ULSTER ANXIOUS

Evening Star, Issue 21077, 14 April 1932, Page 9

ULSTER ANXIOUS

PRIME MINISTER VISITS LONDON Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON,* April 13. (Received April 14, at 9.25 a.m.) Lord Craigavon (Prime Minister of Northern Ireland) unexpectedly arrived in London. It is believed that his visit is in connection with Ulster’s anxiety over the Irish crisis. He will see Mr J. H. Thomas and Sir Herbert Samuel in the afternoon. Interviewed; Lord Craigavon said he did not attribute too much to Mr Thomas’s statement regarding a united Ireland, which was perhaps rather ah unhappy phraseology, but he was sure that the difficulty could be straightened out. The Ulster Attorney-General (Mr Babington), accompanied Lord Craigavon, who returns to Belfast to-mor-row. NO CHANGE IN BRITISH POLICY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 13. (Received April 14, at noon.) The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (Lord Craigavon) and Mr Babington had a meeting in the House of Commons with Mr Thomas and Sir Herbert Samuel. The Home Office is tecnically responsible in the Commons for Northern Ireland administration. It is understood that the Ulster Ministers were desirous of discussing the aspects of the present controversy raised by the attitude of the Irish Free State to the Oath of Allegiance, and particularly one passage of Mr Thomas s reply to Mr De Valera’s despatch, in regard to which some anxiety was voiced in the Northern Ireland Parliament. The passage stated: “It is true that the 1921 settlement did not result in the establishment of a united Ireland, but the treaty itself made the _ 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 that, in its opinion, there can be no conceivable hope for the establishment of a united Ireland except on the basis that its allegiance to the Crown and membership of the British Commonwealth 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 an outrage of partition ” in Ireland, and they do not indicate any change, actual or contemplated, in the British policy regarding Ulster and Irish unity. , _ . It is expected that Lord Craigavon will, on his return to Belfast, make a reassuring statement to this effect in Parliament.