VIOLATION OF TREATY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 209, 28 April 1932, Page 5

VIOLATION OF TREATY

(British Official Wireless)

IRISH OATH biul BRITISH VIEWS EXPLAINED BY SECRETARY FQR " DOMINIONS STATEMENT IN COMMONS

RUGBY, Tuesday. An important statement on the position of the Irish Free Stafe, was made in the House of Commons by Mr. J. H, Thomas, Dominions Secretary. He said that no further official communication had be'en reeeived from the Government of the Irish Free State, but there had been iim portant developments. A bill introduced into the Dail last week had been ppblished. An examination of the text showed that it was designed not merely to remove the obligation now imposed on members of the Irish Free State Parliament to take the oath set out in the treaty, but would go further. It purported to repeal section 2 of the Irish Free State Cohstitution Act of 1922, which provided that the treaty should have the force of law and that any amendment of the Constitution in any respect repugnant to the treaty would be void and inoperative. It was also purported by the amendment of Article 50 of the Constitution to enable the Constitution to be amended without necessary regard to the terms of the treaty. The text of the bill confirmed the general view of the situation expressed in a dispatch to Mr. de Valera on April 9 that what was actually raised by him was nothing less than repudiation of the settlement of 1921 as a whole. Mr. Thomas said he had already made it clear on behalf of the Government that it looked upon the matter as a violation of the treaty, and the bill being discussed in the Free State Parliament confirmed that view.