IRISH CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 171, 15 April 1932, Page 11

IRISH CRISIS

Free State and the Oath

ULSTER’S ANXIETY British Policy Unchanged OFFICIAL ASSURANCE Official Wireless. Rugby, April 13. The Prime Minister of Northern. Ireland, Lord Craigavon, and his Attorney-General, Mr. A. B. Babington, have come to London from Belfast, and to-day had a meeting at the House of Commons with the Dominions Secretary, Mr. J. H. Thomas, and the Home Secretary, Sir Herbert Samuel. The Home Office is technically responsible in the House of Commons for the Northern Ireland Administration. It is understood that the Ulster Ministers were desirous of discussing aspects of the present controversy raised by the attitude of the Irish Free State to the Oath of Allegiance, and particularly to one passage in the Dominion Secretary’s reply to Mr. De Valera’s dispatch in regard to which some anxiety had been voiced in the Northern Ireland Parliament. The passage in; question stated: “It is true that the 1921 Settlement did not result in the establishment of a united Ireland, but the Treaty itself made necessary provision for union at that time of the two parts of Ireland, if both then had been ready to accept them. As to the future, his Majesty’s Government in :the United Kingdom feels it sufficient to state in its opinion that there can be no conceivable hope for the establishment of a united Ireland except on the basis that its allegiance to the Crown and its membership of the British Commonwealth will continue unimpaired.” These words were used only as a reply to Mr. De Valera’s statement that the agreement of 1921 “means the consummation of the outrage of partition” in Ireland, and they do not indicate any change actual or contemplated in British policy regarding Ulster and Irish unity. It is expected that Lord Craigavon as the result of his visit, to London will on his return to Belfast make a reassuring statement to this effect in the Northern Ireland Parliament. Interviewed in connection with Ulster’s anxiety in regard to the Irish crisis, Lord Craigavon said that he did not attribute too much to Mr. Thomas’s statement regarding united Ireland which, perhaps, was'rather unhappy in its phraseology, but he was sure that could be straightened out.