BITTER DEBATE IN ULSTER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19783, 26 April 1934, Page 14

BITTER DEBATE IN ULSTER

EMPLOYMENT OF FREE STATERS. LORD CRAIG AVON’S DECLARATION OF POLICY. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received April 25, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, April 24. A bitter debate developed in the Ulster Parliament, when the Nationalist (Mr Cahir Healy) moved that the campaign against the employment of Roman Catholics, which Sir Basil Brooke (Minister of Agriculture) promulgated and Lord Craigavon (Prime Minister) sanctioned, should cease. Mr Healy characterised this as a grave violation of the rights of the minority. He added that Lord Craigavon had everywhere possible driven out Nationalists from public appointments. Lord Craigavon, in moving an amendment declaring that the employment of disloyalists entering Ulster was prejudicial to the interests of law, order and the safety of the State, contended that the Ministry was justified in safeguarding the links binding Ulster to the Empire. He could not see why a local Ulsterartisan should suffer as a result of the competition of disloyalists from the Free State. Until Ulster's 63,000 unemployed were absorbed, he would place every obstacle in the way of Free State residents taking jobs, and he asked Mr Healy to use his influence to persuade Free Staters to remain “in their own glorious country, the new Jerusalem, flowing with milk and honey," instead of coming to a place that the Nationalists described as “the most bigoted, black-mouthed place in the world." Lord Craigavon recalled that it was the anniversary of the gun-running in 1914 and said that he would repeat his action if necessary. “Orangeman first, politician afterwards,” he declared. The House adjourned.