Evening star., 1932-07-05
The Anglo-Irish Crisis,

BY an overwhelming vote in the
House of Commons last night, the
British government decided to resort to
vigorous retaliation for the refusal OF
the De Valera government to pay the
seni-annual installment Of s1l,O0OO 600
on the land annuities for which the
Free State is obligated. Britain now
proposes to punish the Free State re-
gime at Dublin by levying tariff up
to one hundred per cent on imports
from Erin. The gravity OF this meas
ure of reprisal is indicated by the TACT
that the Free State in recent years has
sold more than go per cent OF its prod
uce to Great Britain. Since the COM
ing into effect of the general tariff In
Britain on the first of March, Ireland
has competed in the British market on
better terms than its chief rival, Den
mark.
President De Valera made an eleventh.
hour effort to stave off drastic action
by the British government. He insisted
on arbitration of the annuities question
before an international tribunal. Do
minions Secretary J. H. Thomas in
formed Parliament, while introducing
the punitive tariff foreigners resolution
against Ireland that his majesty's gov
ernment could not permit arbitration OF
domestic British dispute. The ex-
chequer, he argued, must therefore con-
slider the collection, in the form OF
tariffs. of the annuities which Mr.. De
Valera declines to honor Even the
disclosure that the Irish Free State is
setting aside special fund to liquidate
the land payments, in case the con-
troversy went to arbitration and against
the Free State, did not dissuade the
London authorities from laying a heavy
hand on Ireland and in its tenderest
spot-namely its economic needs, which
are so overwhelmingly dependent upon
the sale of Free State industrial and
agricultural commodities in England.
In a bulletin on the Anglo-Irish
crisis just issued by the Foreign Policy
Association, the consequences Of a
breach with Britain, which might lead
to the Free States independence, are
tersely discussed. The writer Of the
bulletin says:
The British objection to an inde-
pendent Ireland merely associated with
the government of Great Britain rests
on three principal grounds. First is
the hostility of Northern Ireland to
union with the Free State, which it is
feared might cause an Irish civil war
TO which the British government could
not remain indifferent Second, free
Ireland might ally with some state
other than Great Britain, thus pro-
viding a hostile power with a base Of
operations against the United Kingdom.
Third, a free Ireland might mark the
beginning Of the dissolution of the
British commonwealth.
1t now becomes certain that Irelands
place in the fiscal scheme Of the British
commonwealth will come under serious
discussion at the Imperial Economic
Conference which opens at Ottawa on
July 81. Confronted with the first
serious clash over the commonwealth S
constitution, Australia, New Zealand
and South Africa have already taken
a position interpreted as favorable to
the British contentious. The govern
ments of these three great dominions
dispatched TO President De Valera in
April notes deprecating any action by
Ireland which might weaken the unity
Of the British commonwealth or disturb
the friendly relations between two of
"+he oldest sister states"