The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evning News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1932. AN IRISH SETTLEMENT?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1932, Page 6

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

TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1932. AN IRISH SETTLEMENT?

For the cause that lads assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, Ai'.d the good that we can do.

els ■ ' The situation in the Irish Free State, which was dragging slowly and uncertainly along a dangerous road, has been halted by a development announced to-day. In response to an invitation from Mr. do Valera, Mr. J. H. Thomas, Secretary for the Dominions, and Lord liailsham, Secretary for War and formerly Lord Chancellor, are going- to Dublin for a conference. At this meeting - the whole difference between the two Governments must come up for discussion. The position is that, the Free State Government considers itself entitled to remove the Oath of Allegiance and withhold the land annuity payments, whereas the British Government holds that this attitude is a, breach of a treaty that cannot ss be altered by unilateral action. Mr. Thomas has taken the line that he will not negotiate further agreements with a Government that breaks treaties. On the oilier side, Mr. de Valera has insisted that the Oath must go, and ■» has shown in the present stage of the passage of the Oath Bill —its consideration by the Senate—no disposition to modify his attitude. A deadlock, therefore, has been reached, but that the Free State, over DO per cent of whose trade is with Britain, may be left out of interEmpire arrangements that will be made at Ottawa, must have given Mr. de Valera and his colleagues pause. England's trade with the Free State is also very valuable, and the British Government must be anxious about its future. The truth is that the two countries naturally belong to one economic system, and s a quarrel that would drive them asunder would y be sheer madness. J' The news of these negotiations in Dublin is therefore the best that has come from Ireland since Mr. de Valera sent his first Note to London. The feeling of the English people is set out in the "Spectator's" comment, that the Oath question "could almost certainly have been settled peacefully by quiet negotia--3 tion" it' Mr. de Valera had not preferred - another method. The people at Home and in the Dominions most strongly desire the Free State to remain within the Empire, which is its true destiny, but they are not prepared to quarrel with the Free State over the terms of the tie. All they ask for is a clear j recognition by the Free Slate of ils membership of "the British Commonwealth, and an Oath to the Crown is the most obvious form by which this connection can be expressed. Mr. do Valera cites the Statute of Westminster as giving him power to abolish the Oath and generally do what he likes, but that Statute recognises the Crown as the common link of j Empire. The British negotiators may be able to devise some formula that will preserve the link with the Empire and at the same time , ; satisfy Mr. de Valera in relation to his 1 I followers. The real peril may come when such ' i an arrangement has been made, for even if we ( discount the more ahvrniist reports from t 1 Ireland about Republican activities, there is no doubt that behind the new Government 1 there are extremists working for complete independence, and anything like a surrender 1 on Mr. de Valera's part may drive them to \ armed intervention. In the meantime, one 1 may welcome this move towards peace. "