PRIVY COUNCIL'S STATUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 832, 28 November 1929, Page 9

PRIVY COUNCIL'S STATUS

QUESTION FOR IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

IRELAND’S POSITION British Official 'Wireless Reed. 11.25 a.m. RUGBY, Wednesday. The statement made in the Irish Free State Parliament by the Minister of Defence, Mr. Ernest Blythe, in which he was reported to have repudiated the authority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as a Court of Appeal, was the subject of a question in the House of Commons. Sir Kingsley Wood (Conservative) asked the Prime Minister whether it was the intention of the Government to maintain the terms of the Irish Treaty, and ensure that the position of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the Supreme Court of Appeal for the Dominions, including the Irish Free State, should at all times be fully safeguarded. The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDouald, replied that when so much of the constitutional working of our Imperial machinery was altered in consequence of resolutions passed by the Imperial Conference of 192 G, the Privy Council’s position was left for consideration by the next Imperial Conference, and until that had met the position remained where it was. The Government had had no communication from the Irish Free State Government on this matter. Such a communication, and such a communication alone, would receive his official attention.

Replying to a farther question, the Prime Minister said he had never experienced from the Irish Free State any inclination to do anything but observe its honourable obligations.