IMPERIAL RELATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 20958, 24 November 1931, Page 11

IMPERIAL RELATIONS

STATUTE Of WESTMINSTER IMPORTANCE STRESSED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, November 23. The political correspondent of ‘ The Times’ says: “The interval for reflection has steadied many members of the House of Commons, who are beginning to realise the serious effect on Imperial relations of any light-hearted handling of the Statute of Westminster.” ‘ The Times,’ editorially, hopes that “ the House of Commons will reject the suggestion that it should hold up the statute and engage in an acrimonious wrangle with the dominions over pedantic points in constitutional law. The statute, by sweeping away old traces of inequality, clears the ground for new unity based on common interests and loyalty to the throne.” PRIVY COUNCIL APPEALS IRELAND’S ATTITUDE. ■ LONDON, November 23. The Statute of Westminster fulfils the Free State Government’s hopes so fully that it may prove embarrassing, according to the Dublin correspondent of ‘ The Times.’ It removes the Administration's only point of dissatisfaction with the Anglo-Irish Treaty regarding the right of appeal to the Privy Council, which, if the statute is passed, the Free State will hasten to abolish. On the other hand, the Government prizes the treaty and the Constitution as a charter of national liberty, and it is also fully alive to the advantages of the Free State’s place in the British Commonwealth. The attitude of the Fianna Fail and Mr Do Valera, however,-constitutes an embarrassment. ‘ The Times ’ says: “If appeal to the Privy Council can be abolished the remainder of the treaty is not sacrosanct. Therefore both the treaty and the Constitution will probably be challenged at the General Election a few mouths hence.” The Fianna Fail is attacking the treaty, repudiating land annuities, which it contends appeal to farmers’ greed, and aiming at absolute aggressive independence. President Cosgrave and the members of the Government, on the other hand, plead that the abolition of appeal to the Privy Council will be productive of complete independence and yet enable the Free State to associate heartily in the British Commonwealth’s rising fortunes, FREE STATE'S FREEDOM MR COSGRAVE’S WARNING. LONDON, November 23. President Cosgrave, speaking at Charlevillc, expressed the bejief that the British Government would not agree to an alteration of the Statute ot Westminster, whereby it would bo set down in black and white that the Irish Free State may not repeal the treaty of 1922. ’ Mr Cosgrave added that the Irish Government would continue to defend the treaty, but he warned the Churchill group that it must not change the treaty from a pledge of freedom to a symbol of inferiority, and he would say solemnly that no one in Ireland or Britain had any right to risk the consecpiences which must follow any attempt to lessen or destroy the freedom contained in the treaty which forms the basis of . the present relations between the two countries.