The Press MONDAY, MAY 3, 1937. Status of Ireland

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22082, 3 May 1937, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, MAY 3, 1937. Status of Ireland

The sudden appearance in the news of a new draft constitution for the Irish Free State, “ ignoring the British Commonwealth and not " mentioning the King,” would be less startling if certain recent events had been more fully reported. The abdication of King Edward VIII forced Mr de Valera’s hand at least to the extent of hastening action that he intended. His problem was to preserve what he has called “ external association ” with the Empire, removing as many traces of formal connexion as possible, in order to appease the republicans, and retaining enough to confess it and hold its advantages. The abdication, had Mr de Valera desired it, gave him the opportunity to throw off any sort of bond with the Crown; he rejected the opportunity, but he could not reject it without manoeuvring a difficult compromise. He immediately introduced two Bills, the first of which removed from the constitution all references to the King and the Governor-General, abolished the latter office, and made consequential changes in the procedure for signature of Bills, summoning and dissolving the Dail, and so on. The second Bill, after providing that international agreements should be concluded on the authority of the Executive Council, went on to declare that, while the Free State remains associated with the other members of the British Commonwealth and while their recognised sovereign, as advised by their respective governments, acts for them in such matters, “the King so recognised may and is “ hereby authorised to act on behalf of the Irish “ Free State for the like purposes as and when “ advised by the Executive Council so to do ”; and the effect of another section was to recognise the succession of King George VI. As Professor J. M. Sullivan said, one Bill took the King out of the constitution and the other put him back. But there is nothing new in the essential nature of Mr de Valera’s compromise. Seventeen years ago he first sketched his plan for a free association of Ireland with Great Britain; it was expanded, more definitely, in the proposals of 1921, which sought to make Ireland a sovereign and independent State, associated with* Great Britain in matters of “ common concern ” and limited, accordingly, in freedom to decide questions of foreign policy and defence. Mr de Valera’s objection to Dominion status, as accepted in 1921, was based on his firm preference for this qualified independence, which he explained, in the historic Document Number Two, in the form of proposals for a treaty which he would accept. One of .these clauses declared that Ireland should, for the purpose of . the association to be established, recognise the King as its head. Ever since, the fcohcy of “external association” has been the key to Mr de • Valera’s thinking and most of his actions. It will .be surprising if the new constitution takes him further. When he addressed the annual meeting of the Fianna Fail, some weeks before the abdication, he denied any present intention of altering the relations between the Free State and Great Britain and the British Commonwealth; on the contrary, with the new constitution he said he would introduce a Bill which would enable those relations to be continued so long as the people desired, or until the people plainly decided to terminate them. This Bill may bridge the gap which appears to be opened by the new constitution, if it is fully and correctly summarised, between Eire and the British Commonwealth. The present constitution, in Article 1, declares that the Free State is “ a coequal member of the Community of Nations “forming the British Commonwealth of “ Nations.” If this declaration disappears, as the policy of external association requires that it shall and as the message this morning suggests that it will, the second ,of the two measures described above will hardly supply the need of something to take its place and reconcile the Independence of the new. order with the permanence of the association and the recognition of the Crown that is its condition. It is worth while to remember that external association, as it was expressed in the December legislation, was tacitly accepted in London. A restatement of it in the new constitution would probably be accepted in the same way, if no difficulty were created by the failure of Mr de Valera’s ingenuity in loosing and binding. There is no indication of such a failure in the report that his draft constitution is framed “for all Ire- “ land ” but provides for its “ temporary restriction” to toree State territory. Mr de Valera at one and the same time states his policy of a united Ireland and admits its present impracticability. It does not seem likely that he will be less realistic on the point of Empire relations. Broadcasting to the United States at Christmas, he said that the political institutions of the Free State were now free from outside control. He will break with his own history if he proceeds to declare that freedom in terms and in a form which disengage the Free State not only from control but from co-operation.