MR. FRASER WOULD LIKE CLOSER TIES N.Z. WITH IRELAND

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 May 1948, Page 4

MR. FRASER WOULD LIKE CLOSER TIES N.Z. WITH IRELAND

(P.A.) Wellington, May 26 “We all feel that we would like Ireland—the whole of Ireland—to be close to us in political and economic bonds for all time,” said the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) at a State afternon tea for Mr. de Valera and Mr. F. D. Aiken, one-time Minister of Defence in Ireland, today. Those invited included all sections of the Parliamentary, diplomatic, State Departmental, professional and commercial life of the capital. A Maori party included Princess Te Puea and Lady Pomare. Democracy had always found a staunch champion in Eamon de Valera, said the Prime Minister. On the floor of the League of Nations, whether it had been in the matter of Italian aggression on Abyssinia, the Japanese on China, or the outbursts of Germany, Mr. de Valera had always shown his great democratic outlook.

Mr. de Valera said New Zealand and Ireland, to a large extent, shared the same political and social ideas.

“You are fortunate," he added, “and the work! Is fortunate, in having a country like this developed freely, as it has been.”

Mr. Aiken said the feeling in Eire towards the British people was much better today than It was 25 or 30 years ago, when the ancestors of many of those present left Ireland. Only one question, that of the partition, remained to be settled, and it should be settled in a friendly way.