THE SMALL DOMINION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 October 1924, Page 5

THE SMALL DOMINION.

IRISH BILL DISCUSSED SECOND READING CARRIED. . BY OARLB—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRTom LONDON, Oct. 1. The Irish debate was re-opened in the House of Commons. . * Mr. Wedgwood Benn urged the adoption of an Imperial attitude, remembering that the. solution lay in the unity of Ireland as a Dominion of the British commonwealth. He asked Conservatives “whether we could break our word to the smallest Dominion without destroying the faith of the whole of the Dominions. Mr. Austen 1 Chamberlain accused the Government of altering the old treatv. He hoped the Government would not destroy the possibility of an agreement by putting pressure on one side onlv. Mr. J. E. Clynes deprecated the anticipations apnarent in some quarters that disorders in Ireland would follow the operation of the Bill. Air. Llovd George said the Government’s action* was perfectly, justified. Air. J. H. Thomas (Secretary for the Colonies), winding up the debate, gave a guarantee that the Government. did not intend and would not appoint a commissioner when the Bill became law merely as a nominee of the British Government. He would try to find a. man who would be representative of Northern Ireland. AG*. Thomas expressed liis long rooted distaste for the necessity of the appointment of a houndarv commission, which he believed would mean permanent partition and have a. ruinous effect on Ireland’s economic development. He declared that neither n? (he Irish leaders were unreasonable, but their positions were most difficult The motion for the reiection of the Irish Bill ’vas defeated bv 291 votes to 124. The Bill was read a second time.