INITIAL STEP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 238, 7 October 1932, Page 7

INITIAL STEP.

IRELAND'S DISPUTE. De Valera Will Not Prophesy Result of Negotiations. » EMPIRE NOT .IN ISSUE. > (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, October 6. On his return from his conversations in London with the British Mr. de Valera arrived at Dublin this morning. He said in an interview that the agreement to i negotiate with Britain on the financial dispute betAveen the two Governments was only an initial step, he would venture no opinion on * the prospects of the discussions. "The continuation of the British duties is not tile best atmosphere for the negotiations," continued the President, "but we are prepared to try. Britain yesterday offered to remove the duties if the land annuities were paid, but I was not prepared to do that. Our remaining in the Empire is not the issue of the negotiations." It is understood that Mr. de Valera will be the principal Free State delegate to next week's formal negotiations, and on the British side it is anticipated that the Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who is due to return from Scotland in a few days, will take a direct part in the discussions. Other British Ministers, in addition to Mr. J. H. Thomas, Dominions Secretary, will participate. While the negotiations are in progress the duties imposed by Britain on imports from the Free State and the counter-duties placed by the Free State on British imports will remain in force. The overdue bind annuities, which represent some £2,000,000 of a total sum of £5,000,000, which is the amount in dispute, is now stated to be held in a "suspense account" in Dublin. Both the Free State Dail and the British House of Commons are duo to reassemble on October 18. If the negotiations should result in an agreement, it is understood that it will be laid without delay before botli Parliaments for ratification. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. W. T. Cosgrave, is elated at the news that the negotiations with Britain are to be resumed. He says he has always advocated a settlement by negotiations and hopes they will be successful. The "Manchester Guardian" says: "Undoubtedly Sir John Simon is'entitled to the credit for breaking the Anglo- . Irish deadlock as a result of his con- J versations with Mr. do Valera at ' Geneva. However, perhaps the plight * of the Irish farmers was partly contribu- ' tory." '