ULSTER AND FREE STATE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXXII, Issue 58, 6 May 1924, Page 5

ULSTER AND FREE STATE

IRELAND'S BOUNDARIES. tVess Association—Copyright. Au*. fcrahan and N.Z, Cable Association. London, May 5. It is frankly admitted everywhere in Ireland that if a boundary commission is appointed according to the Free State reading of article twelve of the treaty the counties of Tyrone, Fermanagh and other parts of Northern Ireland will be transferred to the Free State on a tbasis of self determination, because the Catholics therein outnumber the Protestants. Sir James Craig's Government (Ulster) contends that article twelve contemplated only the re-adjustment of minor anomalies in the existing boundary, and not the transfer of territory.

Lord Birkenhead, who helped to draft the treaty, takes this view, but the weight of legal opinion is opposed thereto. Lord Birkenhead advises Sir James Craig to appoint a member of the commission, but £sr James Craig refuses, contending that ITbrthcrn' Ireland, was not a party to the treaty. Legal experts regard this position as untenable. They point out that the treaty creating the Free State is embodied in an Imperial Act passed in' 1922, and virtually amends the Home Rule Act of 1920, under which Northern Ireland was constituted.

The bulk of* public and press opinion in England is strongly opposed to any attempt in coerce Ulster, but Labourites and Liberals are sympathetic with the Freo State's demand for the appointment of a boundary commission.

Though hotheads on both sides in lieland are talking of war, it is believed that a compromise will altimatcly be arranged. One suggestion is that the Free State should waive for ten years the settlement of the boundary, conditional on. the British Government waiving for a decade its financial claims against the Free State.

Mr J. H. Thomas (Secretary for the Colonies), speaking at Derby, said the boundary question could not be solved Ivy abusing Irish leaders. There must be no talk of another war or another attempt to coerce Ulster. He had refused to disclose to Parliament the proposals which the Labour Government had submitted to the Irish conference on April 24, because they were private documents. It wa: not intended to treat the •areaty as a scrap of paper; the Government would honour it in spirit and letter.