CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 December 1934, Page 7

CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS

IRISH AND EMPIRE DISCUSSION IN LORDS [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN.— COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, December 20. In the House of Lords, Lord Danesfort drew attention to the Irish Free State Government’s Citizenship Bill. He inquired whether the Government had protested against the measure. He said that no Parliament in the British Empire had ever proposed anything so preposterous’. It would deprive men and women of rights of British citizenship they enjoyed for a lifetime. This legislation was only part and parcel of a deliberate attempt to establish an Irish Republic. A distressing .aspect of this attempt was a degradation of the office of Governor-General, who in Southern Ireland had been degraded to the position of a clerk in an office. Lord Lucan, replying for the Government, said that nobody denied the Irish Free State’s right to declare who would be regarded as a Free State citizen, but when, the' Free State claimed that the recent Bill was in accordance with the principles laid down at the. Imperial Conference, the British Government entirely disagreed. Mr J. H. Thomas, in a statement in the House of Commons on November 27, made the position clear. If a Republic were to be declared, an entirely new situation would arise. He could not indicate what action the Government would then take. The British Government was to make it as easy as possible for the Free State to remain a member of the British Commonwealth.