IRISH AFFAIRS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 May 1924, Page 2

IRISH AFFAIRS

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[Reuters Telegrams.]

ULSTER. BOUNDARY

LONDON, May 4

The Ulster boundary question is acute. It is frankly admitted evervwnere in Ireland that, if a Boundary Commission is appointed according to the Free State reading of Article Twelve of the Treaty, the Counties of Tyrone and Fennauagh and other parts of northern Ireland will he transferred to the Free State, on the basis of selfdetermination. liczcause the Catholics in these counties outnumber the Protestants.

Sir J. Craig's Government contends that Article Twelve of the Treaty contemplated only a readjustment of minor anomalies in the existing nouiidary, and not the transfer of the territory in question. 1-oril Birkenhead, who helped to draft the Treaty, takes Craig's view, but the weight of legal opinion is opvosed to th enew Lister Premier. LONDON, May 5. Regarding the Boundary question. Lord Birkenhead advises Sir James Craig to appoint a member to the Boundary Commission. Sir J. Craig refuses, lie contends that Northern Ireland was not a party to the Irish Treaty. Legal experts regard the l lster Premier’s position as being untenable. They point out that the Treaty creating'the Irish Free State is embodied in an Imperial Act, passed in 1022, and it virtually amends the Home Rule Act of 1920.

The bulk of tlie people and press opinion in England is strongly opposed to any attempt to coerce Ulster, but the Labourites and the Liberals aro sympathetic with the 1> roe States demand for the appointment of a Belinda rv Commission.

Though the hotheads on both sides in Ireland are talking of war. it is believed that tt compromise will ultimately be arranged. One suggestion is that the Free State will waive for ten years a settlement of the boundary, conditional on the British Government waiving for a decade its financial claims against the Free State. Mr J. H. Thomas, speaking at Derby. said t!x> Ulster boundary question could not bo solved by the abusing of Irish loaders. There must not lie talk of another war. or another attempt to coerce Ulster. Ho had refused to disclose to Parliament the proposals which the lsibour Government submitted to the Irish Conference on the 2-tth. Apiil. because they were a private document. It was not intended to treat tlie Irish Treaty as a scrap of paper. The Govenimcnt would honour it ill the spirit and in the letter.

WARLIKE PREPARATIONS,

LONDON. May 4

People startlingly assert that armed bodies are moving secretly all i.iglit long on both sides ol Ulster border. The mysterious explosions continue and the atmosphere is one of nreparatioil for war.

There is a British garrison of thirteen thousand in Ulster and it will be dillictilt for them to prevent becoming embroiled in ease ol war.