IRISH SITUATION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 15 August 1927, Page 9

IRISH SITUATION

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM. ONE FOR IRISHMEN. LORD BIRKENHEAD’S VIEWS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received 2.5 p.m. to-day. LONDON, Aug. 14. Interviewed 'by the “Daily Mail” regarding the Irish situation, Lord Birkenhead said: “The problem is one primarily for solution by the commonsense of the people and legislators of Southern Ireland. The principal value of the treaty is that Irish problems should ho solved by Irishmen for Irishmen. It is all to the good that the dc Valeraites have decided to sit in the Hail. The ethical process of reasoning which enabled men of professed piety to take the oath in the name of God which they said they did not intend to keep, is important, but a much more important matter is Captain Redmond’s expression of hope that the British Government might be disposed to consider, perhaps accept, a modification of the oath. In my' colleague’s absence, I speak only for myself, but I say explicitly I would never have signed the treaty if it had not contained this clause. I am confident that none of my fellow negotiators would have signed it if there had been no agreement on this point,. Nothing in the world would induce me to whittle it down or to allow the substance to be impaired. It is necessary also to make another matter plain. The oath is framed in consonance with the whole Imperial conception, under which a number of self-governing communities profess to accept loyalty to the monarch.