IRISH RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN

Southland Times, Issue 23407, 14 January 1938, Page 8

IRISH RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN

Ministers To Meet In London

TALKS ON TRADE AND DEFENCE QUESTION OF PARTITION TO BE DISCUSSED (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received January 13, 7.40 p.m.) LONDON, January 12. The Dominions Office announces that arrangements have been made for a meeting between representatives of the Government of Eire and the Government of the United Kingdom to discuss outstanding questions which affect relations between the two countries. The President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State (Mr Eamon de Valera) and some of his colleagues will meet the Prime Minister (Mr Neville Chamberlain) and some of his colleagues at No. 10 Downing Street on the afternoon of January 17.

It is officially stated that the delegation will consist of the following: For Eire: Mr de Valera, Mr S. F. Lemass (Minister of Industry and Commerce), Mr Sean Macentee (Minister of Finance) and Mr James Ryan (Minister of Agriculture). For the United Kingdom: Mr Chamberlain, Sir John Simon (Chancellor of the Exchequer), Sir Samuel Hoare (Home Secretary) and Mr Malcolm MacDonald (secretary for the Dominions).

Other British Ministers will attend as required; for instance, Sir Thomas Inskip for defence, and the Hon. Oliver Stanley for trade. INFORMAL SOUNDINGS

Conversations will take place informally between Mr MacDonald and Mr de Valera in London and Geneva. They will be purely preliminary. It is probable -that if a satisfactory start is made on Monday the discussions will continue during the week. In the meantime it is impossible to say what course the conversations will take, and whether they will lead to a formal or informal agreement or any agreement at all. The outstanding questions are defence, trade, finance, and partition. It is believed that Mr de Valera will raise the question of defence at the earliest possible moment. There is at present only the Coal and Cattle Pact between Eire and the United Kingdom which is renewable each year and has been under discussion during the past fortnight. There are no agenda and it will be open to either side to raise any topic. It is recalled that Mr de Valera said, referring to defence, that Britain need have no fear that Ireland would ever permit an enemy to use it as a base for an attack against the United Kingdom. “If we had control of every part of this island ourselves,” he said, “the combined strength of the two peoples would be used to prevent any outside Power obtaining a footing here.” Under the Anglo-Irish Treaty the Free State was to have established its own navy, like the other Dominions, and pending its construction conferences were to be held over Irish coastal defence. But no navy has been built, and only one conference has been held.

WELCOME DEVELOPMENT The Press generally welcomes the conference and hopes that good will result. The Daily Mail states: “The visit of Mr de Valera and the other Ministers to Downing Street on Monday was unexpected but very welcome. Both governments are to be congratulated on the practical steps they are taking.” The Daily Herald states: “The economic war has been dragging on so long that many must have forgotten its existence; it has been kept up not because anybody wants it but because goodwill and good sense have been blocked by old memories and old prides. Mr de Valera, after rising in the Dail Eireann, issued a statement without comment in terms similar to the Dominions Office announcement. It was received with cheers from the Opposition benches.

Mr de Valera afterwards told journalists that the new Constitution would not be discussed at the conference, but partition certainly would be. The Acting Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (Mr James Andrews) said: “I am confident that the British Government will not let us down. We are not worried.”

NORTHERN PRESIDENT SUGGESTED POLITICAL LINK WITH SOUTH (Received January 13, 7.20 p.m.) LONDON, January 12. A new national organization in Northern Ireland, called the northern council for Irish Unity, urges that the President of Eire be chosen from the north, providing a link between North and South. GOODWILL MESSAGE TO DUBLIN AMERICAN SYMPATHY WITH NEW CONSTITUTION (Received January 13, 6.30 p.m.) DUBLIN, January 12. The Irish Press publishes a message of goodwill to the President of the Executive Council (Mr Eamon de Valera) from 268 members of the United States Congress, including 80 Senators. Among the signatories are Senator Key-Pittman, acting President of the Senate, and Mr J. H. Bankhead, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The message expresses “ardent congratulations on the birth of the State of Ireland consequent on the coming into effect of the new Constitution.”