BRITAIN TAKES ACTION.

Wairarapa Age, 6 July 1932, Page 5

BRITAIN TAKES ACTION.

IRELAND AND THE LAND ANNUITIES.

MB. DE VALERA’S NOTE RECEIVED.

DISCUSSION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

RUGBY July 4. As the result of the default of the Irish Free State Government regarding the land purchase annuities, a resolution was moved in the House of Commons for a Bill empowering the Treasury to issue orders imposing duties up to 1,00 per cent, on any classes of goods imported into the United Kingdom

from the Free State. Before the debate on this resolution opened, the Dominions Secretary, Mr. J. H. Thomas, in reply to a question, stated that a further despatch from the Irish Free State on the subject of land annuities had been received today. This stated that the Irish Free State Government had noted that the British Government was unwilling to agree to the removal of restrictions on the personnel of the proposed arbitral tribunal. Freedom of choice by the party concerned in the selection of their nominees of the arbitral tribunal, it states, was of the very essence of arbitration. The Note added that the Government of the Free State disputed the claims of the British Government not only in regard to land purchase annuities, but to all other annual or periodical payments, except those made in pursuance of agreements formally ratified by the Parliaments of both States. GENERAL REPUDIATION.

Commenting on the Note, Mr Thomas said that the reply left no doubt that Mr. de Valera, while agreeing in principle to the British offer of arbitration, definitely refused a Commonwealth tribunal, which was the form strictly in accordance with the recommendations unanimously agreed to at the Imperial Conference, 1930. Moreover, the reply sought to repudiate generally the financial settlement between two countries. This left no alternative to His Majesty’s Government but to proceed with the financial resolution.

In moving the resolution, Mr Thomas said that he deeply deplored the circumstances responsible for it for, above all, this was the time for peace, and no Government could have gone further than the British Government in an attempt to find an amicable settlement.

STORY OF LAND PURCHASE. Discussing the history of land purchase in Ireland, he said that it covered a period of over sixty years. It was with a single-minded desire to put an end to land agitation in Ireland that the British Government in 1881 passed legislation to provide an easy means whereby farmers should become their own landlords. The Government guaranteed payment to the lenders and supplied also large sums so that the tenant farmers as a result of this assistance bought their land on easier terms. When fears of repudiation by individuals and tenants were at that time expressed in some quarters, the Irish members of Parliament declared that the farmers of Ireland would fulfil their obligations to the very last. They had done so, and the British Government had no complaint against the farmers, but against "those who withheld the farmers’ money. SAVING TO IRELAND. As the result of the Land Purchase Act, 360,000 farmers became their own landlords and Irish farmers had secured a total reduction of over £3,50.0,000 annually in the original rentals of approximately £7,500,000 so that the average tenant and purchaser was now repaying the State as instalments little more than half the amount payable to landlords prior to the Act of 1881. When the Irish Treaty was made and the Irish Free State became a Dominion the Irish Government accepted this position in two agreements, and the British Chancellor of the Exchequer in April accordingly Budgeted for the receipt of £3,000,000 from annuities in the present financial year. It was on March 22 that he learned for the first time that Mr. de Valera in a speech in Dublin had declared his intention to withhold the annuities. When Mr. Thomas reminded Mr. de Valera that the annuities were the result of a solemn agreement Mr. de Valera replied that he was unaware of this undertaking, and four days later Mr. Thomas gave the terms and dates of the agreements. EMPIRE TRIBUNAL REFUSED. Nothing further happened until the meetings in Dublin and London at which the offer of an Empire Tribunal was advanced. Mr. de Valera refused, and now raised not only the land annuities, but every issue made by his predecessor in the last ten years in respect of financial matters. ‘ If that was Mr. do Valera’s attitude, the only alternative for the British taxpayer was the one which the Government now proposed. If Mr. de Valera had felt that the burden which the annuities involved should be considered and be made the subject of negotiation and consultation, the Government would not have refused. He asked the confidence of the House for the Government to impose in their own way duties which would enable them to obtain the amount due, but no more. labour amendment. An amendment by the Labour Party urged resort to arbitration, the personnel to be determined in the case of disagreement by the Ottawa Conference,, and Mr. Arthur Greenwood (Labour) after criticising the Government for lack of patience, declared that arbitration was still the way out of the difficulty.

Sir Austen Chamberlain (C.) said that there could be no question that a prosperous Irish peasantry was the result of the credit extended to Ireland for the purchase of land. He did not believe that Mr de Valera in this matter spoke the mind of a race that was never ungenerous and always faithful to its pledged word. It was not because Mr. do Valera did not think he would get a fair verdict from an Empire Tribunal that he rejected it, but because he was as unwilling to recognise the British Commonwealth of Nations as he was to maintain the treaty. There never was a time when it was more important that the sanctitv S ?° Ul ? be u P h eM--(British Official Wireless.)