IRISH FREE STATE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 April 1932, Page 3

IRISH FREE STATE

DE VALERA’S REPLY.

RECEIVED IN BRITAIN,

(United Press Association —By EJeccru Telegraph. —Copyright.]

WELLINGTON, April 12.

The Prime Minister to-day issued full texts, received through the Gov-ernor-General, of the communications j between His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and His Majesty’s Government in the Irish Free Stare. The following summary supplements the information in the Rugby “Official Wireless” message issued to-day. A despatch received by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom from His Majesty’s Government in the Irish Free State, dated sth. April, states in Paragraph Three: “The suggestion in your despatch that the Government of the Irish Free State contemplates acting dishonour- . ably cannot in justice, be let pass, i The pages of the history of the relations between Great Britain and Irelnad are, indeed, stained by many breaches of faith, but I must remind j you that the guilty party has not been Ireland.”

j Paragraph Four says: “In justice, j also, I must point out that the observance of the agreement of 1921 has involved no parity of sacrifice as between Great Britain and Ireland. Since it was signed it has cost Britain nothing; for Ireland that agreement has nijpant the consummation of the outrages'of partition, and also the j alienation of a most sacred part of our national territory, with all of the cultural and material loss that this unnatural separation entails British maintenance parties are still in occupation in some of our principle ports. Even in the area of tho Irish Free i State, our coastal defence is still being | retained in British hands. Britain claims the right in times of war, or of strained relations with a foreign Power to make demands upon the I Irish Free State which, if grantee*, will make our right to neutrality a mockery.” “This agreement- has divided the people of the Irish Free State into two hostile- camps—those who deemed it their duty to resist, and face the consequences; and those who deemed it prudent, in the national interests, temporarily to submit; the latter being placed in the no less cruel position of having apparently, to hold tho | Irish Free State for England, with ‘an economy of English lives.’ to quote from the late Lord Birkenhead’s famous exposition of policy in the House !of Lords. To England, this agreeI nient gave peace, and an added pres- | tige in the Irish Free State. It raised brother’s hand against- brother; jit have us ten years of blood and tears; and it besmirched the name or the Irish Free State wherever foul propaganda, has been able to misrepresent us. During those ten years, there has been extracted from us, though in part only as a consequence . of the agreement, a financial tribute which, relative to population, puts a greater burden on the people of the Irish Free State than is the burden of the war preparation payments on the people- of Germany; and, relative to taxable capacity, a burden that is , ten times as heavy as the burden on J the people of Britain of their debt \ payments to the United States of America.”

In Paragraph Six, Mr He Vnie*>: says: “With regard to the land annuities, my Government will be obliged if you will state what is the ‘formal and explicit undertaking to continue to pay land annuities to the National Debt Commissioners to which you make reference in your despatch. The Government of the Irish Free State is not aware of any such undertaking.” . Paragraph Seven says: “In conclusion, niv I express my regret that, in a statement conveying to the House of Commons the information given you by our High Commissioner, that part of his message was omitted which assured your Government of the desiro of the Government of the Irish Free

State that the- relations between the

peoples of! our respective countries should be friendly. These friendly relations cannot be established on pretence; but they can be established on a solid foundation of mutual respect, and common interest. They would long ago have been thus established had the forces that tend to bring ius together not been interfered with by the attempt of one country to dominate the other.”

B RITISH GOVERNMENT.

REJOINDER, TO FREE STATE'.

WELLINGTON, April 12

The despatch from His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom |to His Majesty’s Government in tho , frish Free State, dated 9th, April, ! says in Paragraph Three :—“His Majesty’s Government in the United j Kingdom could certainly not accept the sweeping statement in Paragraph Three of your despatch, but they feel that nothing is to be gained by reviving unhappy memories of the bygone past. His Majesty’s Government, in the United Kingdom entered jnto the 1921 settlement with a single desire that it should end the long period of bitterntess between the two conhtrie.s, and it is their belief fcnai such settlement has brought a .measure of peace and content which' could nob have been reached bv any other

means.” Paragraph gix says: “With regard to the land annuities, Hi.s Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom are at a loss to understand the statement that your Government have not been aware of any such ‘formal and explicit undertaking’ ns was..referred to in mv despatch of the 23rd. March.” j Paragraph Seven says: “Re . land , a,'nnuities, the formal and ’explicit undertakings referred to are as follows: On 12th. February, 1232,'a financial agreement was signed in behalf of the British Government and on behalf of the Government of-the Irish Free State which inter alia; ’laid down a policy to lie pursued in regard to completed and pending agreements for purchase of land in tho Irish Free State. The first two paragraphs of 1 the agreement read as follows: (1) The Free State Government undertake to pay, at agreed intervals, to an appropriate fund the full amount of annuities accruing due from time to time, making themselves responsible for actual collection from tenant purchasers. (2) Security for such payments shall be primarily a Free State guarantee fund similar to that under tho existing legislation, and secondly the Central Fund of the Irish Free State. This undertaking was confirmed in the ‘heads of the ultimate financial settlement and tho Government of tiff- Irish Free State,’ which was signed on behalf of the British Government and on behalf of the Government of the Irish Free State on 19th. March, 1920, and discussed in the Dail Eireann on the Bth December, 1926. The first head of this settlement reads as follows: ‘‘The Government' of ’the Irish Free State undertakes to pay to the British Government, at agreed intervals, the full amount of annuities accruing, due from time to time under the Irish Land Acts 1891-1909 without any deduction whatsoever, whether on account of income tax or otherwise.’ ”

LONDON PRESS COMMENT,

LONDON, April 12.

The newspapers here approve of the British Government’s reply to President He Valera, and its firm stand by the treaty. .“The Times” says: “The wider questions raised by President He Valera’s despatch affect a larger public than the people of Great Britain I and Southern Ireland. The Governments of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa already have expressed | concern as to possible consequences I of the action contemplated by the Irish

Free State. | Their anxiety is natural enough j All the Hominions, including the J Free State, collaborated in framing i the Statute of Westminster, in ' the preamble of which it is expressly dole hired the Crown as the symbol of free association among the members of the ; British Commonwealth of Nations, and 1 they were united by common nllegij anee to the Crown. It is hardly to tie •expected that other members of the Commonwealth would acquiesce in the Free State’s repudiation of the political basis of .membership and simulated retention of its economic advan-

tages. It is certain President He Valera's persistence- in the present attitude would lead all members of the Commonwealth to invite the Government of the Free State definitely to choose either to maintain the present allegiance or accept the status of a foreign Government with all the implications of that decision. Mr He Valera cannot have it both ways.” The “Gaily Herald” urges the Empire tribunal envisaged at the last Imperial Conference to set to work immediately. and thus avoid a quarrel harmful to lxith Britain and freland.