FREE STATE AND EMPIRE
NO CO-OPERATION UNDER COMPULSION RECENT BRITISH REPLY CRITICISED ! (UNITED ritF.SS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAI'H—COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 8, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 7. Mr E. de Valera, President of the Irish Free State, secured profound attention in a crowded Senate when, after an extensive speech on it by him, the report of the Imperial and Economic Consultation Committee was approved without division. Senator J. Connolly moved the motion for approval of the report, j which, according to Senator Sean Milroy, marked the complete incorporation of the Imperial idea in the Fianna Fail philosophy, signifying either a fresh stage in the rake's progress or the evolution of a superman. Ireland could not walk in the Commonwealth on one leg and walk out of it on the other, nor could it go in opposite directions simultaneously. Senator J. C. Dowdall discounted Senator Milroy's remarks. He asserted that the Free State's cooperation was purely voluntary. Senator J. G. Douglas considered the Free State would be happier as a member of the Empire than otherwise, but every member had a right to secede if it desired. It would be foolish for Ireland to do so, but if the majority declared for a republic all must be loyal to it. Mr de Valera said the co-operation indicated by the report was based on the absolute equality of the parties, and their freedom to enter or leave Ihe alliance. Ireland, if such a step were advantageous, was prepared to co-operate on similar lines to Denmark, Holland, France or any other country, but she must be a free agent to co-operate or secede. "The British Government ran away from my last dispatch," he said. "She lias baulked us every time the question has been put straight to her. It is almost incomprehensible that a British Minister could speak as Lord Hailsham spoke. He is guilty of the very type of interference with our constitutional development to which the dispatch referred.
"The people of ihe Free State will not tolerate it. Either he forgets the Statute of Westminster or the statute is a fraud on the Dominions."
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Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21034, 9 December 1933, Page 15
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351FREE STATE AND EMPIRE Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21034, 9 December 1933, Page 15
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