BRITAIN'S POSITION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 232, 23 May 1932, Page 5

BRITAIN'S POSITION

(Press Assn.-

IRISH TREATY IS BASIS OF STATUS IN EMPIRE MUST BE ADHERED TO

-By Telegraph — Copj-right).

LONDON, Saturday. Speaking at the Brighton Empire Shopping Week, Mr. J. H. Thomas (Secretary of State for the Dominions), referring to the Irish Free State, said he did not want to speak on a controversial theme, but it was essential to make the British position clear. The hope and belief that the Irish Free State Treaty would open up a new era after a long period of bitterness had been justified, and the last decade had witnessed a marked improvement ih the political relations, with growing friendship and understanding. The Free State had beeome an equal member of the British Commonwealth of Nations and its representatives had been in the forefront of the constitutional development which had resulted in the establishnleut of a group of nations on a footing of eomplete equality. "If all that work is wasted," said Mr. Thomas, "it will not be our fruit or wish. I stand by every word of my reeent utteranees regarding the relations wdth the Free State. "Basing our position simply on the sanctity of treaties and the maintenance of agreements, how could we negotiate fresh agreements with the Free State if the existing ones ate not observed? Could we suppose greater sanctity would be attached to a treaty made at Ottawa than at London?"