IRISH FREE STATE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 120, 20 April 1934, Page 7

IRISH FREE STATE.

SENATE ABOLITION BILL. LONDON, April 18. Mr De Yalera, moving the second reading of the Senate Abolition Bill, said the Senate, a non-representative chamber, prevented the representative House from carrying out the people’s will. It had opposed major measures since the Fianna Fail took office, although it had not previously done so. A cheaper and more useful revising House could be provided if necessary. Members of the Dail were the best judges of what the people wanted. Mr W. T. Cosgrave opposed the Bill as interferring with the independence of the judiciary. Its enactment would give the constitution a death-blow. The pretext of expenditure was invalid because the Government spent in one day on the Anglo-Irish dispute what would keep the Senate for a year. Mr O’Sullivan said that Mr De Valera was drifting toward a dictatorship. The Bill was introduced because the majesty of President-Emperor De Valera was piqued. Mr O’Higgins said that the Government wanted the Senate to be a mere body of “yes men.” Mr W. Norton announced that Labour would support the Bill. The debate was adjourned. REPUBLICAN ARRESTED. LONDON, April 18. Tom Barry, a prominent Republican leader in Cork, has been arrested on a charge of illegal possession of a ma-chine-gun and 384 rounds of ammunition. He will be tried by a military tribunal in Dublin.