TREATY BROKEN?

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 5 December 1929, Page 5

TREATY BROKEN?

FREE STATE’S METHODS COMMENT IN HOUSE OF LORDS. APPEALS TO PRIVY COUNCIL. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegrapn Copyright.) LONDON, Dec. 4. In the House of Lords. Lord Danesfort called attention to a speech by the Hon. Ernest Blythe (Minister of Finance) in the Hail Bireann on the subject of Irish appeals to the Privy Council and Mr MacDonald’s attitude thereto, which he declared evasive and unsatisfactory. Lord Carson said that whenever an issue with the Free State had arisen the British Government had always yielded to blackmail. “Why should you always pat them on the back and almost lick the boots of people who are always insulting you and even the treaties under which they exist?”- he asked'. “Let them know that they must conform to the treaties like any honest Government. This has nothing to do with my hostility towards the Free State. All that has gone ana been buried.’.’ Lord Par moor replied that the Government intended to. hold "to the report of the Imperial Conference of 1926. This would guide them at the next conference. It was a serious thing to assume that the Free State was guilty of illegality. Lord' Reading said that- if Mr Blythe meant that appeals to the Privy Council would be mode ineffectual it would be a breach of honour. Lord Passfield said he was not disposed to say that the Free State was capable of breaching its treaty or contractual obligations. The discussion dropped.