RELIGIOUS ISSUE IN ULSTER

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21148, 26 April 1934, Page 11

RELIGIOUS ISSUE IN ULSTER

+ BITTER DEBATE IN | PARLIAMENT | EMPLOYMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLICS J i I "DISLOYALISTS FROM FREE STATE" (EDITED PF'.KSS association —by electbio 'I'ELEGIUrH—COPYMGHT.) (Received April 26, 12.20 a.m.) LONDON, April 24. A bitter debate developed in the Ulster Parliament when a Nationalist member, Mr Cahil Healy, moved that the campaign against the employment of Roman Catholics which Sir Basil Brooke, Minister for Agriculture, promulgated, and Lord Craigavon (Prime Minister) sanctioned, should cease. Mr Healy described this as a grave violation of the rights of a minority. He declared that Lord Craigavon, everywhere possible, had driven out Nationalists from public appointments. Lord Craigavon, moving an amendment declaring that the employment of disloyalists entering Ulster was prejudicial to the interests of law and order and the safety of the State, contended that the Minister was justified in safeguarding the links binding Ulster to the Empire. He could not see why the local Ulster artisan should suffer as the result of competition with disloyalists from the Free State. Until Ulster's 63,000 unemployed were absorbed he would place every obstacle in the way of Free State men taking jobs. He asked. Mr Healy to use his influence to persuade Free State men to remain in their own glorious country—the new Jerusalem flowing with milk and honey, instead of coming to a place which Nationalists described as the most bigoted and blackmouthed place in the world. Lord Craigavon recalled that it was the anniversary of the gunrunning incident of 1914, and said he would repeat his action if necessary. "I am an Orangeman first and a politician afterwards," he declared.' The debate was adjourned.