U.S. TROOPS IN IRELAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22184, 30 January 1942, Page 5

U.S. TROOPS IN IRELAND

P»rt Of Strategic Plan (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 28. “Mr de Valera has no right to interfere in Northern Ireland’s affairs, and no claim to sovereignty over Northern Ireland,” said the Premier (Mr J. M. Andrews), replying to Mr de Valera’s protest against the arrival of American troops. Mr Andrews added: “The presence of American forces is part of a vast strategic plan for the defeat of the Axis. Therefore we doubly welcome the Americans, and are' proud to be associated with them in the war. No doubt Mr de Valera would have prevented their arrival if he could, just as he denied Britain and America the use of naval bases in Eire. This folly seriously hampered the British Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic and it meant the sacrifice of thousands of gallant lives. Eire, for political or other reasons, may choose to stand aside, but Northern Ireland is in the fight for freedom and intends to see it through.” Mr Patrick Maxwell, a Nationalist member of the Northern Ireland Parliament, in an interview said: “The landing of Americans in Northern Ireland is the same as the landing of the Germans in Norway. I wholeheartedly support Mr de Valera. The Americans here are just the same as the British here. There is nothing physically we can do to throw them out or we would. The landing constitutes aggression against the Irish nation.”