“COERCION” BY EIRE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25734, 21 February 1949, Page 7

“COERCION” BY EIRE

BRITAIN ASKED FOR SAFEGUARDS STATEMENT BY NORTHERN IRELAND PREMIER BELFAST. February 1% The Northern Ireland Government had urged the British Government to provide legislative safeguards for Ulster to counter Eire's “campaign oil coercion against Ulster,” said the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (Sir Basil Brooke) to-day. He told the Ulster Unionist Council that Eire’s political leaders were not prepared to shoulder the responsibilities that accompanied Eire s muchvaunted status as an independent republic. Eire's leaders were trying to exploit the international situation for selfish and aggressive ends. Eire was saying to other States: “Before we consent to join the Atlantia Pact you must pay our price, and that price is your help in our campaign of coercion against Ulster.” Sir Basil Brooke said that a joint defence agreement could be reached between Eire and the United Kingdom, of which Ulster was a part, if the Eire Government genuinely wished to take its share in protecting Christian civilisation. Eire had thrown down the gauntlet by announcing her intention to sever her last link with the Crown, and by selecting Easter Monday—the anniversary of the Dublin rebellion of 1916—. for the statutory creation of the Eire Republic. Mr John Costello’s Government had made a gesture of unfriendliness and defiance to the United Kingdom and to Northern Ireland. Sir Basil Brooke said that at the General Election the people of Northern Ireland had picked up the gauntlet and given Mr Costello an answer that resounded throughout the world. There was a growing volume of evidence that Eire propaganda was making little, if any. imoression on public opinion, either in Great Britain or on the international plane to which Mr Costello said he had raised the border issue. Sir Basil Brooke concluded.