IRELAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 August 1924, Page 5

IRELAND

CONFERENCE FAILS. GRAVE ISSUES RAISED. LEGISLATIVE MEASURES. BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT LONDON, Aug. 2. Mr AY. Cosgrave (president of the Dail Eireann) arrived in London, and \ immediately conferred with the Premier (Mr Ramsay MacDonald) and the Colonial Secretary (Mr J. H. Thomas) on the Irish boundary question. Lord Londonderry (representing Ulster) and Colonel Spender subsequently joined the conference, which broke up without arranging for a future meeting. The proceedings were most secret, but it is believed the delegates failed to agree. Consequently the Governmnt will proceed with legislation. Replying earlier in the House of Commons t-o Mr Stanley Baldwin (Leader of the Conservative Party), Mr Thomas said the report of the judicial committee had been presented to the King. The report held that the refusal of the Government of North Ireland to appoint a member of the Boundary Committee was a contingency unforeseen at the date of the passage of the treaty. If this refusal was maintained there was no constitutional means under existing statute for bringing the . .commission into existence. The report Hraised grave issues, added Air Thomas, ’fhe Government was bound by honour to secure the.carrying out of the undoubted intention of Parliament when it ratified the treaty. The Government earnestly hoped that the Government of North Ireland, even at this late stage, would appoint a commissioner. If that hope were not fulfilled the Government would forthwith introduce legislation giving effect to the undoubted intention of the treaty. It would press the passage of the legislation regardless of consequences to itself. Not merely the honour of the Government, hut the honour of the country, was involved in seeing that the obligation the treaty imposed on the United Kingdom was fulfilled in spirit and in letter; His colleagues and he himself were not prepared to omit any step necessary to place the good faith of Parliament and the people beyond question. The Daily Express says it is understood that Mr Baldwin, Lord Birkenhead, and Mr Austen Chamberlain have now r agreed on their policy regarding the boundary question. They consider Ulster’s position could be safeguarded by limiting the powers of the commission by a simple rectification of the frontier. The Daily Telegraph also hints at an attempt to reach a solution on these'lines. Air Thomas’ statement has aroused the keenest anxiety in Ulster and the Free State. Several speakers in the Dail referred to the public forebodings that a tragedy' was approaching, but Air O’Higgins deprecated the tendency to wax turbulent at short notice. He declared; “This is no case for sudden decisions or jumping to conclusions which the facts do not justify.’’ The treaty had not broken down. Air Johnson' (the Labour leader) denounced the British politicians’ treachery. He. declared that, as the treaty had not been fulfilled, they should remake the Free State constitution at' the earliest moment. The Dail adjourned till August 12. The Ulster Association' issued a stater ment that Ulster had already made j great sacrifices of territory under the <- Act of 1920. The Premier (Sir James Craig) had repeatedly intimated his willingness to negotiate with a representative of the Free State on a mutual basis. The statement concludes; “Without defining the terms of reference for a commission, Air MacDonald is asking Ulster to take a leap iii the dark.” The Daily Express states that Belfast and Ulster are alarmed at the latest turn in the situation. Sir James Craig in 1921 declared that a boundary commission could not materialise, and it had taken the British Parliament years to learn the correctness of this view. Ulster is indignant at the proposal to amend the treaty, which was not permitted when Parliament passed the ratifying Act.' Ulster is relying on the members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons to fight against any tampering with territory. Failing everything blse, she is willing to spend the last man and the last shiling in preserving what she regards as her sacred rights.