June 5 1924
The legal question whether the Boundary Commission can be set up without a representative of Northern Ireland is to be left to the judicial committee of the Privy Council which will sit in July.
The Chief Justice of Australia and a Canadian judge will sit on the tribunal.
At Westminster yesterday, Mr Neville Chamberlain asked the Prime Minister whether he was in a position to make any statement as to the progress of the Irish negotiations.
Mr Ramsay MacDonald: I think the House may wish to know without delay what steps the government have taken in connection with the Irish boundary question. Our relations with Ireland are now governed by the Treaty, ratified with the approval of all recognised parties after a general election, during which the matter was specifically submitted to the electorate. The Irish question has thus been placed outside the ambit of party controversy so far as this country is concerned.
The task of the present government is greatly facilitated by the fact that it has merely to give effect of the policy outlined by our predecessors, which we are in perfect agreement. To us as to them, the Treaty embodies a final settlement of Anglo-Irish relations, made once and for all with no ulterior purpose. And as we intend to observe it in the spirit as well as in the letter, so, of course, we look to Ireland to observe it. Without qualification I must say that absolute faith has been kept by the government of the Irish Free State with us.
It must be held in mind that under Article 12 of the Treaty, the boundary between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland is to be such as is determined by the commission.