THE IRISH FREE STATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18942, 13 February 1925, Page 13

THE IRISH FREE STATE.

dominion or nation? PHRASE IN KING'S SPEECH. RESENTMENT IN IRELAND. til' DAHUELL FIGGIS. Some, controversy has arisen as a confluence of a reference to the Irish Free State in the King's Speech of the newBritish Government as a "Dominion." The reference, in that form,-, has caused some resentment, and it undoubtedly strikes across national feeling in Ireland very strongly. That is to say, it offends ihfe spirit of tho very movement that brought the Irish Free State into being. 4s a good deal of misunderstanding may be created by this resentment, I will endeavour to show exactly, how the Irish Treaty is regarded by nationalist IreJ and> , m of all, let me refer to tho Treaty itself. The very first article of that Treaty read., Ireland shall have the same constitutional aatus in the Community of Nations known n, the British Empire as the Dominion of rlnacla tie Commonwealth ot Australia, the "Dominion of Now Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Ireland and tiro to that Parliament, fttid shall bo styled and known as th© Irish Free State. Now these words are significant. They do not say that Ireland shall be a Dominion. I happen to know that that statement was specially avoided by the JrJsh Plenipotentiaries, and would not have been accepted by them. The two chief of those plenipotentiaries ,vere the late President Arthur Griffith j nnd the late General Michael Collins. The j first of these maintained (what he had alwavs insisted on throughout his life) that "Ireland was in her own right an.ancient nation, of an older accepted rank among the nations of Europe than Great Britain. The second of these maintained that Ireland was in her own right a mother country no less than Great Britain—a mother country that notoriously has, to her own sore loss, peopled {he distant places of the earth with her children. Both insisted that they would do nothing to derogate from that position.' * Both agreed that Ireland should loyally join the "Community of Nations known as tho British Empire" (the choice of words there again is significant), and that her place in that Community should be with the of a Dominion. J3ut both required that, in joining that Community Ireland should come as she was, an ancient nation and mother country in her own right. The distinction in the minds of these two great men is important to note. They recognised the historical fact that the Dominions had all been British colonies established bv their own Mother Country and deriving all their institutions from !>o«e of their Mother Countrv. The word "Dominion" is. in fact, a recognition ■ of that historical fact. But Ireland was not so established. She existed nationally from an older date, when she had political institutions of her own and a distinctive policy, code of law and social habit. And it was to win the recognition of that eider right, not to cancel and submerge it, that these men negotiated for a treaty. Political freedom came to none of the British Colonies by way of an international treaty, but by devolution from the mother Parliament. The Irish Constitution. For this reason the Constitution of each of these Dominions was enacted by the Imperial Parliament. THb Constitution of the Irish Free State was not. so enacted. It was enacted and prescribed by a Constituent Assemblv in Ireland; and the Irish Constitution accordingly derives its force and authority from no authority whatever outside of the elected representatives oS the Irish people as the heirs of t'he old nationhood. The first two Articles of the Irish Constitution with its brief preamble, makes this quite clear. The Preamble begins: — Bail Eireann sitting as a Constituent Assembly in this Provisional Parliament, acknowledging that all lawful authority comes from God to the. people; and in all confidence that the National Life and unity of Ireland 'shall thus be restored, hereby proclaims the establishment of th© Irish Free State, and in tho exercise of undouoted right decrees and enacts as follows. The first two articles read:— 1. The Irish Free State is a. cc-equal member of the Community of Nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations. 2. All powers of government, and all authority legislative, executive, and judicial in Ireland, are derived from the people of Ireland, and ihe same shall be exercised in the Irish Free State througrb the organisations established by or under, and in accord with, this Constitution. No words such as these are to be found, or could possibly be found, in any Dominion Constitution. The entire assumption and procedure of the Dominion Constitutions precludes them. The assump- • tion in their case is that the Constitution in question is decreed and enacted by the King in Parliament in Great Britain; and the procedure is that that Constitution is a devolution of the rights inherent in that Parliament in Great Britain by its own Act, arid in exercise of its own undoubted powers. Clearly, then, the assumption and procedure in the case of the Irish Free State is entirely different; and it is equally' : clear that the title applicable to the Dominions cannot be applicable to Ireland. So, at least, it is strongly maintained in Ireland, where one is constantly reminded that if any other assumption and procedure had been adopted, the Treaty itself would have failed of acceptance. Ireland's Bank and Dignity. What, then (it may fairly bo asked), is ths* Irish Free State; and what is her position in the Commonwealth of Nations? In answering these questions let me say, frankly, that there is no doubt as to the sincerity of Ireland's joining the Commonwealth, It is true that there is a strong Republican Party in the Free State; and it, i s true that a neglect of Irish sensitiveness as to her national position flays,into the hands of that party; but it is also true that the overwhelming mai jority of the Irish people are content to take their place in the Commonwealth, ana recognise the undoubted advantages j of such a union of forces, and are willing | to shoulder their responsibilities there. There ought to be no doubt as to this; I ?nd the only thine; that can shake it f ,a . any attempt to diminish the rank and dignity of Ireland's standing thero that the people of Ireland won. I According to her own Constitution, then ! jas accepted and passed for acceptance oy the British Parliament), the Irish Free State, as an ancient nation and mother-country, joined the Commonwealth II free!y as a co-equal member " thereof. | -Never having been a British Colony she '? net, and cannot bo, a British Dominion, ror tho purposes of tho Commonwealth I she takes, in tho words of tho Treaty, the H status, and only tho status, of a Do|j minion, being in all senses equal in rank H and authority with any other member, including Great Britain herself. That is the I claim; and it will be seen from the words 1 .. ' la ve quoted that the claim is established in legal enactment, Any attempt to treat the Irish Free otate as something inferior, or to refer ,n it. by words and phrases that suggest . 'at she regards (rightly or wrongly) as inferiority, stirs resentment to life in an acute _ form. It does more. It arouses Suspicion—such suspicion as is natural in ho case of a nation that accepted the J treaty only after a long wordy debate as this very point, a debate that was 1 followed by bitter civil war—for it. creates | the thought that an attempt is being I wiade to undo what has been gained. And 'hat 15 the meaning of tho present discus-