SIR PATRICK DUFF REPLIES TO MR. DE VALERA ON IRELAND

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 May 1948, Page 4

SIR PATRICK DUFF REPLIES TO MR. DE VALERA ON IRELAND

(P.A.) Wellington, May 26. At the last general election in Northern Ireland in 1945 voting was about two to one in favour of Unionist candidates supporting union with Britain as against Nationalist candidates favouring union with Eire, said the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Sir Patrick Duff, in a statement today. He was commenting on the reported remarks of Mr. Eamon de Valera, formerly Prime Minister of Eire, in Wellington yesterday.

Sir Patrick stressed the great respect of the British people for Mr. de Valera and deprecated any suggestion of a controversy. It was one of the great liberties of the British Commonwealth that everyone could speak his mind on any political subject anywhere within the Commonwealth. , Nevertheless it would be unfair to the people o. E’itain if New Zealanders were left with the impression that there was no opposite side to the case as stated b. Mr. de Valera. Sir Patrick said that there was no argument in favour of Eire’s own independence, which was not also an argument in favour of partition. The great majority of the predominantly Anglo-Scottish Protestant and industrial community of Northern Ireland wished to remain part of the United Kingdom. They would resent political incorporation in the neighbouring Irish Roman Catholic and predominantly agricultural community of Eire ae bitterly as the latter would resent political incorporation in the United Kingdom. Unless and until they changed their sninds the only alternative to partition was for the people of Northern Ireland to be handed over against their wishes to Eire.

Referring to the 1945 voting figures quoted by him, Sir Patrick Duff said that, in the face of this unequivocal expression of the sentiment and political wishes of the people of Northern Ireland, it was obvious that they would not be “free" if forced against their wishes to join Eire. The latest census figures showed that there were more non-conformists than Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland and there were also many members of other non-Roman Catholic Christian churches. So, of the total population, only about one-third were Roman Catholics.

That there was no oppression or persecution of the Roman Catholic minority in Northern Ireland was shown by the heavy migration of Eire into Northern Ireland.