CLAIMS ON BRITAIN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 271, 31 October 1932, Page 8

CLAIMS ON BRITAIN

ANGLO-IRISH CONFERENCE WHITE PAPER ISSUED. SHARE IN ASSETS OF OLD KINGDOM. London, Oct. 29. A White Paper dealing with the recent Anglo-Irish conference reveals that Mr de Valera claimed that the Free State was entitled to a share of the United Kingdom road fund. Tho British Government agreed, but a dispute has arisen in regard to the apportionment, which the Free State claimed to have been unfair and should be re trospectively revised. The Treasury regarded this as inadmissable. Both sides agreed to submit to the arbitration of Sir Henry Strakosch. The Free State claimed compensation tn respect of loss consequent on Britain abandoning the gold standard. The British reply was that the abandonment involved no loss to the Free State, rather a profit. In any case, the matter was a domestic one and no claim could be admitted. Tho Free State claimed recoupment for over-taxation since the union and a share of the assets of the former United Kingdom. It is understood that the amount involved was £400,000,000. The British reply was that it was impossible to establish any clear proof that Ireland had been over-taxed since the date of the union up to the present. The Free State sought to avoid the payment of pensions to the Royal Irish Constabulary,-civil servants and judges employed in Ireland before the creation of the Free State, and argued that the R.I.C. was an occupying force hostile to national aspirations and the Irish people. The British reply was that the question of the R.I.C. was settled by the financial agreements of 1923 and 1926. The Free State took over the functions of the police along with other Governmental responsibilities. Consequently the cost of pensions was a normal part thereof, which any Government would expect to bear. As regards civil and judicial pensions, the general principle was that the various departments were handed over as going concerns with assets and lia bilities attached.

The Free State claimed a share of the assets of the Post Office Savings Bank held against dormant accounts located in the Free State. The British reply was that it was not possible to agree to the transfer of any part of the balances without the consent of the depositors or their legal representatives. As regards annuities, the White Paper discloses nothing new except the insistence of the Free State that the 1923 financial agreement was not submitted to ratification. The British reply was that according to the recognised practice among the nations the agreements of 1923 and 1926 were binding unless expressly stated to be subject to ratification. No such statement was made in the agreement signed by the Ministers on each side. PRINCE OF WALES’ VISIT PROTEST MEETINGS Dublin, Oct. 29. The Sinn Feinn organisation announces the arranging of protest meetings addressed by prominent Republicans at Dublin, Belfast and elsewhere, against the Prince of Wales’ Belfast visit.