IRELAND AND THE OATH

Hokitika Guardian, 15 August 1927, Page 3

IRELAND AND THE OATH

LORD BIRKENHEAD’S STATEMENT

(Australian & N.Z. Cable Association

LONDON. Aug. 14

Interviewed by the “ Daily Mail ” regarding the Irish situation Lord Birkenhead said: “ The problem is one primarily for solution by the commonsense of the people and the legislators of Southern Ireland . The principal value of the Treaty is that the Irish problems should be solved by Irishmen for Irishmen. It is all to the good that the De Vnlernites have decided to sit in the Bail. No doubt some explanation will be forthcoming as to the ethical process of reasoning, which enabled men of professed piety to take the oath in the name of Clod, which they did not intend to keep. Much npire important matter is Captain Redmond's expression of hope that the British Government might be disposed to consider and perhaps to accept a modification of the oath. “ In my colleagues’ absence I speak only for myself, but I say explicitly, I drafted the existing formula, and 1 would never have signed the Treaty, if it had not contained this clause. T am confident my fcli’ow negotiators would not have signed it if there had been no agreement on this point and nothing in the world would induce me to whittle it down or allow the substance to he impaired. “It is necessary, also, to make another matter plain. The oath as framed is conscious with the whole Imperial conception, under which a number of self-governing communities profess to nccept loyalty to the Monarch. ’