THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1924. THE IRISH PROBLEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19283, 22 September 1924, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1924. THE IRISH PROBLEM.

Twenty-one members of the House of Commons who have been visiting Ireland have discovered that the feeling in that country as a whole, with regard to the boundary question, “is strongly in favour of a settlement.” Obviously they mean that it is an amicable settlement between the North and the South that is desired without any reference to the Boundary Commission, and they ex press the belief that a satisfactory settlement can best be reached by a direct mutual agreement between the two parties in Ireland. It is a sensible recommendation in that it seems to advocate the only course that is likely to avoid the creation of new difficulties. These members of the House of Com raons are not putting forward, however, any new proposition. Sir James Craig has contended all along that the British Government has been wasting its time in trying to create a Boundary Commission, which, even were it brought into being in the way that has lately been contemplated, could only serve to make confusion worse confounded unless its functions were strictly circumscribed. He has protested time and again that a settlement can be secured only by mutual agreement, and a few weeks ago ho repeated his offer to meet Mr Cosgrave in a friendly spirit with a view to settling the boundary question.' To these offers Mr Cosgrave seems to have made no reply. His Government has

been content to rest its hopes upon the Boundary Commission. Lord Londonderry, a member of the Ulster Cabinet, has characterised the suggestions of the members of the House of Commons who have lately returned from Ireland as of little value, and. he has added that Ulster has nothing to give away. Undoubtedly the virtual position which the Northern Government takes up is that thus succinctly stated by Lord Londonderry. Possibly this is why Mr Cosgrave shows no enthusiasm for a heart-to-heart talk with Sir James Craig. While the principle of settlement by mutual agreement seems to be the only one that has any logical application in the circumstances, it must be confessed that it is not easy to see how it can be applied with satisfactory results so long as the parties in Ireland adhere so stubbornly to the attitudes they have respectively assumed. Both the North and the South desire a peaceful settlement, but their ideas as to the terms of settlement that would be acceptable are vastly at variance. To say that Ulster has nothing to give away does not necessarily imply any opposition on her part to a mere rectification of the boundary. But the Free State is aiming at securing a large slice of the territory of Ulster as defined under the Act of 1920, and only with the abandonment of such claims on its part can a settlement hy mutual agreement he effected. The Free State regards the Boundary Commission as an instrument for its territorial extension at the expense of Ulster and her six counties. The mnddlo over Article Twelve of the Irish Treaty is all the greater because ■of the divergence of opinion respecting the scope which the activities of the Boundary Commission would assume. Lord Birkenhead, one of the signatories of the Treaty, stated definitely in April last that the purpose of the Commission was “not to re-allocate disputed territories, hut to adjust inconvenient boundaries.” Quite recently Lord Balfour issued for publication a private letter received by him from Lord Birkenhead in March, 1922, conveying assurances only a little less specific respecting the interpretation which should be placed on the Treaty. Moreover, Mr Lloyd George has definitely endorsed the declaration that only minor rectifications of frontier were contemplated under the Treaty. That is one aspect only of the difficulty confronting the British Government when, upon Parliament reassembling at the end of this month, the first business will be the second reading of the Bill conferring upon the Government power to appoint a representative on the’ Boundary Commission on behalf of Ulster. Mr Thomas has stated that the Government will exert all its power to carry the measure. But the question is raised whether the British Government would not be exceeding its authority in adopting the procedure that is proposed. The Daily Mail puts the position thus : “If the British Parliament is free to legislate concerning Ulster it is also free to legislate concerning the Free State, or Canada, or Australia. While from the standpoint of strict technical legality it may be possible for the Imperial Parliament to interfere with States to which- self-government has been granted by previous Acts, the impolicy and risk of such a proceeding are manifest.” With the all too real danger in Ireland of a strong recrudescence of Republican activity in the Free State, and with the possibility, of which a hint is conveyed in our cable news this morning, of relations between the North and the South becoming strained to the breaking point, the whole situation is about as clouded and unsatisfactory as it could he.