FREE STATE POLICY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 9 April 1934, Page 7

FREE STATE POLICY

MR DE VALERA’S BELIEFS. NOT BOUND TO BRITAIN. STRUGGLE FOR SOVEREIGNTY. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April 9, 11.55 a.m. LONDON, April 8. Mr De Valera, in a special interview with the Sun-Herald Service, disclosed the aims and future relationships of the Irish Free State with the other members of the British Commonwealth. The interviewer asked what could the Dominions expect would be his Government’s attitude towards relationships, say, with Australia on the attainment of the objective of complete Irish independence. Mr De Valera replied: “I am sincerely and genuinely anxious to secure good relationships with all the States of the British Commonwealth. There is much in common to draw us together in free association. Ties of kindred and common interests merit recognition, but all this, nevertheless, is secondary. Our paramount aim is to obtain reql independence. Our people have struggled for this for over seven centuries and will not rest until they are successful. If we are not allowed independence without completely severing our relations with the countries of the Commonwealth then we are prepared for that. “Australians and Canadians find difficulty in understanding our attitude, because their past relations with Britain are different from ours. Canada and Australia are prepared to (regard Britain as their Mother Country, but to us Britain lias been an invader, who centuries ago robbed us of national sovereignty and has since resisted our efforts to regain it. IVe are not bound to Britain by any ties of filial regard—we regard ourselves as much a mother country as is Britain. That is proved by the multitude of Irishmen, not only in the United States but also in Australia and Canada. The fact that so many Irishmen settled in the States of the Commonwealth is one of my reasons for believing that, once our independence is accepted, a practical scheme for association and co-opera-tion on matters of common interest, obviously including trade and defence, could be worked out,” Mr De Valera said. ISSUE OF RULES. FOR BATHING RESORTS. LONDON, April 7. Orders have been issued at Irish Free State bathing resorts to prevent the Dish “imitating the scandalous ways of the English.” It is suggested that mixed bathing be prohibited.