December 16 1924
THE Geneva correspondent of the “Daily News” says: - The Treaty between the Irish Free State and the British Government was, it will be remembered, registered by the former with the Secretariat of the League of Nations.
I learn that the British Government has now informed the Secretariat that it does not consider there is anything in the Covenant, or in any of the conventions arrived at in connection with the League, which could regulate the relations between the different parts of the British Empire.
The Government does not consider, therefore, that the Treaty in question comes under Article 18 of the League Covenant. This intimation has been circulated to the Governments who are members of the League.
Article 18 of the League Covenant, referred to by the British Government, reads: -
“Every treaty or international engagement entered into hereafter by any member of the League shall with forthwith registered with the Secretariat, and shall, as soon as possible, be published by it. No such treaty or international engagement shall be binding until so registered”.
In the view of the British Government the Irish Treaty does not come within the scope of this article.
The Secretariat of the League of Nations today issued the text of a letter from the British Government regarding the registration with the League of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1921.
The letter states that the British Government has consistently taken the view the neither the Covenant of the League nor any of its Conventions are intended to govern relations inter se of various parts of the British Commonwealth.
His Majesty’s Government consider, therefore, that the terms of Article 18 of the Covenant are not applicable to the Articles of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
A delicate situation has arisen in Ireland arising out of the report that the British Government has objected to the registration of the Anglo-Irish Treaty with the League of Nations.
Members of the [Free State] Executive Council discussed the matter yesterday afternoon, and last evening the Minister for External Affairs (Mr Desmond Fitzgerald) issued a statement in which he pointed out that the Covenant of the League sets out the duties undertaken by every member of it.
“There are no distinctions between the members”, states Mr Fitzgerald. “None has special privileges and none is exempt from the obligations, set forth in the Covenant”.
While the Free State government wished for the Treaty and its Boundary Commission to be treated as an international agreement between two nations that could be arbitrated by the League of Nations, if necessary, the British government sought to maintain it as solely an intra-British Empire preserve.
