND THE EMPIRE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the t/ood that we can do.

Following close upon the statement in this morning's news that the Canadian Government has issued a White Paper elaborately setting forth the Free State's obligations towards the Treaty, there comes an emphatic denial by the Canadian Prime Minister of a report in another paper that representatives of the Irish Free State might not be .'nvited to the Ottawa Conference. Indeed, Mr. Bennett announces that an invitation has been accepted by Mr. de Valera. The only apparent purpose of the issue of the White Paper, it is stated, "is to prepare the public mind for the action contemplated should the Free State repudiate the Oath," and Mr. Bennett's denial does not cover the statement about the publication of this document. The Ottawa correspondent of the leading paper in the United States is not likely to have invented it, though what he may have reported was that it was being issued, and he may have been wrongly informed.

Whether it would be wise just now for Dominion Governments to point out to the Free State the consequences of secession may bo a matter of opinion. If the Canadian Government has so acted it may steady Irish feeling or it may inflame it. There can be no question, however, of the right of Dominion communities to take a keen interest in this new phase of the Irish question and to express opinions about it. Tho relations of any Dominion to the Empire must be a matter of deep practical and sentimental interest to the other Dominions, and in the case of Ireland there are special reasons why public opinion is concerned. During the long struggle for self-government in Ireland an overwhelming majority of citizens in the Dominions were on Ireland's side. The numbers of citizens of Irish birth or blood must run into millions. Such people have a special interest in the future of Ireland, and there are few of them, as they are few among colonials of English, Scottish or Welsh origin, who wish to see the Free State leave the Empire. Nearly all desire to see the Free State develop as a Dominion, enjoying tho privileges and responsibilities of membership of the British Commonwealth. They are entitled to point out to the Free State what secession would involve —that, for example, it would mean that in future every Irish emigrant would be an alien.

The Free State Government has accepted the invitation to Ottawa, and it must realise that" if the question of continued association with the Empire is not settled before the Conference meets it will bo raised there. Fortunately, to-day's news from Dublin indicates a softening of the Ministry's attitude towards tho questions in contention, and it may be that Mr. de Valera and his colleagues, as they experience the responsibility of office and reflect on the effects of their declared policy towards Britain, will be Btill more disposed to modify their views and meet Britain at least halfway. They may be helped along this path by an understanding of Dominion sentiment..