NORTH OF IRELAND’S PRICE TO JOIN ATLANTIC PACT

Grey River Argus, 21 February 1949, Page 5

NORTH OF IRELAND’S PRICE TO JOIN ATLANTIC PACT

LONDON, Nov. 18

Sir B. Brooke, North of' Ireland Prime Minister, told the Ulster Unionist council that the Northern Ireland Government had pressed the British Government for legislative safeguards for Ulster to counter Eires’ “campaign of coercion against Ulster.” He said Eire’s political leaders were not prepared to shoulder responsibilities that accompanied Eire’s much vaunted status ’as an independent republic. Eire’s leaders were trying to exploit the international situation for selfish and aggressive ends. Eire was saying to the other states: “Before we consent to join the Atlantic Pact . yon must nay our price and that price is your help in our campaign of coercion avainst Ulster.” He continued that a joint defence agreement could be reached between Eire and the United Kingdom of which Ulster was a part if the Dublin Government genuinely wished to play its part in protecting Christian civilisation. Eire had thrown down the gauntlet by the announcement of her intention to sever 'her last ::nk with the Crown and selecting Easter Monday, the anniversary of the Dublin rebellion of 1916. for the statutory creation of the Eire’s Republic. Mi John Costello’s Government had made a gesture of unfriendliness and defiance to the United Kingdom and to Northern Ireland. At the recent election the people of Northern Ireland had picked up the gauntlet and given Mr Costello their answer that resounded throughout the world. There was a growing volume of evidence that Eireann propaganda was making little if any impression on public opinion, either in Great Britain or on the international plane to which Mr Costello said he had raised the partition issue-