IRELAND

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIV, Issue XLIV, 6 May 1924, Page 5

IRELAND

BOUNDARY DISPUTE.

HOTHEADS TALK OR WAR

BY CABLB—PRESS ASSOCIATION-COPYRIGHT LONDON, May 4 It in frankly admitted everywhere in Ireland that if a boundary commission is appointed according to the Free State reading of article twelve of the j treaty the counties of Tyrone, Fer['tnanagh and other parts of Northern Ireland will be transferred to tke Free State on a basis of self-determination, because the Catholics outnumber the Protestants. Sir Jamas Craig's Government (Ulster) contends that article twelve contemplated only the readjustment of minor anomalies in the existing boundary, and not the transfer of territory. Lord Birkenhead, who helped to draft the treaty, takes this view, but | the weight of legal opinion is opposed thereto. Lord Birkenhead advises bir James Craig to appoint a member of the commission, but Sir James Craig refuses, contending that Northern Ireland was not a party to the treaty. Legal experts regard this position as untenable. They point out that the treaty creating the Free State is embodied in an Imperial Act passed m 1922, and virtually amends 1 if- Home Rule Act of 19%>> under which Northern Ireland was constituted. ; , . y • ' I ™e k, ulk of Pul>lic and press opinion m England is strongly opposed to any attempt to coerce Ulster, but Labour-i-fclf £*-4£ c!: aasis are sympathetic with the *ree State's demand for the appointment of a boundary commission Inough hotheads on, both sides in Ireland are talking of war, it is believed that a compromise will ultimate-* that the Free State should waive for ten yea.rs the settlement of the boundary, conditional on the British government waiving for a decade its slTte cairns against the Free

rJJ -f\ ■ Tl}°. mas (Secretary for the Colonies), speaking at Derby, said the boundary question could not be solved by abusing Irish leaders. There must be no talk of another war or another attempt to coerce Ulster. He had retusej to disclose, to Parliament the proposals which the Labour Govern! ment had submitted to the Irish conference on April 24, because they were private documents. It was not intended to treat the treaty as a scran of paper, tie Government, ™Sd honour it m spirit and letter.