IRISH FREE STATE AND ABYSSINIA

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 5

IRISH FREE STATE AND ABYSSINIA

-Press Assn.

Minister's Credentials Involve Recognition BRITAIN'S ATTITUDE

(By Telegraph-

—Oopyright.)

(Eeceived 18, 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, Dee. 17. The Dublin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that a communication from the Pree State concerning the appointr* ent of a new Irish Minis ter to Eome, Sccredited to the King of Italy and the Emperor of Abyssinia, is being sent direct to King George. The prevailing view is that King George, acting solely and independently on behalf of the Pree State, will not by signing it, involve the British Government in any diplomatic tangles. Mr Eamon De Valera, President of the Pree State Executive Council, has made it clear that, while he does not approve of the Italian annexation of Abyssinia, he is compelled to give it de facto recognition in order to have a Minister in Eome. He insists that there ie no question of de jure recognition, saying: "The Pree State merely recognises the new name taken by the Italian sovereign and which has to be recorganiled by general courtesy in the comity of natiohs." The Fr~e State communication is now before tae King, says the Daily Telegraph's diplomatic correspondent. Mr De Yalera, presumably acting under the terms of the executive authority of the External Eelations Act, which he rushed through the Dail after

King Edward's abdication, and which cut off the Pree State from the Commonwealth except in the matter of recognising the King as the "symbol of co-operation" between the Dominions. "Britain and the British Government have never expressed an opinion on the validity of this Act," says the Manchester Guardian's diplomatic correspondent. "But they apparently do not intend to ehallenge Mr De Valera's position. The Pree State 's autonomy in foreign affairs cannot be disputed, and the British Government, in refusing to piek a quarrel with Mr De Yalera, is probably actuated. by the belief that recognition .f the conquest of Abyssinia must eome in time. Therefore, the Pree State is not doing something fundamentally and forever at variance with the rest of the Commonwealth. "Meanwhile, Mr De Yalera is planning what may prove a more embarrassing move. It is understood," says the Guardian, "when the new Irisn Constitution operates on December 29, that the High Commissioner for the Pree State will cease to exist and Mr Dulanty will tlien become High Commissioner for Eire or Ireland. How Whitehall will react to such a step remains to be seen. Mr De Valera is steadily develojiing his theory that, while kings are divisible, Ireland is uot."