EIRE DEBATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 May 1938, Page 7

EIRE DEBATE

MR CHURCHILL’S ATTACK ON AGREEMENTS SURRENDER OF THE PORTS CONDEMNED. IMPORTANT MEANS OF SECURITY CAST AWAY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 5. In the House of Commons debate on the Eire agreement, Mr D. R. Grenfell (Labour), twitted the Prime Minister, Mr Neville Chamberlain, for sponsoring a policy, which he described as a reversal of that which the party Mr Chamberlain led had always pursued toward Ireland, but said the agreement was welcome to the country and was regarded by many British people as making some restitution for errors of past policy. During the speech of the member for Northern Ireland, which followed, Mr Chamberlain intervened to deny that there was any unpublished understanding on partition, and recalled that Mr de Valera also had told the Dail that there were no secret understandings on any matter. After Mr Graham White had expressed the approval of the Liberals of the agreement, which would provide a basis on which Anglo-Irish friendship could gradually be rebuilt, Mr Winston Churchill spoke, saying that he could not reconcile it with his duty as one of the signatories of the 1921 treaty to keep silent. Mr Churchill’s speech rapidly developed into a vigorous attack on agreements, the effects of which he described in a closing sentence as “inviting demands from every quarter” and “casting away really important means of security and survival for vain shadows and for ease.” He criticised the financial concession and cited Mr de Valera’s declaration, that the agreement would further the cause of a united Ireland, to confound the claim of the Premier that the agelong controversy was closed. His bitterest criticism was reserved for the abrogation of the defence provisions of the 1921 treaty, to which point most of the speech was devoted. He conceded the value of Irish goodwill, but found the Irish rebellion in the most critical stage of the Great War, at the beginning of which Irish goodwill had also been manifested, a reason for not placing too much reliance upon it. He expressed dismay at the unconditional handing over of ports —the value of which was primarily for the defence of Britain and only secondarily. for the defence of Ireland —to a government led by the man in power —to which he had risen as the result of his animosity against Britain —in violation of solemn treaty obligations, and argued that the Eire Government might determine to be neutral in a future war, or make the ending of partition the price of its support of Britain.

Lieut.-Colonel L. C. M. S. Amery said he believed the Government was right in acting as a great nation with a maximum of forebearance and generosity toward a small one, which they regarded as a partner in the British Commonwealth. He believed the act of faith would be justified.