IRELAND AND EMPIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 May 1933, Page 7

IRELAND AND EMPIRE

OATH ABOLITION EFFECTS DISCUSSION IN LORDS [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, May 11. In the House of Lords, Lord Danesforth put a question seeking an announcement as to the exact effect of the passage of the Removal of the Oath Act in the Free State Dail. He said that this was important to the people of the whole Empire. The passage of the Act did more than to remove the Oath. It had practically abrogated the Treaty. If the Act. is valid, the Free State no longer existed ag a Dominion. Then what became of the Constitution? Loyalists and others, in the Free State were anxious about the position. Viscount Elibank said that some people in the Irish Free State claimed that King George was a foreign King. In that event, Irish people living in Britain must be foreigners. “Southern Ireland,” he said, “is behaving in such a way that it makes it difficult to retain patience. The time has come when we ought definitely to say to the Free State what we think of her attitude.”

Lord Parmoor appealed for nothing to be done that would increase friction. A Dominion spirit should be encouraged, and not discouraged. There was no question of the abrogation of the Treaty.

Lord Hailsham, after reading Mr J. H. Thomas’s statement in the House of Commons On April 15, added that the Act passed by the Dail Eireann had no effect on the Treaty or' on the rights of British citizens born in the Free State, or on Article Seven providing for facilities in the Free State for His Majesty’s forces. He said: “The reason is that the Treaty was a bargain between Britain and the Irish Free State. Neither party, by unilateral action, can alter the terms of the bargain. Any attempt by one party to alter the bargain has no legal international effect. Every citizen born in the Irish Free State is born within the King’s allegiance. Nobody so born can get rid of obligations that allegiance involves. If circumstances did arise whereby the Irish Free State should cease to be part of the Empire, serious questions would arise concerning the status of Free State citizens in Britain;' but that is hypothetical. I have no hesitation in saying that the Treaty between the two nations cannot be altered without the consent of both.” Lord Salisbury said that the attitude of the Irish Free State was an offence, not only against Britain, but against the whole Empire. -The Irish Free State, he said, should be told that it had profound disapproval on the part of every other Dominion.Lord Danesforth said that Lord Hailsham’s statement would allay great anxiety in the Free State, and would go far towards wise reflective opinion throughout the Empire.

BUDGET DEBATE. (Recd. May 13, 11 a.m.) DUBLIN, May 12. Uproar, culminating in Opposition shouts of “Give back our markets. You have taken five million pounds from us,” marked the Budget debate in the Dail. Mr Dillon cited the increased unemployment and the shocking housing conditions. The Budget was passed by 73 to 53 votes. SOVIET CAMPAIGN PREPARED. [times cables.] LONDON, May 11. “The Times’s” Riga, correspondent states: The Soviet are about to create an independent Irish Communist Party, whereanent a Congress is to assemble in Ireland on May 27 to unite revolutionary labour groups into a section of the Communist Internationale, implicitly obeying Moscow, recruiting the poorest farm labourers and the unemployed, and undermining Mr. De Valera, also spreading anti-reliigous and anti-British propaganda in preparation for an all-lreland Soviet Republic.