MAJORITY AIMS

Northern Advocate, 22 August 1924, Page 5

MAJORITY AIMS

IRISH SELF-GOVERNMENT. ULSTER'S OBDURACY. UNJUSTIFIED COMPLAINT. (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 21. Mr. E. J. Duggan, one of the signatories of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, referring to the assertion that Northern Ireland was not consulted in the Irish Treaty settlement, emphasises that when the Treaty negotiations were in progress the Irish plenipotentiaries claimed all Ireland as a proper unit of Government, but were compelled to recognise the fact of the existence of a section of "our people" v.-xo disagreed, at present at any rate, with the majority's aims. The British and Irsh plenipotentiaries at first endeavoured to work out a scheme for the unification of .Ireland, involving a continuance of local self-government in the north-east. The representatives of Northern Ireland, however, refused point blank to enter into discussion unless this proposal were withdrawn.

Mr. Duggan continued: ""When it is said that the North was not consulted it should be remembered that this was mainly due to its refusal even to consider possible lines of settlement. It was clearly understood that the purpose of the Commission was not merely to rectify an inconvenient border, but to prevent the infliction of avoidable injustice on people desiring to remain in the Free State. The Irish signatories held and expressed this view from the first; moreover, the same interpretation was plainly put forward by Lord Birkenhead and Mr Lloyd George."—A. and N.Z.