Dead Silence After Irish Attack On 'British Methods'

Northern Advocate, 17 August 1949, Page 5

Dead Silence After Irish Attack On 'British Methods'

PARIS, Tue. (noon).—Mr William Norton, Ireland’s deputy Prime Minister, stunned the European Assembly at Strasbourg into uneasy silence today by making the first attack by one of the 12 member nations on another. He attacked Britain in his claim for Ireland to the six counties of Northern Ireland, now forming part of the United Kingdom.

He said: 'ln oui relations with Britain for many hundreds of years we have tasted violence and persecution in unrationed form. “We ask Britain to cease those methods." Mr Norton said Britain was occupying counties agains the will of the overwhelming majority of the people Britain functioned in thai area as an occupy me pmver he saio When tne hish leader sai down there was not a sound for a full minute. The tension was broken oy the acting president (M. Francois de Menthon, France), who appealed to members to preserve a "tone of moderation and courtesy.’’ l!.s. OF f-irnOTK PLAN A plan for the creation of a United States of Europe within two years was put before the Consultative Assembly oy a Laooiu member of tin. British House it Commons Mr R W G Mac Kay) His resolution has oeen formally submitted for committee and as•embly action He said he would take the floor this week to speak to his resolution, which calls for the creation of a “European authority within limited functions, but with real powers. ’

countries denend vnon outside aid as at present" he said A French Socialist (M. Andre Philip) said the council must take rapid and forceful steps to unify Europe’s economy to ‘‘avoid the absolute catastrophe toward which wo are all moving.” Europe desperately needs an overall economic organisation able to decide® majority problems by majority vote, and enforce its decisions. For the first time the question of the admission of Germany to the European Assembly was introduced in a concrete form today by the Dutch delegate <M. van der Goes). He congratulated German socialists rn their showing in Sunday’s elections and placed at the top of the series of unifying proposals, the admission of Germany at the Assembly’s next session in August 1950.

The plan proposes the creation an assembly commission to blueprint) the suggested authority and early submission of its report to member-Govern-ments and Parliaments, so that it may become the chief item on the agenda of the next session. Mr Mac Kay said economic unity was the strength of the United States of America. Marshall Plan aid should be made contingent upon European unificationeven withheld until unification was realised. The Assembly should become a European Parliament next year, with power to write a federal .constitution and set up a federal government of Europe similar to the United States of America. STUMBLING BLOCKS Earlier in the Assembly debate on changes in the political structure of Europe to bring about greater unity among members, Lord Layton (Britain) warned that the creation of a united Europe federation in the near future was out of the question. He urged that instead the 12 European Council nations should concentrate for the time on increasing their economic cooperation and drawing up a European human rights charter. There were three main stumbling blocks to early European federation: (1) The fact that such an organisation had never existed before. (2) Britain’s special relations with the Commonwealth.

(3) Several European Council nations do not belong to the Atlantic Pact defence group. Lord Layton proposed the setting up of a committee of experts to examine the idea of federation and report back to the Assembly in a year Mr Thorkil Kristensen (Norway) urged unification of European forces—military, economic and cultural. “We cannot be satisfied with the Istate of affairs in which the European