THE NEXT STEP

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 62, 14 March 1944, Page 5

THE NEXT STEP

RESTRICTED TRAVEL

- Eire-North Ireland Border Likely To Be Closed N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Mar. 13. It is anticipated in Belfast that the restrictions on travel between Ireland and Britain will be followed by the closing of the Eire-Northern Ireland border, says the Press Association Belfast correspondent. Leaving the border open would lessen the effectiveness of the restrictions. Travellers crossing the border at present are not subject to the stringent requirements governing travel to and from Britain. The Irish mail train, which is usually crowded on Monday mornings, left Euston station to-day two-thirds empty.

The Eire Government faces a crisis, but reports from Dublin indicate that the people of Eire still support Mr. de Valera's neutrality policy. The banning is only one of the steps by which the Allied commanders plan to prevent a leakage of second front information, says the Daily Mail diplomatic correspondent. They are taking, and will take in the future, other more secret measures to ensure the highest degree of military security.

Eisenhowers Discovery

The correspondent says he understands that General Eisenhower possessed information which caused him to believe that Axis freedom throughout Eire was a real menace to the Allied cause and that he urged the necessity for immediate action. Eire will be completely isolated as far as this can be achieved. Such a policy must have repercussions on Government relations in London, Washington and Dublin. Mr. Churchill is expected to make a full statement at the next sitting of the House of Commons.

The Daily Herald diplomatic correspondent says there is no question of anything in the nature of economic sanctions. The Dublin Government has the right to decide its own policy unchallenged. Any attempt to coerce a Dominion because its decisions were disliked by the United Kingdom would be deeply resented throughout the British Commonwealth. Any stoppage of trade with Eire would also be disadvantageous to Britain. The Press Association diplomatic correspondent says that while transit remained open it was always possible for information to be conveyed from Britain to Eire or transmission to Berlin and Tokyo. The new restrictions will assist in stopping one channel through which Axis agents could receive information. A channel by which information can be passed to the Axis the German Legation in Dublin —remains open. The possibility has always existed that some of the thousands of Irishmen, possibly including members of the 1.R.A., who migrated to Britain to share in the high wartime wages, conveyed information to enemy agents in Eire. Not only will no more Irishmen now be permitted to enter Britain, but, what is more important, none will be permitted to return to Ireland.