“BLACKMAIL, INSULTS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 838, 5 December 1929, Page 9

“BLACKMAIL, INSULTS”

LORD CARSON’S ATTACK ON IRISH FREE STATE

ATTITUDE TOWARD TREATY LONDON, Wednesday. In the House of Lords Lord Danesfort called attention to a speech by the Vice-President, Mr. K. Blythe, in the Dai! Eireann on the subject of Irish appeals to the Privy Council, and to the attitude of the Prime Minister, Mr. MacDonald, on the matter, which he declared to be evasive and unsatisfactory. Lord Carson said: “Whenever an issue with the Free State lias arisen Britain has always yielded to blackmail. Why should you always pat on the back, and almost lick the boots, of people who are always insulting you, your King, and even the treaties? This has nothing to do with my hostility toward the Irish Free State. All that has gone and is buried.” Lord Parmoor, the Lord President, who replied, said the Government intended to hold to the report of the Imperial Conference of 1926. This would guide it at the next conference. It was a serious thing to assume that the Irish Free State was guilty of illegality. The Marquess of Reading said that if Mr. Blythe meant that appeals to t'ne Privy Council would be made ineffective, it would be a breach of honour.

Lord Passfield, Secretary of State for the Dominions, said he was not disposed to say that the Free State was capable of committing a breach of' the treaty, or of its contractual obligations. The discussion then dropped.