EIRE AND DOMINION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26782, 27 May 1948, Page 6

EIRE AND DOMINION

EXPRESSIONS OF FRIENDSHIP P.A. WELLINGTON,' May 26. “We all feel that we would like Ireland—the whole of Ireland—to be close to us in political and economic bonds for all time,” said the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, at a' State afternoon tea for Mr De Valera and Mr F. D. Aiken to-day. Those invited included all sections of the parliamentary, diplomatic, State departmental, professional and commercial life of the capital, and a Maofi party included Princess Te Puea and Lady Pomare. Democracy had always found a staunch champion in Eamon De Valera, said the Prime Minister. On the floor of the League of Nations, whether it had been in the matter of Italian aggression on Abyssinia, Japanese on China, or the outbursts of Germany, Mr De Valera had always shown his great democratic outlook. Mr De Valera said that New Zealand and Ireland to a large extent shared the same political and social ideas. “ You are fortunate,” he added, “ and the world is fortunate in having a country like this, developed freely as it has been.” Mr Aiken said that the feeling in Eire towards the British people was much better to-day than it was 25 or 30 years ago, when the ancestors of many of those present left Ireland. Only one question—partition—remained to be settled, and it should be settled in a friendly way.