Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1937 ' SOUTHERN IRELAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 4 May 1937, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1937 ' SOUTHERN IRELAND

THE President of the Irish Free State has chosen an inopportune time for raising the question of Southern Ireland s political status under the Irish Free State Treaty, seeing that the minds of the people of Great Britain and of the Overseas Dominions are fixed on the approaching Coronation, the celebration of which promises to transcend in magnificence and enthusiasm any such function in the world’s history. Or is it because of that approaching exhibition of the Throne s stability

and the Monarch’s popularity that Mr de Valera drafts at the present time a new constitution for the Irish Free State, contravening that which is already established by treaty, and signed ten years ago by the delegates of Southern Ireland and representatives of the British Government? That treaty defines the limits of the Irish Free State, and recognises the boundaries of Ulster; but now Mr De Valera's proposed constitution declares that “the national territory consists of the whole of Ireland and the islands in territorial seas,"

seemingly ignoring the political status of Ulster. If at the forthcoming Defence Conference the British Government places the problem created by Mr de Valera before the Dominions’ delegates, what will be the latter’s comments on the situation which is created by the Irish Free State’s President? In no case do the Overseas Dominions desire to be mixed up with the Irish h ree State’s political affairs, but at the same time they are interested in seeing that harmonious relations shall be established between Southern Ireland and Great Britain. No doubt their delegates would. be willing to place their views before the British Government, if asked their opinion of Mr de Valera’s draft constitution, which cannot be implemented until the Irish Free State Treaty is revised or abolished. But it will be recognised that the political points raised by Mr de Valera do not form a burning question. Any problems created by his draft constitution concern the Irish Free State and Great Britain, and if they should bear directly upon the defence of England and of the British Isles as a whole, the British Government is deeply concerned in them; and in the matter of the defence of Great Britain, the Dominions are fundamentally concerned. So it will be seen that if, at the present time, Mr de Valera is bent on revising the Irish Free State Treaty it will be expedient that full consideration should be given to the problem of Ireland’s defence, which cannot be assured without the co-operation of Great Britain. Is it too much to expect that Mr de Valera will lay aside for the time being the injustices, real or imaginary, suffered by Southern Ireland, and fix his attention on the immense benefits which it enjoys through its political association with Great Britain, not the least: of such benefits being its protection by the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, and the British Army?