THE FREE STATE AND THE EMPIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21621, 16 April 1932, Page 12

THE FREE STATE AND THE EMPIRE.

The developments in connection with the Irish Free State have, prompted Mr J. M'Govern, one of tAe Glasgow group of Labour memberte, to give notice in the House of Commons of his intention of introducing a Bill to secure that the taking of the oath shall be optional in the British Parliament, so that Republicans may occupy their seats with a clear , conscience. Mr de Yalora may possibly be gratified at an indication of sympathy from such a quarter. Mr MTjovcrn may or may not obtain the opportunity for which he to be , looking of again riveting the attention of the House of Commons in a spectacular manner. In July last, it may be recalled, after being suspended for the use of unparliamentary lamguage, he refused to obey the Speajker’s direction to leave the House, sand had to be ejected by force. There appeared to be some aspect of conscience in that episode too, for, curiously enough, the origin of the violent scene was traceable to the preaching of the Gospel on Glasgow Green. As re-gai-ds the question at issue between the Free State and Great ."Britain, or, perhaps more correctly, between the Free State and the British Commonwealth, the position shows no variation. Mr de Valera and his Ministers have yet to frame a jreply to the latest British Note. When they do so they will probably continue to argue that the proposal to abolish the oath is a matter of purely domestic concern for the Free State, and endeavour to throw upon Great Britain fthe onus of attaching to such a step a much wider significance. In its Note of April 9 the British Government fe/It it necessary to re-emphasise the point that the oath of allegiance is an integral part of the Treaty of Settlement, and to intimate again that it stands absolutely for the treaty, and to that position most firmly ac|heres. The Note conveyed a formal amd explicit reminder of “ obligations deliberately undertaken ” by the Free State, and expressed the view that any failure in the complete fulfilment of these obligations must impair the relations between the peoples of the United Kingdom and the Irish Free State.

The responsibility rests with the Government of the Free State for the consequences of the course which it proposes to pursue. To use the phraseology of the Statute of Westminster, in the framing of which the Free State was a participant, the Crown is the symbol of the free association of members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and they are united by a common allegiance to it. The Free State is a member of the British Commonwealth, and if, through the perversity of the de 'Valera Government, it rejects the condition of partnership, then it must cease to belong to the fellowship in which Britain and all the dominions are associated. Mr de Valera may think, as one of the London papers puts it, that he is trying to break the link with England, but he proposes in reality to commit the Free State to a much wider act of severance and renunciation. The logical consequences of its policy have been fully brought home to the Free State Government by the Governments of the dominions as well as by that of Great Britain. Should it persist in a foolish course, which it endeavours to justify by feeble arguments that have little bearing on the present-day situation of Southern Ireland, the best hope for the Free State will consist in the possibility that, when the matter is put to the test in the Dail, Mr de Valera may not find that his party is strong enough to carry through its reactionary proposals.