BRITISH PACT WITH EIRE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22388, 29 April 1938, Page 11

BRITISH PACT WITH EIRE

LEGISLATIVE MEASURES INTRODUCED

MR DE VALERA’S TRIBUTE TO BRITISH WISDOM

(BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, April 27. , Both in the House of Commons, in London, and the Dail, in Dublin, legislative measures have been introduced to give effect to the recent British-Eire agreements. ' Mr de Valera, moving in the Dail the resolution that the British-Eire agreement be ratified, declared that the agreement was not by any means one-sided. “On the day that all Ireland is indepcindent Britain will get the full advantages. A good agreement is one in which both sides have an interest in its continuance,” he said. “It is unnecessary for me to stress the importance of the British-Eire agreement from \he ■ viewpoint of Irish sovereignty,” said Mr de Valera, according to a Press Association message. “I believe it is- only a matter of time before somebody from this bench will be able to announce that Ireland has become a completely independent sovereign State. I would not be asking for approval if I thought the agreement were an obstacle to it.” Mr de Valera added that if they looked at the map of Europe they would see why a strong Britain was necessary and why Britain could not be open to-attack with Eire as the back door. There was a time when he, like many Irishmen, wished Ireland 500 miles further out in the Atlantic, but no one today wished for the positions of the islands* to be changed. \ . Mr de Valera added that his Government intended that no foreign Powers should ever be allowed to get control of any Irish ports. The present British Government was the wisest he had known because it recognised the value of a free and independent Ireland.