DE VALERA DEFEATED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 210, 29 April 1932, Page 5

DE VALERA DEFEATED

(Press. Assn.-

MINORITY OF EIGHT OATH BILL CONSIDERED LESS URGENT THAN UNEMPLOYMENT LABOUR MOTION CARRIED

-By Telegrsph— Copyrlght).

Rec. April 28, 5.5 p m. LONDON, Wednes. Mr. Eamon de Valera's Irish Pree State Government was def eated in the Dail oxi the question of the order of preference for the consideration of the Oath Removal Bill and an uneinployment proposal hy a majority of eight votes. The debate on the seeond reading of the Oath Removal Bill has been commenced in the Dail. Before the debate started a Government motion that the entire day be devoted to consideration of the Bill was defeated. The Independent Labour Deputy, Mr. Morrissy, moved that the motion on unemployment standing in his name was more important and should be taken up at 9 o'cloclc to-night. . Mr. de Valera resisted and on a division the Government suffered defeat by 74 votes to 66 votes. The Oath Bill debate then proceeded and Mr. de Valera reealled the terms of his party's eleetion manifesto, of which the first item was the removal of the artiele in the Oonstitution making the signing of the oath of allegiance obligatory on members entering the Dail. The Government proposed to honour that pledge, he said. No Consultation He added that the presence of the oath in the Constitution had resulted from coercion. Artiele 17 was not obligatory to the Treaty. There was no obligation to consult Great Britain in that connection. Moreover, the deletion of the artiele was consistent with the Free State's position as a co-equal partner in the British Commonwealth. He asked where was eqnality of status with Great Britain and the Dominions if the Free State eouhl not introduce a Bill to remove the oath. "If we asked Great Britain's permission," he said, "it would be a retrograde step. I do not intend to be drawn into negotiations on the question." ' Mr. de Valera added: "I have a letter in my poeket which Mr. Lloyd George wrote to Mr. Griffiths saying tliat the articles regarding status were on a dilferent foot'ng from the other articles in the treaty."

"Political Chicanery" ; Mr. Cosgrave described the Bill as one of the greatest pieces of political chicanery in history. The validity of international agreements, he said, depended, not on their forni, but on their substance. The Free State was a member of the British Commonwealth on a national level with Great Britain. Mrj de Valera had no mandate for tlie removal of the oath, being in a minority of 200,000 ' ' lhe general eleetion. He had only a mandate to negotiate with Great Britain.