The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1933. FREE STATE AND EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 290, 8 December 1933, Page 6

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

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1933. FREE STATE AND EMPIRE.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do

In the situation winch lias arisen between Britain and Ireland both sides would appear to be waiting for the other's next mOvC. At present, despite the momentous issues involved, the dispute looks like a sparring match. Mr. de Valera wants a definite statement from Mr. Thomas as to whether the British Government would treat as a cause of war, or other aggressive action, a decision of the Irish people to sever their connection with the Empire. Mr. Thomas adroitly refuses to be drawn into what he regards as a hypothetical discussion. He cannot accept the assumption that lasting friendship cannot be attained on the basis of the present relationship, and so he argues there is no need to answer a question founded on that assumption. Nobody, of course, supposes that Britain would uso force ,to retain the Free State within the Empire if that State wished to leave it, but Mr. Thomas apparently does not wish to commit himself irrevocably to an undertaking that the Free State may sever the last tie without incurring any penalty. Tactically lie has the worse of the position. If he were to reply that Britain would coerce Ireland, Mr. de Valera, would promptly use this as election ammunition. His present attitude, that Britain will not consider such a contingency, may also be- employed against her. Mr. de Valera may say to the Free State electors that Britain will not promise not to coerce them. It is doubtful, indeed, whether Mr. Thomas has been wise in raising the question in this form at this particular juncture. It is doubtful if Mr. de Valera really wants an Irish Republic entirely independent of the Empire. He has refused to pursue the full Republican programme openly, and thereby has provoked a certain amount of enmity from the left wing. He said in a speech last April that he hoped before long to be able to proclaim a Republic as a "mere ceremonial." What, however, he meant by a "mere ceremonial" he failed to explain. Some say that he is playing with the Republican issue to divert attention from economic unrest. It has always been a little difficult to bring Mr. de Valera to the point. He has a curious talent, not to say a passion, for spinning out obscurities and ambiguities when his opponents demand a plain statement of his' intentions. He has also the power of creating an emotional loyalty in his followers. He recognises the emotional value of insisting on the right of the Irish people to exist as a distinct and independent nation, but he appears to hesitate when it is a question of translating this right into action. Ho has reduced the status of the Governor-General, and he has abolished the Oath of Allegiance, but he has never pursued the full programme of complete and immediate independence. Itis possible that he recognises, though he may prefer not to admit as much publicly, that the Free State would lose much and gain little by severance. Her citizens would become aliens and would be barred from all Imperial services, she would lose the trade benefits of Empire preference, and she would forfeit the prestige in international affairs she now enjoys as an Empire trader. In his note to Britain Mr. de Valera ignores the basic impossibility of being outside the Empire and yet of it at the same time. From motives that do him credit, Mr. Thomas does not wish to bring the other Dominions into the dispute, but in a sense they cannot be kept out. That one Dominion should, to put it mildly, wish to alter its -constitutional status, is a matter of concern for all. Moreover, there are large Irish communities in every Dominion to whom the possibility of the Free State being a foreign country in respect of the British Commonwealth of Nations cannot be a matter of indifference.