IRISH FREE STATE

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19597, 8 June 1935, Page 7

IRISH FREE STATE

COURT’S DECISION. 1 LONDON PREBB OPINION. EQUAL RIGHTS FOR DOMINIONS. | United press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. LONDON, June '7. The Times in commenting on an important judgment delivered by the Privy Council on an appeal in relation to Free State fishery rights held by Robert Moore under grants of 1622, remarks that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for more than 100 years has been the ultimate Court of Appeal for the Empire, exercising jurisdiction over one-quarter of the world and more than 400,000,000 of the King’s subjects. Its authority and prestige can only be enhanced by the robust common sense and grasp of realities shown in this judgment. The paper says that the judgment makes it clear that the Governments and Parliaments of the Dominions have a legal right to enact what legislation they please without any control from the Government and Parliament of Britain, and that in the legal view, as in the political, the British Commonwealth of Nations is a free association between partners enjoying equal rights. It is conceivable, adds the Times, that some of the partners may make use of this freedom to do things injurious to themselves and to the rest of the Commonwealth.

If some of the partners should desire to act foolishly and maliciously there is nothing in the legal rights discarded by the Statute of Westminster whicli would enable the British Government or Parliament to restrain them, remarks the paper. A Valuable Safeguard. So far as appeals to the King-ln-Couucil arc concerned, it is safe to say that after this judgment the right—regarded by most of the Dominions as a valuable safeguard—is now less in danger of being curtailed by Dominion legislation than it was before.

This judgment recognises the legal ■competence of the Dominions to restrict or abolish it as they think fit.

IN CASE OF WAR. RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN. A FREE IRELAND FRIENDLY. United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. Copyright. LONDON, June 7. Mr de Valera made an important reference to the relations between Britain and the Irish Free State in war time in the course of a speech at Black Rock, County Dublin. lie said that a free Ireland, at a time of common risk, could for Britain be only a friendly Ireland, but an Ireland in subjection could be only a hostile Ireland.

Nothing menaced the possibility of permanently good relations with Britain so much as Article VII. of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, giving Britain the right to harbours and other facilities ■required in war lime or in case of strained relations with a foreign Power.