IRISH BILL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1932, Page 7

IRISH BILL.

VIOLATES TREATY.

BRITISH OPINION.

De Valera Move Tantamount to

Repudiation

MR. THOMAS' DECLARATION.

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received 1 p.m.)

RUGBY, April 20

An important statement on the position of the Irish Free State was made in the House of Commons by Mr. J: H. Thomas, Dominions Secretary. He said that no further official communication had been received from the Government of the Irish Free Stale, but there had been important developments.

A bill introduced into the Dail last week had been published. An examination of the text showed that it was designed not merely to remove the obligation now imposed on members of the Irish Free State Parliament to take the oath set out in the treaty, but would go further. It purported to repeal section 2 of the Irish Free State Constitution Act of 1022, which provided that the treaty have the force of law and that any amendment of the Constitution in any respect repugnant to the treaty would be void and inoperative.

It was also purported by the amendment of Article 50 of the Constitution to enable the Constitution to be amended without necessary regard to the terms of the treaty.

The text of the bill confirmed the general view of the situation expressed in a dispatch to Mr. de Valera on April 9 that what was actually raised by him was nothing less than repudiation of the settlement of 1921 as a whole.

Mr. Thomas said ho had already made it clear on behalf of the Government that it looked upon the matter as a violation of the treaty, and the bill being discussed in the Free State Parliament confirmed that view.