"Gulf" Between North And Southern Ireland Cannot Be Bridged

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 April 1949, Page 5

"Gulf" Between North And Southern Ireland Cannot Be Bridged

LONDON, April 19 (Recd 7.45 pm).i —"The gull" between Northern and' Southern Ireland could not be bridged, said the chief Government Whip for Northern Ireland, Mr. W. S. Topping. He was commenting on Mr. Costello's offer to allow Northern Ireland to retain her Parliamentary institutions provided responsibility for, foreign atiairs and defence were. transferred to all Ireland Parliament.: Mr. Topping added: “No practical 1 person could ask us, or any other State, to consent to transier responsibility for defence and fore.gn affairs from the United Kingdom and the British Comonwealth to the Irish Republic.” The Prime Minister of Eire, Mr. Costello, said yesterday that althoughEire had severed the ties binding it I to Great Britain and other members' of the Commonwealth, what had been done would ensure closer co-opera- , tion and more real friendship between Ireland, Great Britain and the other Commonwealth countries than could ever have existed before. The Government of Eire would be prepared to allow the people in Ulster to retam their present powers of government if the powers of defence and foreign affairs were in the hands of an allIreland Government. Mr. Costello added: “Eire now stands alone as a nation. We have no alliances, entanglements or ties with any country in the world, but we ask to be reckoned with now as an independent State, however small we are. Eire has in international affairs a tremendous influence by reason of the fact that so many of our people are scattered all over the world. Eire can be of great assistance in the advancement of world peace—if we can get rid of partition. Until partition goes we cannot give the full contribution which we could give in economic and military co-operation in defence of peace." If Ireland joined the North Atlantic Pact while partitioned, she would almost certainly face a threat of civil war is the event of a crisis, said Sean

Macßride, Foreign Minister of the new Republic of Ireland, in a speech at an Irish Fellowship Club banquet in Chicago. He adcied that no Irish Government could hope to obtain the necessary support from the Irish people for such a commitment. It should be clearly understood that in refusing to sign the pact the Irish were in no way actuated by feelings of hostility towards Britain, based on past wrongs. Ireland was most anxious to develop genuinely friendly relations with Britain. These were in the interests of both countries. “If partition were removed, it is inconceivable that Ireland should ever constitute a source of embarrassment to Britain in time of war. Indeed, the very contrary would be the case. A friendly and united Ireland in Britain’s western approaches is in the interest not merely of Britain and Ireland, but of all the countries concerned with the security ot the Atlantic area.”